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SPEAKING at a recent luncheon, Sir Herbert Austin, K.B.E., in referring to the Road-Rail Conference Report, said that the findings are so perplexing and the recommendations so vague that it would take far too much time to discuss them then, but the position must be watched very carefully, because the Austin interests are very materially involved.
THE production of a new 10 h.p. Austin van to carry up to 71 cwt. is announced. It is to satisfy those who find the 7 h.p. too small and the 12-6 too expensive.
ITALY is paying great attention to the oil engine, and the Lancia concern has recently acquired a licence to manufacture the Junkers two-stroke engine for motor vehicles.
DELAYED recently in a London traffic blocks was a two-wheeled horse-drawn float with what was certainly an exhaust silencer slung below the floorboards. Curiosity prompted inquiries, and it was revealed that the float contained a motor-driven horse-clipping set which its owners let out on hire. A bright suggestion from a bystander was that the engine was an auxiliary to aid hill-climbing. THOSE who are accustomed to ample bus services may be surprised to learn that Bloemfontein, South Africa, which, in 1931, had a European population of 32,719, has only one bus licensed in the magisterial district, although there are 159 goods vehicles. Port Elizabethapproximates more nearly to conditions in this country, for it had, in 1931, a European population of 46,910, catered for by 118 buses and 722 goods vehicles.
FOREIGN visitors to Paris who have lingual diffi culties with taxi-drivers often assume that the fault is their own. It would appear, however, that it is frequently the taximan who cannot understand French, for the Prefect of Police has lately reported that between 1915 and June, 1932, the number of foreigners who secured permission to drive taxicabs in the capital was 10,318—about one-third of the total number of drivers. Sixty per cent. are Russians, 20 per cent. Italians, and 20 per cent. of Belgian, British, Spanish, American, Greek and Swiss nationality.
WE cannot expect the oil engine to progress steadily without a few rebuffs. In this connection we learn from Aveling and Porter, Ltd., that it has decided to discontinue the manufacture of its Tnvicta high-speed compression-ignition engines.
THE propelling ,of a bus by means of its battery is
not to be recommended, but recently a two-yearold Ka.thanode accumulator was used to drive a broken-down bus for three-quarters of a mile, by engaging first gear and using the starter motor. Incidentally the lighting was not interfered with.
A LONDON firm of timber merchants, discussing
the relative merits of road and rail transport, states that it has for some years been their practice to distribute by road. The last important consignment they had sent by rail was from King's Lynn to King's Cross. The timber was loaded on a Monday, but although the railway officials were aware of the urgency of the consignment no further news of it was available until the following Saturday. That was an experience which the firm dare not risk repeating.
A MOST valuable contribution to the literature
concerning compression-ignition oil engines will shortly be published in Germany. It is an official book, the preparation of which has been ordered by the German Patent Office, and it will deal with all the relative patents throughout the world in connection with this form of power unit. It will probably also be published in England, and, in the words of an expert on design, it may prove something of a bombshell to many makers.