MOTOR-TRACTION

Dominion, Volume 5, Issue 1342, 20 January 1912, Page 14

MOTOR-TRACTION

ITS' TRIUMPHANT PROGRESS, AN INTERESTING ARTICLE. 'Tho Triumph of Motor Traction" i tho title of a remarkably interesting av tide written by the Right Hon. Sir J H. A. Macdonald, K.C.8., LL.D., in th--Aiis-n«t number of "Chambers' Journal.' IJio following is a curtailment of th article, which is bound to l>e read will bow-tit by all interested in the subject Many will think the title 100 strong but that is because many are slow t is passing beforo their eye? the supersession of what seemed to b stereotyped in the paat is, and must be gradual, and to some it is for long : thins impossible of belief that what the; Imve lor a lifetime witnesses! as a norma of things is gr;ulua!!y passing awav J Ins is particularly marked in tiro cas of the inhabitants of thoso islands, who.s natural conservatism causes them to trea 1 he new thing with contempt when i hrst endeavours (o aswrt it.self, lo resis it and put obstacles in its path when i shows signs of forcing its way, and h bo wilfully blind In tho certainty of it victory for a long time, after that victor; has been practically assured. The Bri tish subject lias a repute for not knowin; when he is beaten, and it is a valuablquality for a martial raoe. When light ing man to man an unshakable confi dence is a valuable possession. But i has often been an injurious hindrajic wtiere the question was not of war witl enemies, but. of progress in tilings practi cal, especially in mcdianical develop ments. It is told of the tenants of I,on Catlieart that w;lien in 1753 he offered t supply them with carts at his own ex penso the gift was refused, wheeled vo nicies being looked on as a newfangled device unsuitable for commercial pur poses. An elaborate book written b post office ollicials in ISM is a momi mont of folly, as it professed to prov that penny postage was a mad and ini possible scheme. "Fathor Thames" am tlie canals _ were backed for passenge transit against the railways, and ever; successive invention of the nineteentl century ior lighting, telegraphing, tele phoiiing, electric engines, and man; other conveniences now matters of cours m life, have been pooh-poohed or give the cold shoulder, and "not by fools ex clusively," as Mrs. Browning says. Mail a scientific man dead—ay, many a livin one—would have had a much better repn ration tor foresight if the expression o his "ex cathedra" utterances of condem nation of tlie inventions of others couh be taken out of his rccord. It has beei so with the_ road vehiclo mechanical!; driven. \Y hat showers of abuse wer poured upon it by thousands who no\ are daily availing themselves of its sei vices! How contemptuously did til 'Engineer" write of it! llow eager! was its practicality disputed, and • wha determination was shown to crush it out Never in the history of the world ha there been an instance so extraordinar; of an invention being brought to succes in spite of ridicule, abuse, vituperation and condemnation, and that in the cours of loss than a decade, counting from th time when partial leave was granted t utilise the invention. Those who fore saw tho great future that was beforo i did not themselves dream of so rapid consummation oi their herpes. They coil teinplated a long struggle, nnd brace< themselves to endure it; but it proved t bo short. The merits of the power vehicle were so manifest that it is al ready in a predominant position, frcn which its bitterest enemy docs not hop to oust it. First it asserted itself in th pleasure vehicle, then it showed itsel to be as popular in the passenger vehicle and now, and last, it is penetrating int the commercial region, goods being car ricd in large quantities and over lonj distances by mechanical haulage. Ever; day hears witness to the fact that th power-vehicle is no longer a suppliant fo toleration, but is rapidly attaining a pre eminent position in road traffic. In London the change in all classes o vehicles is so great that a comparisoi may be made between all motor vehicle and al! animal-haulage vehicles. Th word "snimnl" is used advisedly, as ii I the following figures every costermonger' donkey-cart has been included. Tiiiiii; a day's observation during March of tha; year, two thousand eight hundred am five power-vehicles and six hundred an< eighty animal-haulage vehicles were seen which gives a majority to tho mecha,nicn vehicl? of no less than four to ono aiu eighty-five over. But this is not all On that occasion forty-seven eommercia motor-vehicles and four hundred am thirty-five commercial animal-haulage ve hides were scon, and are included in tin ficures given above. If these "bo deduct ed from the totals the figures are reduce to two thousand seven hundred and fiftyeight and two hundred and forty-five re sportively, with the result that the fas traffic motor-vehicles exceeded the fas* horse-vehicles by no less a figure thai eleven to one and sixty-three over. Tha' this was not a merely exceptional occa f-.ion, may bo illustrated by two otliej tests, when a short-time observation wa; token in the middle of the day. Oil tin first the fast power-vehicles numbered sij hundred and forty-seven nnd the fasl horsed-vchicles numbered fifty-seven, tin result being eleven to one and twentyfour over. These figures may be held to give the present highest watermark! of the daily rising tide. It never'now iii London registers less on any day than four to one, and on many days in succession shows from six to ono to ten to one, Now and again it rises to such figures as those given above. As regards the fastmoving motorvehicles of all classes, no one can have failed to notice the extraordinary change that has taken place in their efficiency within tho last few years. Time wjis when, upon the streets and roads, powervehicles were seen broken down—"en panne," as .the French call it—here, there, and everywhere. Ma.ny of the opponents chuckled with delight when they saw a car'laid up at the side of the way, or stood to watch tho motorist wildly turning the starting-handle and obtaining no response, tho unfortunate having to endure the sarcastic jeering of the hansom cabby. A tow home with the aid of a horse was a common occurrence. Bad material, bad design, and bad management were often-combined to load to disaster, and a non-stop run for fifty miles, or even less, was a thing to boast of. And even when not absolutely held upon the road, what noise, what smell, what blowing of steam from overheated cooling water, what fizzling of cracked plugs, what choking of curburettors, what failures of accumulators and coils, what bungs from exhaust explosions, etc. Motoring was a precarious modo of travel. It was impossible to roly on a motor-car if an appointment had to be kept or a station to be reached in time to catch a train, and iv caused rceurring discomfort to users and to the public. Thciso days aro past. The motorist stops info his car with no misgivings, starts with confidence far the railway stations with a smaller allowance of mimitns than li.o used to give to his horses, and ran keep his appointments with nil reasonable certainty. No one now, whether promotor or anti-motor in his tendencies, expects to see autocars broken down on the road, or doubts whether friends coming to him by car will arrive punctually. Traffic of" public or privato vehicles is carried on with all reasonable certainty and regularity, and with an amount of convenience fo which in tho past the public were strangers. Tho title of this panor is thus amply justified. There is, however, ono department of traffic in which tho power-vehicle lias not assorted itself so speedily as it has done in others. Tho replacing of the liorsedvehicio by the motor-vehicle for commercial work has until lately boon a veryslow process. "Within the last, four or five years, however, there lias been a great change. The manufacture »of trade, motors has been taken up energetically, and commercial vehiclo makers find a rapidlyincreasing market for their wares. Many largo Anns .liavo already considerable fleets of delivery vans, and aro so satisfied that they give out fresh orders. Commercial automobilism already supports two journals devoted entirely to that branch of the indnstry. Anyone who observes con see how week after week the number of such vehicles is increasing. Timo was when no ono who was well-informed and independent in opinion would liavo advised any tradesman to experiment with motor-haulage, and it is certain that many commercial men, after making experiment, reverted to liorse-hnulage. This was necessarily a very bad advertisement for the powervehicle. The man who thinks lie has been "let in" is not slow to spread abroad his sentiment of onno.ra.nwi and disgust at his having lost money invested in' iv new contrivance, and possibly having lost custom by its failures, anil not unusually luo usas laiiguago moro

forcible than fair. Tho manufacturer begins to feel ho is o loser by carrying on this branch of his business, and abandons it, and he too acts as a wet blanket upon tho customers proposing lo poirehuss wares with which ho him9clf has been disappointed. Thus ft movement, .sound in i'lea, in given a f»t-back duo to the sound idea not meeting with wiso management in ilio lvwlring- out, and s thoso who do so under the handicap of the bad muno that has unfortunately fastened itself more or less • (irmly to the manufacture, in _cooi.se--0 quonce of ea-udeness or unwisdom in tho ' first attempt to cary the idea to _sueo , ss. a Ono service to be rel'en-cd lo is that of 1 the (funeral Post Ollice; for although it ; is not a commercial service in the strict , sense, it is nevertheless a money-making d service, tho profit on it annually bang . millions of pounds sterling. Moreover, 0 it is conducted under strict supervision , of another department—tho Treasury—. 1 without whose sanction.it can neither lnv augurato now services nor alter tho cora--1 duct of services already existing. When, . therefore, it is found that mail-road sor--0 vices by motor-power are adopted by the a Postmaster-General it is certain that tho t economy of the change has been well t ascertained, seeing that the sanction. _of t tho Treasury has been given. During t the last few years servioo after service 1 has been established, at first mainly over s short distances, but recently over such L- routes as London to Dover, London to - Birmingham, London to Southampton, ; London to Bath, Edinburgh to Glasgow, e wliile in the far north_ an efficient dau> r service lias been running succcss-fuly in tlie wilds of Sutherlandshire from Lairg t to Tongue, an indication of how parts ot 0 the country formerly debarred from au--1 vantages of rapid postal communication can now be served with post-in and post- - out oil the same day. I