Mr. ARTHUR NASH wished to add his testimony to the thorough efficiency of the author's car. At Torquay last December a wave about 40 feet high broke right over the front and thundered on the car, the water in the road being six or eight inches deep; but the burner was not extinguished, nor did the car give any trouble. The CHAIRMAN thought the subject was of the utmost importance, and one in which the public had a very great interest at the present time. The desire for more rapid transport had been increasing ever since transport was invented, and at the present time the rapidity of increase was naturally very much greater than it was in former days, due first of all to the public knowing what could be done, to a certain extent; and, secondly, to the great increase there had been in engineering facilities in the last thirty years, not only in regard to the eapabilities of the manufacturers, but also the reduction in cost. Our ancestors, not very long ago, were quite content with stage coaches, and though during the latter days of those vehicles a few fervid attempts at road locomotion were made, unfortunately they were smothered by restrictive legislation. Those who had studied the actual machinery used then for road locomotion were astonished to see how perfect it was, and how comparatively little could be done nowadays to improve it. The next thing which expedited transport was the railway, but railways at the commencement were few and far between. The next system of transport that came into vogue was the bicycle, which annihilated distance for those who chose to exert themselves. After that came the electric tram. Many present did not altogether appreciate the value of electric traction; electric traction usurped the whole of the road and possessed the great disadvantage to the other traffic that if the other traffic got on the rails it was sometimes difficult to get off, and a great many accidents had been caused to bicycles and motor cars through the direct influence of the tram-rails. The motor car was more or less of a private vehicle, and although it had done a good deal towards popularising rapid transit, the first makers and exploiters had followed their inclinations by selling them as private vehicles rather than turning their attention to commercial vehicles, as Mr. Clarkson had done. There was no doubt whatever that the proper thing to do now-a-days was to direct attention to vehicles for the use of the public generally, and not for the use of selfish owners. In regard to the advantages of steam cars, he thought everyone must admit that in large cities the problem of the transport of the citizens had not been successfully dealt with. In London everything was done by the police to regulate the traffic, and yet it was impossible to be five minutes on one of the busiest thoroughfares before one saw what a hopeless problem it was. Mechanically propelled vehicles would obviate some of the disdavantages of horse propelled ones; they would take less room, be under more control, and travel faster, all of which con ditions would lead to improvement. The increasing of the pace would allow the road to be clearer, because if the traffic travelled faster, naturally it covered the distance in a less time, and therefore there were fewer vehicles on the road car. for the same number of passengers in the time. He wished to place on record his admiration and appreciation of Mr. Clarkson's untiring energy and ability as exemplified in his steamHe had watched the author's work for the last six or eight years, and it all tended to the one end of producing a vehicle which should work as nearly as possible automatically, and in that object he (the Chairman) thought Mr. Clarkson had succeeded. He recently rode with the author on one of his cars to Chelmsford, and if he had not known there was a steam engine under the car and a boiler in front of him he could not have told what was propelling the car; apparently all Mr. Clarkson did was to steer; everything else was done automatically. He had also seen Mr. Clarkson's works, and thoroughly endorsed Colonel Crompton's remarks in regard to the accurate workmanship and the design of all details. Several speakers had thrown doubt upon public service vehicles succeeding on account of their not earning sufficient money. That was a point on which much could not be said at the present time; it would work itself out, and a great deal more would be known about it in the near future. The subject of tyres was a very difficult one, in connection with it, the only thing he could say was, that if india rubber tyres were to be used, it was probable they would have to be solid, because solid tyres were more reliable, and had more lasting qualities than pneumatic tyres. Mr. CLARKSON, in reply to Col. Crompton, said there was a good deal to be said in favour of the semi-flash type of boiler, but there were serious drawbacks to its use for public service, the chief one being that it had very little reserve power; steam was quickly got up but also quickly lost. He was not going to say what was to be the ultimate type of boiler, but having experimented with many types for so long, he came to the conclusion that he must select one which gave the most uniformly reliable results in the hands of unskilled engineers. Some 4,000 or 5,000 boilers of the type he used had been put into the hands of the public by an American firm, and no one had ever heard of one of the boilers exploding. Their great drawback was that they might be burned, but there was no reason why they should be; in fact, he told the Torquay people that if a man burned his boiler he should be fined £1, and a case had never occurred. Mr. Smith went into the question of petrol versus steam. He did not intend to argue one way or the other. The field was large enough for anything that was good, and it was impossible to decide by any process of discussion what was going to be the ultimate type of motor. He wished for nothing better than to see both types run level on the same conditions, and the final verdict must rest with the public. The approximate weight of the whole of the engine was about 300 lbs. In that connection one must recognise not merely the weight but the power it was able to produce. In the internal combustion engine the maximum power represented by the cylinder capacity and the speed was reached, and nothing could be done beyond it; there was not, as in the case of a steam generator, the means of adding 50 per cent if necessary to the working pressure to get one out of a hole. The steam engine had the further advantage of being double acting, i.e., each cylinder had four times the number of impulses of a cylinder of the same dimensions on the internal combustion principle, and the drive consequently was more uniform. With reference to the curvature of the springs, he agreed that flatter springs were successfully used on railway work, but he did not think that was quite comparable to road work. On railway work, running on the edge of a rail, the amplitude, or range of movement of the springs, was comparatively small, and they could never hope to have a road surface as good as that. It had been proved already that it was necessary to provide for a very large amplitude, otherwise when one had a very heavy load over a bad piece of road the springs were tested and, if there was not enough clearance, something was bound to break. Mr. Smith asked if the tubes were screwed together they were expanded by a roller and beaded over, each tube acting, therefore, as a stay. With reference to a guarantee of the tyres, the makers of the tyres he was using were not prepared to give a guarantee, for the reason that they did not know how they were to be used. He did not know whether it was safe to deduce by a rule of three sum what the life of a tyre would be from 4,000 miles running wearing off haif an inch in diameter. Certainly there was no indication of that disintegration which had been in the past the great source of cost in rubber tyres. He considered that the large broad-faced single tyre was not a practical thing. One must necessarily have sufficient rubber to bear a heavy weight, in fact, the quantity of rubber must be proportional to the weight if it was to have any reasonable chance of life; but he thought the twin tyre, and possibly the triple tyre, had furnished a solution to the tyre difficulty. A tyre could be made which was never pushed to the disintegrating limit, and which, therefore, would go on wearing down, and might give some reasonable prospect of approximating to the figure he had suggested-15,000 miles, which he considered reasonable. In discussing the matter recently with the engineer of one of the leading railway companies, he was told that they expected to exceed 10,000 miles with their tyres, and were considering the question of the granting of a bonus to the drivers of d. up to d. for every mile got out of the tyres beyond 10,000. There were firms manufacturing tyres which werǝ prepared to keep people supplied with tyres at a certain sum per thousand miles; he believed for On a public service car it was something under £100 per 10,000 miles; but according to his experience it was not necessary to expend so much money. In reply to Mr. Henwood, £60 per set of tyres was not the cost but the selling price; he would be prepared to supply that gentleman with as many sets as he wanted at £60 a set. He did not think practical results had shown that the use of rubber, not on the rim but in the hub, was the correct principle; it was not correct to shut up a cylinder of rubber in a box and not allow for compression or eccentric movement. Mr. Henwood stated that there was only one-fifth the quantity of rubber, and, therefore, it was much cheaper to get the effect instead of having the rubber all over the tyre; but it must not be forgotten that one-fifth was punched five times as hard, and unless provision was made for the lateral expansion of the rubber, it was not a bit of use putting it in a box and expecting that it would be springy. It had been suggested by Mr. Brewer, that there was no chance of the boiler proving durable until there was an efficient condensing arrangement, which recovered practically the whole of the water condensed. He (the author) submitted that they had an efficient condenser. the sixty-five miles run, of which the Chairman had spoken, on very heavy roads the water consumption was about equal to the oil consumption for fuel, In the ordinary way the water consumption would be about twelve times the oil consumption; they had brought it down to about one-twelfth, and that being the case, they were practically able to run the boiler with distilled water all the time. Mr. Brewer also expected that in six months the boilers would have to be re-tubed. He (Mr. Clarkson) did not expect they would have to be re-tubed oftener than once in two years. Mr. White pointed out that he was falling into the old error of putting a large body on to a light pleasure Chassis. That was not quite correct. It was quite correct to say he was using the same sized engine on the larger cars as was used on the lighter pleasure cars, but the conditions were favourable and reasonable, and the strength of the frame, springs, and axles was modified accordingly. On a light pleasure car people wanted to travel fast; on a large public service car they did not want to travel so fast. The same engine could therefore be geared to suit both of these conditions. The running speed of the public service cars might be taken at 10 or 12 miles an hour. On the motion of the CHAIRMAN, a vote of thanks was accorded to Mr Clarkson. Obituary. RT. HON. SIR EDWARD BRADDON, K.C.M.G.— Sir Edward Braddon, who died in Tasmania on Tuesday, 2nd inst., was a member of the Society of Arts until shortly after his return to Australia in 1891. He was a member of the Council in the years 1892-93 and 1893-94. He read four papers before the Society, viz., "Recent Development of Tasmanian Industries and Prosperity," in March, 1891; "Australasia; its Progress and Resources," in April, 1892; "Russia as a Field for Trusts," in February, 1893; and "Australasia as a Field for Anglo-Indian Colonisation" in April of the same year. For the first two he received silver medals. Sir Edward was born on the 11th June, 1829, the son of Mr. Henry Braddon, solicitor, of Skisdone lodge, Cornwall. In 1847 he went to India to join a mercantile house in Calcutta, but subsequently accepted a Government appointment as Assistant Commissioner in Santhalia, and served with Sir George Yule's Volunteer force in the Indian Mutiny. He remained in India in various official capacities until 1878, when he retired on a pension and went to Tasmania. He was elected to the House of Assembly, and after becoming a prominent leader of the Opposition he was called upon in 1887 to form an Administration. He was Agent-General for Tasmania in London from 1888 to 1894. On his return to Tasmania in that year he became Premier and leader of the House of Assembly, which offices he retained until 1899. He was author of Life in India," 1892, and "Thirty Years of Shikar" in 1895. GEORGE JORDAN FIRMIN.-Mr. G. Firmin, a member of the Society of very old standing, since he was elected in 1861, died at Philadelphia on the 21st December last. Mr. Firmin was born at Colchester in 1825, and for many years carried on the business of a manufacturing chemist in London. Between the years 1851 and 1862 he took out no less than four patents for improvements in the manufacture of citric and tartaric acid, potash oxalate, &c. In 1871 he went to America, and settled in Philadelphia, where he was well known as a manufacturing chemist. Besides his work in connection with the manufacture of citric and tartaric acid, he was, in partnership with Dr. T. A. D. Forster, the inventor of a process for the amalgamation of gold and silver ore. He was one of the guarantors of the London Exhibition of 1851, and took a great interest in the Centennial Exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876. General Notes. NAPHTHA IN EASTERN ASIA.- Eastern Asia is one of the richest mineral fuel regions in theworld. The area of all the paying coal beds in Europe, comprises only 22,760 square miles, an area equal to that of one of the Russian provinces the Kazan Province. The area of coal beds in Eastern Asia, though not yet estimated, is considered incalculable. Besides immense coal beds, Eastern Asia possesses wealthy underground naphtha lakes that will soon, it is expected, become the foundation of a great industry. Naphtha springs are found everywhere in China, in Manchuria, in the Ussuri district, in Japan, and on Sakholin Island. The latter island not only possesses very rich coal mines, but also large naphtha lakes. A chemical engineer, after having examined the coal beds and naphtha wells in Texas and Pennsylvania, made an investigation of the naphtha springs on Sakholin Island, and on his return to Baku, declared that all he had seen in the United States was nothing in comparison to what he found on Sakholin. The naphtha springs near the River Nootova, on Sakhalin, excel those of Baku in every way, according to the latest report ot the United States Commercial Agent at Vladivostock. Seven underground naphtha lakes are there, the area of the largest one being over 75,000 square yards. Notwithstanding the increased output of the Japanese naphtha, Japan must still import the foreign article. In 1900, the country imported more than 60 million gallons; and in 1901, 61 million gallons. The export from Japan is inconsiderable, so that the Japanese naphtha does not threaten to become a rival to Sakhalin naphtha. On the contrary, Japan promises to become a good market for the Sakhalin naphtha. The development of the oil industry on Sakhalin Island, will help the new navigation on the Amur, and in the Far East generally. CANTOR LEctures. Monday evenings, at 8 o'clock : J. LEWKOWITSCH, PhD., M.A., F.I.C., "Oils and Fats-their Uses and Applications." Four Lectures. LECTURE III.-FEBRUARY 8.-Burning OilsPaint Oils-Lubricating Oils-Blown Oils-Boiled Oils-Varnish Industry-Linoleum Industry-Vulcanised Oils-Turkey red Oils-Modern Theory of Hydrolysis of Fats. LECTURE IV.-FEBRUARY 15.-Modern Processes of Saponification-Candle Industry-Soap Industry - Manufacture of Glycerine-Recovery of Glycerine from Soap Lyes. CHARLES T. JACOBI, "Modern Book Printing." Two Lectures. LECTURE I.-FEBRUARY 22.-Printing Types.— Some account of those used by the early and subsequent Printers-Founts specially designed for the private Presses of the present day- Some good Types that may be obtained in the open Market, well adapted for the different classes of Book Printing-The choice of a suitable Type. MEETINGS FOR THE ENSUING WEEK. Mechanical Engineers, Storey's-gate, Westminster, Surveyors, 12, Great George-street, S.W., 8 p.m. Geographical, University of London, Burlington- Camera Club, Charing-cross-road, W.C., 8 p.m. London Institution, Finsbury-circus, E.C., 5 p.m. Prof. Grenville Cole, "The Fringe of the Balkans." TUESDAY, FEB. 9...SOCIETY OF ARTS, John-street, Adelphi, W.C., 4 p.m. (Colonial Section) Hon. Sir John Alexander Cockburn, "The Biology of Federation." Asiatic, 22, Albemarle-street, W., 3 p.m. Medical and Chirurgical, 20, Hanover-square, W. Civil Engineers, 25, Great George-street, S.W., Anthropological, 3, Hanover-square, W., 8} p.m. 17, Bloomsbury-square, W.C., WEDNESDAY, FER. 10...SOCIETY OF ARTS, John-street, Adelphi, W.C., 8 p.m. Mr. Charles Vernon Boys, "Thermit: Its Application to Metallurgical Engineering." Biblical Archæology, 37, Great Russell-street, Dante Society, 22, Albemarle-street, W., 8 p.m. Mr. Maurice Hewlett, "Dante and the Traveller." Sanitary Institute, 74a, Margaret-street, W., 8 p.m. Discussion on "Road Sanitation." Royal Literary Fund, 7, Adelphi-terrace, W.C., 3 p.m. THURSDAY, FEB. 11...SOCIETY OF ARTS, John-street, Royal, Burlington-house, W., 4 p.m. Royal Institution, Albemarle-street, W., 5 p.m. FRIDAY, FEB. 12... Royal Institution, Albemarle-street, W., Civil Engineers, 25, Great George-street, S.W., Astronomical, Burlington-house, W., 5 p.m. Annual Clinical, 20, Hanover-square, W., 8 p.m. Physical, at the Royal College of Science, Exhibition-road, South Kensington, S. W.,8 p.m. Address by the President, Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, SATURDAY, FEB. 13...Botanic, Inner Circle, Regent'spark, N.W., 33 p.m. Royal Institution, Albemarle-street, W., 3 p.m. Dr. C. Waldstein, "Culture and Sculpture." (Lecture II.) MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 8 p.m. (Cantor Lecture.) J. LEWKOWITSCH, Ph.D., M.A., F.C.S., "Oils and Fats-their Uses and Applications." (Lecture IV.) WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 8 p.m. (Ordinary Meeting.) A. R. SENNETT, "Garden Cities in their relation to Industries and Agriculture." THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 8 p.m. (Applied Art Section.) Visit to the Graphic Printing Office, by invitation of the Proprietors. Admission by ticket only (see below). Further details of the Society's meetings will be found at the end of this number. CANTOR LECTURES. DR. J. LEWKOWITSCH delivered the third lecture of his course on "Oils and Fats" on Monday evening, 8th inst. The lectures will be published in the Journal during the summer recess. COLONIAL SECTION. Tuesday afternoon, February 9th, 1904; The Right Hon. JAMES BRYCE, M.P., D.C.L., LL.D., followed by SIR WESTBY PERCEVAL, K.C.M.G., in the chair. The paper read was "The Biology of Federation," by the Hon. SIR JOHN ALEXANDER COCKBURN, K.C.M.G. The paper and report of the discussion will be published in a future number of the Journal. APPLIED ART SECTION. The Proprietors of the Graphic have kindly invited the Applied Art Section to visit their new printing offices in Tallis-street, Victoriaembankment, E.C., on Thursday evening, February 18, from 8 to 10.30 p.m., when the various processes in the production of an illustrated paper will be shown in operation. As the accommodation is limited, not more than 100 cards of invitation will be issued. These cards will be issued in order of application to members until the number is exhausted. Each ticket will admit the bearer and one friend. No one can be admitted without a ticket. |