Self-balancing, Single-track Road Vehicles.
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The invention of a real method of gyroscope control for single-track vehicles, by Mr. Louis Brennan, C.I3., whose steerable torpedo secured for him the payment of no less a sum that £110,000 from the British Government in the year 1887, opens up a fresh and startling vista of development for self-propelled vehicles of an unusual type. Some particulars are given by us in this issue, together with illustrations of the true-to-scale working model that may be seen upon the inventor's experimental track near New Brompton, in Kent, and the universal interest evinced by Fellows of the Royal Society at last night's soirée is but a single indication of the great success that awaits the commercial employment of the system.
Mr. Brennan's combination of two gyroscopes as described, though primarily designed for mono-rail applications, possesses features which will be found on examination to endow the system with a remarkable potential value as a modifying influence in certain branches of mechanical road transport. The attainment and the maintenance of an assured state of stable equilibrium, in a single-track structure whose centre of gravity is high above its line of support, were the invention not characterised by a single other extraordinary result, are qualities which cannot fail to make an indelible impress upon engineers by reason of the fundamental differences which reliance upon these new factors must import into their conceptions and calculations in so many directions.
It is not improbable that the single-track road vehicle will -prove to offer a more considerable opening for the commercial use of the Brennan system than might be thought likely at first sight. Cycle engineers proved the advan tag-es and merits of two-point (single-track) support, with a sentient load, in respect of essential simplicity in design, strength of materials, relative load capacities, and -endurance under working conditions, as compared with the particular forms of multiple-point support provided either by three-point (tricycle) or four-point (quadricycle) construction, but motor engineers have been forced away from the single-track design by their inability -both to retain it and to meet the conditions imposed from considerations of the greater forces due to weight and speed, and the absence of the human balancing agent. Lacking the means to insure the retention of " balance," the motor engineer has dismissed the single-track vehicle with that scant ceremony which has, until to-day, been its due.
We cannot withhold our admiration for Mr. Brennan's revolutionary achievement, but we do not suggest that it will have any sudden influence on the British or any other motor-vehicle industry as a whole. Ten years of practice has now made the modern commercial motor a reliable and profit-earning machine, wherever it can he and is appropriately used, and the two-track vehicle is much too firmly established in general esteem for it ever to disappear—at least, so far as concerns this century. Again, it is only certain surfaces that can be made to provide the necessary wheel-grip, or fulcrum, under all climatic. conditions. It is none the less clear to us that Mr. Brennan's system has a future for use upon both tailless roads and mono-rail tracks, whilst his simple arrangement for increasing the number of points of running support, is, in that it retains all the flexibility of two-point body support, little short of ideal. We believe, so far as the adoption of his system by British Railway Companies is at issue, that their conversion will be a matter of, at least, a generation, and it is obvious that Mr. Brennan's word-picture of very wide and large travelling carriages, with " all the comforts of a firstclass hotel," whilst mechanically possible, is somewhat Utopian. Tunnels and station platforms have already accounted for a lower range of coach dimensions in Great Britain than is enjoyed in Europe, America, and elsewhere, and the same difficulties will set their limits upon any rolling-stock for the mono-rail, except in the case of new lines. His prospects are brightest in military transport, the construction of special express lines such as London-Brighton and Liverpool-Manchester, and selected instances of independent service by self-contained, self-propelled motor vehicles. An unequalled degree of smoothness will, in the absence of any jar or vibration from the gyroscopes themselves, be obtained in high-speed railcars, and it should be particularly noted that any sudden cessation of the rotating power will not involve a catastrophe; the stored energy in the gyroscopes is ample to impart the necessary stability tothe vehicle for three or four hours after the occurrence of such an accidental failure.
We have referred to this matter at some length, because the manner of gaining a continued state of stable equilibrium by Mr. Brennan's method of using two gyroscopes, rotating in opposite senses, with automatic means of accelerating or retarding their rate of " precession " (i.e., the variation of position of the imaginary plane through the periphery of each revolving ring), and his absolutely novel
plan of sympathetic control between his two gyroscopes in any single vehicle, are of a sufficiently epoch-marking nature to call for close, observation at the hands of every motor manufacturer and .user. Their successful evolutien has been the work of more than twenty years' active investigation and experiment..
Coal Tar Spirit.
False hopes have been :raised by the publication of apparently reliable statements to the effect that early release from fuel difficoltis 101 be provided by an enormous jump in the production of coal tar spirit, or benzol, and it is as well that the effects of any one-sided and ill-considered promises in this connection should be dispelled. Our editorial reference of the irth ultimo will have indicated that, whilst the use of coal tar spirit is perfectly feasible in high-speed internal-combustion engines, it will be a long time before the supply can be much in excess of the requirements of Greater London's motorbuses alone. Anybody possessed of experience of production and distribution on a manufacturing scale is aware that no sudden disturbance of trade can be brought about by a particular demand for one of several products from any one process. The total value of the products obtained with recovery coke-ovens is, at the works, about 235. per ton of coke, of which the value of the benzol products is only about 2S. 6d. Not even the optimistic hopes of gentlemen who wish to lay down coking plants all over the country simultaneously will upset the balance of supply and demand, except at prohibitive cost in respect of the benzol itself. The substitution of recovery ovens for those of the beehive type will proceed gradually, but we shall see no stream of benzol flowing into the tanks of motor vehicles at Is. per gallon, let alone at 7d. per gallon.
The September Trials : Prospective Large Entries.
Prospects for the R.A.C. commercial motor vehicle competition are highly promising, and it looks as though these September Trials will be given most extensive and wholehearted support by mandfacturers and selling agencies. The 0000-mile test will unquestionably exceed in severity any of the numerous earlier trials of commercial motors, not excepting the most protracted of the series that was initiated by the French Automobile Club in the year 1897, when the late M. Georges Forestier was in charge of the operations connected with six circular trips which took place with Versailles as a centre. The Liverpool Self-Propelled Traffic Association's trials of 1898, 1899, and 19o1* did not embrace an itinerary so varied and exacting in its physical features as will be the R.A.C's. 1,907 round, but, relatively to the acquired experience of manufacturers, and to the expectations of purchasers, it is certain that the hammering over even so miles of Lancashire setts six years ago, coupled with laden and unladen hill-climbing and brake tests on granite-paved gradients of in 9, furnished a task which called for much more arduous labours on the part of contemporary builders than does the forthcoming competition. Not a few of our successful manufacturers have built up their existing large businesses upon the advertisement and results of the Liverpool Trials as a first basis, but it must be admitted that others, who were not quite ready in the year 1901, or who have entered the heavy section of the motor industry still more recently, have shown their ability to establish themselves with equal success but by business methods other than participation in public trials. The question for one and all of the leading British and Foreign manufacturers to-day is, can they afford to stand aloof from a trial which has the full approval of the Club, the Commercial Motor Users' Association, and the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. The maker whose order book still remains full, and whose delivery date still is several months ahead—there are some companies which continue in this fortunate position—can no more afford to stay outside the pale of these independent and truly comparative tests than can the newcomers who are now thirsting for more publicity and more business. If any of them do so, we fail to see their course of recovery from the inevitable charge that they were afraid, whilst not even a mass of accumulated testimony from old customers will then suffice to clear away the belief that they have lapsed into " back numbers." No, everybody must come out into the open at the September Trials, and, with the full knowledge that certain risks of accidental failure have to be accepted, must defend their claims and their titles, or suffer both endless innuendo at the hands of their rivals and material prejudice in the eyes of the buying public.
The Duty of Every User.
Reminders are most useful in these days of business pressure, social rush, and increasing competition. No apology is therefore needed for the one which we have now • to give to every supporter of this journal, apart from the benefits which each may derive from the simple act of instructions to a secretary or clerk. Has the inset supplement to our last issue been thrown aside, after a casual glance at its close printing, or has it been perused with sufficient attention to convey the principal advantages which are conferred by membership of The Commercial Motor Users' Association? This body was formed as the outcome of a suggestion made by the writer in the course of his paper on " Heavy Motor Traffic," which was read before members of the Royal Automobile Club in November, 1903, when the chair was taken by Sir John I. Thornyeroft. Its numerical progress, as we have had to point out on more than one occasion, has been less rapid than might have been expected, but the names of those who serve upon its Executive Committee provide a true reflex of the solidity and businesslike constitution of its ranks.
The Association's first valuable piece of work was the drawing-up of the commercial motor users' case for presentation before Mr. Hobhouse's Select Committee of 1904, as a result of which procedure, after the claims had been agreed by important co-operating bodies, the tare limit was increased from three tons to five tons, and other previouslydenied advantages were embodied in the Heavy Motorcar Order of 1904. It was the misfortune of the Secretary, Mr. Rees Jeffreys, that the great demands upon his time, which the effective discharge of many onerous duties on the legislative side rendered unavoidable immediately after the Association's formation, prevented his taking steps to secure any large accession of new members before the dark legal atmosphere of 1903-1904 had been dispelled. Hence, gratitude being in so many instances admittedly a mere outward expression of belief in favours to come, hundreds of users, who are to-day in undisturbed enjoyment of complete immunity from the harassing circumstances which obtained under the 1896 Motor Car Act, have remained well content with their lot.
It is to the last-named parties, as much as to prospective buyers who are studying commercial motoring, that we are desirous to point out that the 1903 Motorcar Act, under Section IC of which the Heavy Motorcar Order of 1904 was issued, should not he regarded as good enough for an indefinite term of years. A constructive programme must be kept in view, &Li-that improvements in materials and manufacture may be turned to the fullest operative, account actual service on the road. Concerted 'opposition, too, Intik be made to any retrograde measure which might tend to be destructive of economy and high performance, or which might unduly depreciate existing machines, and it requires no arguments from us to send home the harmful effects that would follow any change in the present definition of unladen, weight. The saving of one guinea per annum now would be poor compensation for the losses that an owner would have to endure if the unladen weight were altered to mean inclusive, instead of exclusive, as now, of " any fuel, water,. or accumulators used for the purpose of propulsion." Again, is it fair to the Association to wait until some trouble arises over a bridge, a highway, a lighting by-law, an allegation of excessive noise or nuisance, or from any other cause, before applying for admission? We commend the prompt support of the Commercial Motor Users' Association to all who are seriously interested in road traffic, and we do so in no panic spirit of anticipated_ conflict with Parliamentary or Local Authorities. Owner.s of commercial motors as a class, notwithstanding a few bad examples of excessive police activity and the occurrence. of occasional untoward events such as are incidental to the use of any type of vehicle upon the public streets, have experienced a comparative immunity from interference. We make the recommendation because the Association is the only body of its kind, and because it gives, both directly and as a protective and advisnry institution, more than a quid pro quo for the money it receives.