Culled from Contemporaries.
Page 6
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
A Selected Collection of Extracts from the British and Foreign Press.
The Latest Thing in Trials.
Wilmington, Del., May day's roadability contest of the Delaware Automobile Association resulted in a win for Frank L. Connable.— Motor Age, Chicago.
In Devonshire Lanes.
At a largely-attended meeting of representatives of highway authorities in Devonshire, at Tiverton Town Hall, Mr. J. Siddalls, the borough surveyor, read a paper entitled " Some Difficulties of Highway Administration, and How to Meet Them."
In Devonshire, said Mr. Siddalls, they had difficulties of their own in connection with physical and climatic conditions, luxurious vegetation, sub_ etc. He believed he was perfectly safe in saying that there was no road in the county capable of standing heavy traction traffic under present conditions, and in all weathers, without injury. . . . He feared that even though they might obtain some alleviation, they must recognise that traction traffie would continue and would increase as time went on. If the subsoil was wrong they must provide a new subsoil ; the roads must be reconstructed and a hard foundation provided. . A gradual improvement could be effected, however, in the course of years, if the money were forthcoming, and it appeared to him a fair proposition that the traction traffic itself should pay a good proportion of the cost.—The Surveyor.
Rooms and Booms.
Evet'y thinking person must realise that, as regards traffic use in our great cities, the horse is absolutely doomed. —London Opinion.
Most people areifeeling that the present is a time of trade depression. Business is generally slack. As a matter of fact business cannot claim to have been booming at any time during the last two or three Years. And yet, although there was rarely a time when more firms were in a state of depression . . . there was surely never a time when more fortunes were being made even in this country.—The Organiser.
Despite the large and increasing number of petrol motorbuses in use in London, it is very evident that the type is not likely to survive. The conditions under which it is essential that these vehicles shall work are utterly unsuitable to the internal-combustion engine as we have developed it, and if, as seems quite likely, the effect of the deputation which has been sent by the Mansion House meeting to interview the heads of the Government departmisfits charged with the power to institute reforms, will be to cause a departmental enquiry, the doom of the petrol bus seems assured. We must now turn our thoughts to another type for the motorbus of the near future.-Motoring Illustrated. The Changeable Man in the Street.
The man in the street is bitten with the speed mania, and whether he pays for his trip in pennies or in shillings he wants to make it at as great a speed as possible. He hates the motor omnibus and the taxicab with a deadly hatred when he is at home or at work, but once he gets his foot on the step his hatred veers round to the people who would hinder by a mile an hour his headlong progress.—Court Journal.
The Tailors of Tooley Street : a Merited Criticism.
Surely it is the height of absurdity for Mr. B. Straus, M.P., to say that, because popular feeling in the East End has been recently roused over a local motorbus accident, a stringent law of the land should be introduced limiting the speed of all vehicles to in miles an hour in every " populous place," and to 6 miles an hour at all cross-roads that may be deemed " dangerous " by the police. Anything more typical of the famous Tailors of Tapley Street would surely be difficult to find, for their "We, the people of England," would, indeed, prove a suitable peroration for the Member for Mile End when the time comes for him to explain the object of his Bill to the house—The Automotor ournal.
Tubes Feel the Competition of Motorbuses.
The severest competitors are the motor omnibuses and the tramways. These have demonstrated their value for public comfort, but they are operated at a toss, although they occupy the streets—a right of way for which they pay nothing, in comparison with underground railways, which have cost, with their equipment, about .4.,700,0oo a mile. The effect and the limitations of this competition arc now determinable. For journeys up to two miles long, at the present rates of fare, the motor omnibuses divide the traffic and reduce the underground railway earnings. The competition of the motor omnibuses compels the maintenance of farts on an unremunerative basis, not alone because the omnibuses are carrying passengers at less than cost and interest, but also because unrestricted competition has lured investment into more omnibuses than are needed. They move in flocks, with too many empty seats, and form an immediate and tempting availability (sic) to a passenger to begin his journey at once without counting the time and cost of that journey. It is a condition of things that cannot last, but it is costly while it Lasts to omnibus and railway owners alike. It is not good business permanently and deliberately to fix the price of the product of an industry at a figure which on the average cannot yield any return on capital invested.— The Railway Gazette.
An Interesting Word Picture.
Vancouver also possesses an autoambulance, auto fire and paLro; wagons in addition to the fire chief's car. The " pie.ee de resistance " of the whole department is the magnificent automobilesteamer, photograph of which is published in this journal. This machine. cost $14,000.00, and the ease in which it gets around corners and through various streets is nothing short of marvellous. It is the only machine of its kind west of Chicago. The photo, gives a goad idea of its dismission (sic4mechanism, and its detail is easily followed by an auto enthusiast. —Motor-. ing, Toronto.
The Reasons why French Makers are Tired of Trials.
Races, competitions and exhibitions,. what is the good of them all ? For ten years, we have continually been organising such demonstrations in all the four corners of France; we have always. taken part in any trial in which we have been invited to join. We have secured the majority of the prizes. But what good has it done us? The sum total of our business is gradually decreasing, our exports are growing less. day by day.
Of a truth, our early exhibitions were indispensable. We had to be educated, to instruct our countrymen, to accustom them to this new industry. But, to-day, matters are more advanced, the foreigner has learnt to copy and even to equal us; is it really necessary for us to eontinue in the same track, and to commit our manufacturers to the illconsidered expense which these sporting and other displays imply, in order that our inventions and improvements may be copied?
There arc other enterprises On the earth as well as the automobile industry. Do they find it necessary to hold races, exhibitions, and demonstrations? One does not see competitions for sewing machines, sweet-making or locomotives. But that does not prevent toffee, railways and sewing machines from being manufactured, sold and improved. . . .
What have been the results arrived at by the recently-completed heavy vehicle competition? Remarkably little, it must be admitted. What notice has been taken of it, except by the technical journals? Is that sufficient to impress the public? During the early days of the trials, certain vehicles, which were disqualified officially, continued their journeys afterwards, and went through the competition as well as those which won the prizes. A momentary stoppage should not disqualify a vehicle. . .
These competitions, races and demonstrations amuse the gallery, a very little gallery, but they are costly undertakings for the participants, and do not repay them.—Translated from La France Automobile, Paris.