Coal-gas Makes Progress.
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WE ARE PLEASED to be able to publish in this issue (pages 491 and 492) extracts from an expert report on the subject "Coal-gas for Motor Traction." Instructions for the preparation of this report were given, largely at our instigation, by the British Commercial Gas Association, in the month of September last, and the work was chiefly done by Mr. 3. G. Clark, one of the works chemists of the Gas Light and Coke Co., Ltd. We trust that its general circulation throughout the gas industry • will have a stimulating effect upon many hundreds of edagineers and managers—to say nothing of apathetic directors—who have hitherto shown an inexplicable air of aloofness to a new source of revenue, quite apart from the direct opportunity to do yet another national service to the country at large. The report in part deals with matters which we have ourselves examined or treated in this journal, with or without illustrations, and for that reason call for comment at our hands now is greater than that for mere reprinting. It will, therefore, be found that our . summary is interspersed with comment, verbatim extracts being comparatively few in number. . Preliminary reference is made to the Barton system of carrying gas at atmospheric pressure, in flexible gas-holders, but more than 80 per cent. of the report is devoted to problems affecting the use of compressed gas, including the cost of compressing. We are interested to observe the numerous references to conditions and results at Neath, in which town gaspropelled tramcars have been running for the past 18 years. A slight contradiction, we think, has crept into the report hereanent, whilst not sufficient emphasis has been laid upon the obsolete type of engine and transmission in a Neath tram.car. The contradiction to which we refer will be appreciated from, the two extracts which we now.make, the first appearing early in the report, and the second towards the end of it : —
"There. is a considerable difference between
the operation of tramcar vehicles and ordinary commercial motors. For instance, the resistance to traction on an ordinary road might be anything up to three or four times as much as. the resistance‘son a tramway track. Also, with the tram operating over fixed limits not very far " apart, a relatively-small charge of gas should be sufficient for a to-and-fro journey, thus minimizing the dead weight of the storage reservoirs. The reservoirs could, if necessary, be replenished after each out-and-home journey." "The consumption of gas (including the gas -used by the compressing engine) works out at 78 cubic ft. per car-mile, and if we deduct 10 per cent. as the amount actually used by the compressing engine, we get. 70 cubicft. of gas per car-mile as the amount actually used for traction." Seeing that there is not a steeper gradient on the Neat') routes than 1 in 27, and that numerous heavy motorbuses are now running all over the country on an average consumption of 30-45 cubic ft. per mile, we fear that the Neath example does not bear out the claim for relative' traction economy, as between a tramcar on rails and a motorcar on an ordinary highway. The enormous consumption of the Neath tramcars of course, .due to the out-of-date engines and the out-ofdate transmission. If gas-propelled tramcars were put on the streets of Neath, •or on the streets of any other town, after design and construction in the light of the past 18 years of experience in internalcombustion engineering, we should expect to see the consumption of gas fall from 78 cubic ft. per car-mile to about 25. There are undoubted prospects for gas. tramcars, now that internal-combustion engines have reached so high a degree of excellence.
Co-operation in Delivery.
N THESE DAYS of depleted staffs the delivery problem has assumed acute dimensions, and this
applies just as much in country districts as in urban centres such as London, Liverpool, Birmingham and Leeds. The fact that there has been such an enormous demand for men possessing engineering knowledge, and that men able to drive cars have been received with open arms by the military authorities was responsible for the establishment of co-operative repair shops by the leading London stores, thereby reducing the number of men required to do repairs to their fleets of vans, and freeing a considerable number of expert motor mechanics for service with the Colours.
The purpose of these remarks is to carry this idea a little further. There are many rural districts wherein the radius of delivery is so great that mechanical transport is rapidly becoming a necessity, particularly in view of the fact that many customers living in the country have to-day given up their cars, and the whole onus of the delivery of the goods ordered is placed on the shoulders of the retailer. A sort of tentative co-operation, exists amongst the retail traders in many of the lesser towns, whereby the chemist sends round to the grocer to find out if he is delivering a-parcel to Mr. So-and-so, and the draper is only too pleased to avail himself of the• butcher's kindly assistance in getting an urgent order into the hands of his customer.
In development of this spirit of co-operation there is room, we think, for a motor delivery service to be arranged amongst 'leading retailers in a given town, providing for the purchase of a new delivery van and the servicee of one" competent driver. The difficultiee of obtaining delivery of British-made vans at the present time, owing to the fact that' motor manufacturers are engaged exclusively on war work, necessitates the consideration of the .American-made article. Let -us take two of the standard American vans which are running in great numbers in this country: The first cost of one is 2200 and of the other £135. The initial cost split up, say, amongst the five leading retailers in any leading town does not represent a very large outlay, and inasmuch as their ascertained running cost per mile is 80. and 6d. respectively, the sub-division of one week's, running covering, say, 250 miles, is going to afford an exceptionally cheap means of delivery. In addition to this, of course, there must be included a youth's wages, say, 30s. a week.
The matter does not end here. Once the service has been established it is going to mean a very considerable increase in business for each of the cooperators. It is obvious that the motorvan service is going to cover, firet of all, a• much larger area of ground, and if customers know that the service is being maintained satisfactorily and efficiently, they will be far more disposed to purchase exclusively in their local town instead of sending their orders to the nearest large stores, and this all the more gladly in view of the dislocation of goods traffic on all railways resulting from the vast quantities .of war material which have, of course, precedence in conveyance.
LAST WEEK we referred to the statement made in ;Parliament by Sir Richard Winfrey, Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Agriculture, upon the numbar of Whiting-Bull tractors in this country. On Tuesday of last week Mr,. Rowlands in the House, of Commons raised the question again, and then Sir R. Winfrey said : "I am informed by Messrs. Whiting that all the Whiting-Bull tractors now in this country have 'already been sold and that the total number is considerably over a hundred. The 12 tractors referred to in my reply . . . . on 24th July were those available for sale.at that date."
THE COMMUNICATION from Mr. S. F. Edge, reproduced on page 498, reduces to its simplest proportions the problem of comparing the various types of farm tracters on the market, and classifies them in a manner which should be helpful to the man who may know the conditions for which he has to provide, but who is hard put to it to decide. upon the relative suitability of the machines bidding for his patronage. Particularly illuminating are Mr. Edge's comments upon the need for intelligent operators.
IT WOULD SEEM as if the agricultural tractor question, like the Flag Day, will be constantly with us until the war has run its course, Then probably, if officialdom has its own way, decision will be postponed until the Greek Calends. But will the longeuffering B.P. tolerate indefinite delay? For the s-sake of Britain's commercial future it is to be hoped that decided action will be forced long before peace makes its welcome reappearance. Agriculture is the backbone of every nation which aspires to power, and contemporary events suffice to demonstrate that if we desire to achieve trading pre-eminence we must become a 100 per cent. country so far as raising foodstuffs is concerned. The task issnot beyond us. We know that, by the aid of the motor tractor, we can bring millions of acres of land, now under grass and used simply as grazing 'areas, under the plough and into productivity. But tens of thousands of tractors will have to be built to achieve the desired end. The more the merrier, because every unit per cent, of food we can raise beyond our own requirements will strengthen our position. There is always a remunerative and ready market for foodstuffs. A 020
national tractor-building programme should be put in hand without delay. Two ends will be achieved simultaneously. We shall be put on a self-supporting basis, our position as manufacturers ail exporters of agricultural machinery will be enhanced, and, incidentally, a profitable line of production placed in the hands of our motor manufacturers.. For years we ranked as. the World's Universal iProvider in agricultural implements. Is it impossible for us to attain a comparative superior position in connection with agricultural tractors?
WHAT IS THE FUTURE of the commercial motor vehicle industry in these islands 1 No question is of such vital import at the moment, and none, is proving so baffling. The ispue is appreciably complicated from the many and conflicting interests involved, while the complexity of subsidiary issues, many of which are obscure at the moment, but which must first be unravelled tends to the postponement of decisive action. Undoubtedly many of the essential factors in the problem are misunderstood. Our contributor on another page sets out (in a short series of articles) to clarify these disturbing influences.
IT MAY • APPEAR somewhat strange, in these days of severe commercialism, that costs of runnieg electric vehicles are not set out comprehensively and specifically. But the reason is not far to seek. The present period is essentially an artificial one. The cost of liquid fuel has risen to an abnormal figure, while that of current has remained almost stationary, only having advanced from id. to 10. per unit, as a result of the increased cost of coal. The demand for electric vehicles is keen to-day, and orders are difficult to fulfil. Expectations have bceri more than realized, but if figures were Scattered broadcast at the moment they would precipitate an unprecedented rush, for the most part by potential commercial motor users for whose needs electricity would be impracticable. The electric vehicle should not be regarded as a rival to the petrol ear : but, scientifically employed, it can banish the horse from our streets. Moreover, it is too early yet to produce conclusive figures. Items relative to battery maintenance and renewal, which it was thought two to four years service Would supply, are as yet unavailable. In other words, it is far too early to give definite data ; present computations, .although striking from their merely nominal character, are declared to be too liberal. Further time will temper them materially, and to more pronounced advantage. At the moment battery-life is an x quantity, and yet is the crux of the problem.
IT IS CHARACTERISTIC of human nature to fly to extremes. The high cost of petrol, scarcity of labour, difficulty in obtaining commercial vehicles, and the shortage of horses, are tending to compel the potential new user of mechanical traction to turn to electricity as the solution of transport and delivery
problems. But electric current does not offer the panacea to the foregoing ills to which trading is at present heir. The contemplative advecate of electric traction should ponder before he ventures upon his plunge. He should bear in mind that the electric vehicle, so far as present knowledge carries us, cannot excel the petrol motor for rural delivery, the conveyance of passengers, and the negotiation of lone distances. Its possibilities and limitations are well defined, as we.point out elsewhere in this issue. If, after perusing that article, a reader should conclude that his case is certainly one for eIeetricity he ;should take every care to place himself in the hands of a, reliable firm specializing in the construction and equipment of such vehicles. If he desires any assistance upon this issue a letter to the Editor Will bring a prompt reply.