M1otor Notes for M1edical31en

Th3V. 'o, 1920]l THE MOTOR SHOW. r BmxTxus 7 T LEDICA L Jouuu&g. J formerly- anaely, tle new scale of ta-ation. One nmay M1OTOR NOTES FOR M1EDICAL 31EN. take it, broadly, tllat a car beyond 20-h.p. Treasury rating By H. MASSAC BUIST. is not needed by the average doctor. Thle new tax is £1 per lhorse-power, tlhereforo a 20-h.p. Treasury rating car involves ain expenditure of £20 a year for tax alone. THEI SHOWS AT OLYMPIA AND WHITE CITY. Undcler this head it is interesting to Qbserve that no THERE is sucll an unprecedented variety of mnotor carriages country is offerincg better value for money in the 20-h.p. at the M1Iotor Show organized at Olymipia and tIme White class than (loes the Austin Company, which lhas been in City by the Society of Mot6r MIanufacturers and Traders, fuller production, pelhaps, than aiiy other firm in this under thle patronage of the King, tllat the mnedical man is country dutring the last twvelve molnths, and whose produlct in sore need of some guide to those features likely to is now well proved. In the interval sundlry new moodels appeal to hiim. Tlho display is, internationially, tlhe most are being initroduced for this market, as instance the representative organized in any part of the world. It 19.6-l.p. four-cylinder Crossley. Both these vehicles may be replaces the yearly slhow in Paris, wljicll was not lheld last taken as about the lim-it of the possible requirements of montl. It precedes the great American slhows. Tlhere- the me(lical mian, each being suitable for a specialist whose fore, for tlle time being, London is the miotor mnart of the need miiay be for a relatively fast car carrying covered coaclhwork and required on make Late enemy countries excepted, occasions to fairly long world. the industry of journeys. every country taking a part of any imnportance in motor The average medical man, however, may flncl these, and building is adequately represented, the nuinber of American such vehicles as the 16-h.p. Sunbeam, too expensive to makes on the market being particularly noteworthy. Time miaintain. But there is ample choice in other directions. exlhibition is marked by tlle introduction of a large nunmber Among tested products there is the 15-h.p. four-cylinder of entirely new makes of cars, but a goodly proportion of Wolseley with overhead valve engine. It is now in full tllem have not adequate m-anufacturing facilities belind production, and will therefore well repay attention. Alike them to justify tlleir receiving tIme patronage of the medical remark applies to the improved post-war inodels of the profession, whose prime need is a tested design offered by nominal 12-h.p. Rover car of the water-cooled type, with financially well-establislhed firms; reliability and economy detachable cylinder hca(l. This machiine is put on the of cost, together witlh absence of the speculative marlket in very comiiplete fashion, and has sLunldry improve- elemnelnt, ments in it that be are essential to doctoms' service. Last year 271 makes may noted later. Coming down the scale of power, and thlerefore of prices, one niotes in one of cars were on the Britislh marliet. According to the direction the 10-hi.p. three-speed NVolseley-Stellite (Stand 62, Autocar, that of and assenmblers has nLiruber builders Olympia), wlhich, as a two-seater with diclkey seat behind, now risen to 302, of 149, or are wlhiclh less than half, is of about the rihlt power and price for the average Britislh. Tlle varieties of types at tlle current exhibition medical man. This, like the Rover, is a lona proved nunuber 459, because many of thle makers mal-ket more design, despite its striking originality, the points of which than one model. have been well tested in service. There need be no hesi- tation about buying machines of this character: their Misleading Talk about Price Cuttinzg. economy of running is evident. At this season there is talk to the effect that the cut in Th.s year there is introdrc2d one notable recruiit to the valve car prices is the clhief feature of tlle slhow. If, however, ov2lrhead type of eng,ine-namely, the Standard of which long we take the prices asLed at tllis season last year, andi Companiy, Coventry, has specialized in a comupare tllem witlh those ruling to-day, it is scarcely true type of car of the size, price, and power, as well as mlaini- tenance costs, eminently suitable for medical menI. In to say there is nature of that alnytliing in tllh price cutting reviewing the exhibits one notes with reg,ret that suclh to be observed; far less thlat it is a general tendency. a striking design as the air-cooled Enfield-AlIdays, intro- The reason is plain. In tlle interval of twelve montlhs we duced last year, has failed to materialize in standard form lhave all lhad to revise our ideas of the value of money, because some £100,000 worth of special plant is nieeded to particularly as all classes of malinnal workers are receiving lay down the work for standard production on satisfactory higher aud yet higher wages, witlh the result that the lines. But the firmn is bringing forward a niewv style small costs alike of raw materials and of labotur for building a car car on what may be called conventional lines. are unprecedentedly higlh. In a few cases thjis lhas been offset by tlle coining into production of factories on large A Type as a Text. Any disappointment under this head is scales, in whieh tlhe'dead, or overhead, charges which have offset, too, by the bia advance made the to be divided over eaell velhee are naturally lower as tlle by Rover Company with the horizontal engine with two opposed cylinders of the air- output grows. Tllose dead clharges are miiore or less fixed cooled variety. This is styled the 8-h.p. miodel (Stand 57, in running a given establishment, aud cannot be fact-,rs Olympia). It has now come into full production at a speci- cuit very appreciably merely bcc-use output falls off. ally equipped works separate from the Coventry factory, The real note of tlle slhow is that for the first time and situated at Birmingham. When these cars were flrst anybody going to an exhibition of this sort with a view to issued in standard form they were engaged in various placing an order for a post-war car slhall really secure competitions, in all of which they distinguished themselves. delivery witlhin a reasonably early period. Last year Since then large uumbers have appeared on the road in orders were given witlhout any guarantee of delivery. At private ownership. least half the last manufacturing season was productive of In face of the cost of proluction in the post-war period, no results wlhatever. Thlat was owing to successive labour there is here something particularly interesting to thle medical man on troubles. Tlle situation to-day, lhowever, is that, in the many grounds. As to price, tlhis is £300 ready fcr the road. As to the main,production is on a scale adequate to meet- demand. performance, car can be driven up to 40 miles an hour. Of course, the best is As for falling may be out whereas running got prices, it pointed that, between 20 and 30 miles an hour, which is fast enough for at this time last vear the cost of a Rolls-Royce chassis the average medical man. On long journeys the petrol was £1,750, to-day it is £2,100, wlhieh is also the cost of consumption has worled out in stand.-Jd examples as the 1921 six-cylinder Napier ehassis with overhead valve economically as 45 miles to the gallon of petrol; 40 miles engine, and the six-cylinder Lanchester chassis costs£2,200. to the gallon can be practically guaranteed. The horse- While there are not many cars that cost as much as power is generous in relation to weight, the engine giving these, the plain fact is that practically all the larger fully 14 h.p., and the total weight of the velhicle being cars are costing quite as muuch as, if not more than, was under the half-ton. The suspension is by quarter elliptic asked for them twelve months ago, tllouglh many are springs fore and aft; therefore, the worst one would get marketed at prices lower than those that had. to be asked on a pot-hole road would be great plangency. To receive a is with this last summer, when production was on relatively a small jar impossible system of springing. The scale, but dead clharges remained stationary. vehicle is well worth studying, too, as illustration of how Moreover, to avoid complication. Here the lines are sucll cars as the Willys-Overland are not cheaper than last extrenmely simple. There is strength witlhouit undue There year, the price of the types with covered coachwork weight. being is nothing about which the medical mian need be shy. It now dearer. is generally imagined that an air-cooled engine in a car is a difficulty. The fact, however, is not so. The difficult Coming Taxes a Prinme Consideration. is to devise an air-cooled In face of fact thing engine which can be made the that for the most part doctors placing to run quietly, like the water-cooled variety. The Rover orders for cars now will not seek delivery of them until Company has come nearer solving -this problem than any January lst it may be pointed out that a prime considera- firm I have observed so far.

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