A PRIZE OF' TEN SHILLINGS ,is awarded each week to
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the sender of the best letter which we publish on this page; all others paid for at the rate of a penny a hue, with an allowance for photographs. All notes are edited before bang publiJked. Mention your employer's name, in confidence, as evidence of good faith. Address D., ill, and F.. "'The Commercial Motor," 7-15, Roseberv Avenue, London, E C.
Lamps Alight.
Light your lamps at 5.37 in London, 5.37 in Edinburgh, 6.31 in Newcastle, 5.14 in Liverpool, 5.42 in Birmingham, 5.47 in Bristol, and 0.27 in Dublin,
An Improvised Lock for Change-speed Gear.
The sender of the following communication has been awarded the 10s. prize this week.
[1712] " T.J." (Chesterfield) writes :—" I recently had a lot of trouble with a wagon in my charge owing to the selector rods sliding when the wagon was on an up or down, grade, and very often in changing from second to first speed the reverse also became enmeshed. I tried various means of remedying the
defect, without success. I put stronger springs in the automatic locking gear, and I also deepened, by filing, the notches in the selector rods with which the plungers of this automatic gear engage, but without avail. Eventually I decided to fix a positive lock, and did so as shown on the sketch. [We have had this redrawn and it is reproduced on this page.—En.]
"This device takes the form of a douhle-ended pawl or fork. The pawl is formed of a suitable shape, and forged from mild steel bar. It is carried on a pin bolted to a piece of flat iron, which was fastened to the gearbox. The pawl was so designed that whenever the change-speed gear lever engaged with one of the notches hi the selector rods, the pawl engaged the two other notches to prevent the selector rods from moving. The arrangementis not a new one, but it is the first time T have heard of it being made by a driver and added to an existing wagon."
A Safety Catch for Delivery Van Doors.
(1713] " W.T." (flollx1rn) writes :--" As the foreman of the motor department of a large London user of commercial-motor vehicles of all kinds, I have frequently found that pilfering horn the rear of a delivery van is possible, owing to the ease with which the door can be opened. The following description and sketch—{We have had this redrawn.—.)—are of a novel type of lock, by the use of which it is rendered impossible for any unauthorized person to open this door without the driver's knowledge. It is applicable to all those vehicles wherein the door is fastened by a, long vertical sliding bolt. "Reference to the sketch will show that. a notch is filed in the rotating portion of the bolt, and an ordinary hinge, . which may be bought for a few coppers, is bent and cut so that when one portion of the; hinge is attached to a horizontal beam of the door framework, the vertical portion will register with the notch in the bolt, when the bolt is in. the shut position. A piece of spring steel is fitted above the hinge, so that; it always tends to force this piece of hinge into the notch in the bolt. Acord passed through with suitable eyelets is guided to the driver's seat and so arranged that pull on it will release the catch and allow the bolt to be operated and the &or. opened."