CHAPTER II
THE UTILITY OF MOTOR VEHICLES
By the Hon. John Scott-Montagu, M.P.
It is now admitted by most people that the motor-car has passed the limits of mere experiment, and that it has become a practical vehicle. Motoring has already entered, and will in the future enter yet more largely, into our social life, though we may still be far from the time when the horse-drawn vehicle will be a rarity upon country roads and London has begun to save fifty thousand pounds a year now spent in road scavengering.
The utility of the motor is endless. At whatever distance you may live from your station in the country, the motor is bound to shorten the time occupied on the journey to and fro, and houses six miles from a railway become as accessible as houses three miles distant are to-day with horses. Whether you consider the motor from the town or country station point of view, the fact that there are no horses to get tired, and that the motor will run, providing it is efficiently handled, for any hour or all hours during the twenty-four, makes it inevitable that every country house of any dimensions, and nearly every private carriage-owner in London, will have a motor-car of some sort or kind in coming years. The difficulty at first is always the same in any new movement of this kind: the would-be buyer and future owner most probably knows nothing about the machine of which he is to be the possessor, and to get a trustworthy and capable driver and mechanician is even harder than the selection of the motor in the first instance.
I am inclined to think that for town work electricity and steam will be the main propulsive agents. The delightful smoothness of either method, and the fact that, in the case of electricity, re-charging can be done so easily from any electric light system, are advantages not to be denied; and again, as broughams and landaus are largely used for night work, the same power that produces the motion will produce also a most brilliant light for your lamps, light your cigarette, and heat your foot-warmer. If it were not that there is yet no really satisfactory form of accumulator for traction work on the market, the electric motor-car would long ago have won a complete victory. At present an electric car may be classed as a charming but expensive vehicle, almost as costly as horseflesh. The expense of running an electric carriage, including stabling, electricity, tyres, batteries and insurance, is 180l. per annum. The steam car has been more favoured of late, but here again you have the danger which must necessarily come from a live flame in connection with petroleum or petroleum spirit always called amongst motorists 'petrol' and most of the steam vehicles now upon the market are extremely expensive to run, in fact nearly three times as expensive as an internal combustion engine producing the same power. I feel convinced that we must have a great improvement in steam vehicles before they will come into general use for light town work, and electricity ought certainly to hold the field, so far as one can see, for some years in this department.
Of course I am not discussing the question of heavier traction, the vehicles for which have been much more perfected than those for the lighter class of work. The Liverpool trials last summer, and the military trials at Aldershot in December, proved that we can buy vehicles of undoubtedly great carrying power, and of 'extra-normal' capacity, able to tackle not only heavy roads and stiff hills, but even to make a fair show across country. There is probably nothing safer in the streets of London to-day than a well-driven electric or steam motor; there are no horses to fall down when the streets are slippery, and there is brake power available far in excess of any that can possibly be exercised by the horse with his four iron-shod feet on a frequently treacherous surface. When your driver is careful and competent, has learnt the danger of skidding, and is content to take you round corners at a reasonable speed when the wood pavement or the asphalte is wet, you should be able to enjoy your newspaper or talk to your companion as you go
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A Station Omnibus
(Eight h.-p. Panhard and Levassor)
along with as much serenity as if you were sitting in your favourite chair at home.
To turn for a moment to station work in the country. There is no doubt that the internal-combustion engine driven by 'petrol' is still the most practical of all the various types. Whether you have a Panhard or a Mors made in France, or a Daimler or a Napier made in England, on ninety-nine days out of a hundred the vehicle will perform its work up to time, and, so far as I can speak from my own experience, you ought never to miss your train or your appointment if the car is efficiently superintended. One thinks a good deal in the country of going by train to one's station, say a hundred miles from London, in about two hours, and you naturally remark on the excellence of the railway service, but from there to your house, a distance of, perhaps, six miles, often takes you an hour in the country fly. The first part of your journey was completed at the rate of fifty miles an hour, the final average from door to door works out at a little over thirty. If the train service from your station is quickened to any centre which you are using by ten minutes in two hours, you think it is an extraordinary improvement and everybody praises the railway company; but with a motor you may save thirty minutes in every hour over the horse-drawn vehicle even in ordinary weather, and when it comes to snow and frost and slippery roads the saving might easily amount to far more.
And when you are in your country house what an added joy to your daily life! Perhaps you are surrounded by a few near neighbours of whom you have seen almost too much, and beyond them a wider circle of friends from ten to twenty miles off, or even more, whom, without previous arrangement as to change of horses, you cannot conveniently reach. These now become quite accessible, and a shoot twenty miles from home can be undertaken, or you can lunch with your neighbour five-and-twenty miles off as easily in 1902 as in 1892 you could meet your friend living seven miles from your door. All this makes for an improvement of the social conditions of country life, a widening of its opportunities, a better knowledge of your county, and less boredom with your parish. But beware of the local Bench in the matter of speed. They may be sensible, and the policeman kind or blind, but all are not so. The poetry of pace generally leads to a payment before the prejudiced. Above all be a gentleman on the road as well as off it. It pays.
Then, again, as to the station work: your expected friend, we will imagine, misses the train but there is no horse to catch cold waiting at the railway, followed by an intimation from your groom next morning that the horse cannot be used for three or four days owing to a bad chill. Altogether the motorcar must revolutionise our social life in the country, and let us hope before long will lead to the bettering of our cross-country roads. The horse, poor beast, has never been able to tell us what he endures from bad roads, and the pace of a horsedrawn vehicle has been too slow for even the springs to suffer much; but if you get into a motor-car going five-and-twenty miles an hour over a road which you have hitherto deemed good, the engine and car will very soon tell you the difference between what the road surveyor's work has been and what it ought to be.
For station work in the country I would rather recommend—and I am supposing myself writing for those who have now a stable of some half a dozen horses—a covered as well as an open motor, or perhaps a motor which can have a top fitted on to it when the weather is bad. Ladies do not like arriving at tea-time with their fringes out of curl, or the feathers in their hats drooping or facing the wrong way; but always remember that the driver should be quite free, and that nothing is more dangerous on a misty day, and especially at night, than a glass frame on which the rain will fall and eventually almost obscure the road from his gaze. The man who drives the motor must always have the best possible view of the road, just as on the footplate of a locomotive every driver knows that in times of mist or rain the difficulty of seeing through the windows of the cab is immensely increased, and careful drivers prefer to have their heads round the edge.
For hunting work you must bear in mind the susceptibilities of the district. I am glad here to be able to put on record—for it will seem curious a few years hence—that a Master of one of the Midland packs has asked the members of his hunt to avoid using motor-cars for the purpose of coming to meets, and generally to discourage their use, on the ground that the farmer will be deprived of part of his income owing to the diminution of the demand for forage, by which hunting will be prejudiced. It is notable that similar arguments were used in the years 1838 to 1845 during the construction of the early railways; and yet the horse is with us still. It would be rash to say that the farmer will lose by the introduction of these new vehicles, but if he loses in the amount of corn or hay sold for a few covert hacks or carriage horses, he may gain by the fact that many more people will hunt if they have facilities for
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A Covered Carriage built by J. Rothschild & Fils
attending distant meets, and that the farm produce itself will probably be conveyed at a much cheaper rate than is possible now either by horse-haulage or rail. There are notable Masters in the Shires who already employ motor-cars to take them to their more distant meets, and as I write I have the names of several gentlemen in my head who would be recognised throughout the hunting world to be as good sportsmen and as straight riders as any in England. The use of a motor for every kind of social appointment is bound to increase, and I am afraid some of the Midland farmers are more like Mrs. Partington than they could be persuaded to believe.
To come to other country pursuits, both for shooting and fishing, rapidity of transport will do wonders. You have often, for instance, in Scotland a lodge near your forest where the stalking is good, and possibly a few brown trout in the burn below. But ten miles away, perhaps over a good road, there is an excellent sea trout or salmon river which is only accessible after a good deal of organisation, and if the road is hilly, the expenditure of an hour or an hour and a half of time. The new mode of locomotion will make river, loch, and forest accessible from the same centre. Moreover, many places in Scotland which are beyond ordinary driving distance from the station, thirty or forty miles away, will not be so cut off from the outer world as at present, and your 'Times' will be only one day instead of three days late. On precipitous roads, if your horse backs you have frequently a very nasty moment or two; but motor-cars do not shy, neither do they back unless you wish them to do so. Proverbially, once more, there is nothing so uncertain as fishing. You may have a good day and wish to stay till the very latest moment, or the water may be out of order, the fish not on the rise, and you may find it desirable to alter your whole day's plans. If you have driven a long distance the horses must have rest, and very often have been put up at a farm^some way from the water, whereas the motor is left on the road at the spot nearest the stream, and should you decide in favour of some other kind of sport, or a return home, you can change the rod for the gun, or rejoin your wife, go back to your garden, or possibly to 'bridge' or 'ping-pong.'
For ordinary partridge- and pheasant-shooting in England motors have already taken their place as practical vehicles; and I may here remark that it is all-important that we should not lead motor manufacturers to imagine their cars are only to be used in the summer-time, when the roads are good and when you can arrive at the end of your journey with your paint showing in all its glory. For country work the car ought to be able to run all the year round, and whether it is smothered in mud, or almost obliterated by snow, to be of practical use you should not spare the car in the winter-time You will find out more weak points and need for alterations in one day in December than in a dozen days in June. Have, say, a six or a twelve-horse-power car for the loaders, a good roomy wagonette with a low gear and plenty of floor space, let them start a quarter of an hour earlier than you, and follow them in your flyer, on a twelve- or twenty-horse-power machine with your guests. Many a last beat of a good shoot has been spoilt because one of the party was not called in time, or was eating his breakfast when the party ought to have been starting. You can now allow a wider margin. The beats which, if you left home at ten, were finished with difficulty, can by the aid of a car be so accelerated that at the end of the day you will probably have a quarter of an hour in hand.
And there are other forms of shooting which can now be enjoyed and which formerly were impossible. I will suppose that your shoot has many natural advantages, and that there are duck pits and snipe marshes at certain places on the property. With two good motor-cars such as I have described you can take four or five guns and loaders; you can visit all of these places in the day, and make a total of wildfowl and snipe which the Game Book will tell constitutes a record. I have myself worked on this system for three or four years past with great success, and a hundred wildfowl a day shot out of small lakes and pools, added to a few snipe and 'oddments,' will make your day one to which you need not disdain to ask your best shots and your cheeriest friends. Twenty to five-and-twenty miles like this can easily be covered by your motor, and you will hardly realise the distance you have been over by the time you return home. To ask any pair of horses, or even a four-in-hand brake, to cover the same mileage, with the roads bad as they generally are in the winter, muddy and soft, with, probably, five guns in the one brake and five loaders in the other, and perhaps _0060.jpg)
'GUNS' ARRIVING BY MOTOR
Let me give one word of advice as to motoring to your shoot. Always wear spectacles, and have a pair or two for your guests who sit on the front seat with you. The keen air of a frosty morning, or driving, rain at top speed, will not increase the accuracy of your aim, let alone the chance in the early autumn of a gnat in your eye, than which nothing can sometimes be more painful, or, later on in the year, a speck of gravel which may cut you like a knife.
As to wildfowling, you can go to your punt more rapidly in the morning, and an extra ten minutes in bed will be welcomed by anyone who has had experience of early punting. You can also, when the opportunity presents itself, shoot your Golden Plover from the motor-car without any chance of your horse suddenly bolting at the discharge, and wood-pigeons and cock partridges later in the season can be brought down from the road after a little practice with the greatest ease, without rising from your seat. Rabbits and hares at night will run sometimes for a quarter of a mile before your acetylene lamps, and you can pick them off in the same way with your gun; oftentimes with your car you will unintentionally run over panicked rabbits or hares who dash frantically under your wheel. It is always worth while stopping to see whether you have secured your quarry; and although the mode of killing may result in the hare being more fit for soup than for roast, at times you will be lucky, as I have been, and a head that its mother would not know is the only damage done.
For household purposes, if you live at a distance from your country town, you will find a motor car of great use for parcels, for sending away your game, and for bringing your supplies; and let me also mention that your servants, should you care to give them a day's outing in the summer, will enjoy a motor-car drive and a picnic in the woods with a zest which they never knew in th days of the horse-drawn vehicle.
Now I come to the last section of my chapter, the use of motors for farming and estate work. And here one must go from the point of view of convenience to that of economic and practical use. Whether the rates charged by railways to-day are justifiable, having regard to the capital of those railways, or whether they are excessive with regard to the low rates charged on competitive foreign produce, the cheaper and swifter locomotion becomes, the better must it be for the British farmer; and incidentally I must strongly advocate some form of co-operation where it is possible. At Tunbridge Wells a system has been started, whereby the farmers of the district, tired and no wonder of the vagaries of the South-Eastern and Chatham, have organised a motor service to take their goods direct to Covent Garden and other markets in London. And just think for one moment of the advantages gained. There is no handling from the farmer's cart into the truck, with all its attendant risks to perishable articles; and there is no handling at the London terminus, with the risk of crushing in the carrier's or railway company's van. The motor-car takes the fruit, or whatever produce is desired, to the market, and thus there are two handlings as against four handlings. Not only this, but the vehicle can return from London, or the town you may chance to be near, with nitrate of potash, bone meal, linseed cake, or whatever you are buying from the outside for consumption or distribution on your farm; and as every merchant in the world will tell you, the secret of paying freight is that the vehicle or ship should be full both ways. What an advantage it would be to London, and what a saving would result, if you could have fresh eggs gathered from five to seven in the morning and delivered to you at your door at eight or nine o'clock for breakfast! Nowadays only milk and cat's-meat are taken to your house, both moderately fresh, but the London egg is neither moderate in price nor is it generally new-laid. The cry of 'cat's m-e-e-a-a-at!' may bring but few householders of the better class to the door, but we may live to hear a long-drawn-out cry of 'e-g-g-s!' which will tempt every housekeeper with her pennies in her hand to get the early morning egg fresh for breakfast. There is also the fresh fruit and vegetables which in future days, perhaps, a fatherly or grandmotherly municipality will distribute in their cars to you.
The use of motors for market and farm work is yet in its infancy, but I can see no reason why the distribution of perishable goods from a moving centre should not be one of the improvements of coming years. Take, again, the instance of thousands of acres of land in this country which are from six to ten miles from a railway station, with perhaps a rail journey of another ten to the county or market town. By a little arrangement and organisation tenants farming this land could, three days a week, send their produce to market, and, moreover, if it is not sold at satisfactory prices, the articles could come back at no greater expense than that which it would cost to run the car, which in any case would have to return, and is not likely always to have a full load. The grip of the provincial salesman on the farmer lies in the fact that if the latter takes his produce to market he must sell it before the end of the day, for to bring it back by rail, and to have a cart to meet it at the other end, would be financially suicidal. The farmer, therefore, is always at a disadvantage, and the middleman takes a bigger proportion out of the agriculturist than perhaps in any other trade.
For estate work, where there is a staff of builders or carpenters, a motor-car will prove a great saving. When once the capital outlay is faced, scattered cottages and farmhouses can be more easily and economically examined and attended to, and perhaps repaired even in the hours between sunrise and sunset. If your carpenter or bricklayer has to walk five miles to his work, in the winter, he will certainly not begin much before nine o'clock, and he will walk back in your time and not in his. Small blame to the man for that. The absolutely efficient hours of labour are thus reduced by nearly thirty-three per cent, and the work will cost you correspondingly more. In the case of the breaking down of a bridge, or the falling in of a roof, or the choking of a drain, you can concentrate, by means of a motor that will carry ten to twelve persons in it, a large force and meet the emergency, and perhaps save the situation before any very great damage is done. I should recommend for estate work a good rough wagonette which can take materials as well as persons, with plenty of engine power, say, not less than twelve-horse, and a low gear which will make a load of bricks or half a dozen bags of cement a possible freight. And, above all, have electric ignition, and only use tube ignition, if you have it, in cases of emergency or breakdown in your electrical arrangements. Otherwise a flare-up and a charred car is a daily possibility.
It is necessary that an agent on a large estate should be as independent of time and distance as possible. Give him a light motor-car, and let him get one of his stable-boys or farmhands properly instructed in its care and use at one of the centres of the automobile industry. His work will be more efficient and his control of his staff more complete.
Although I may be accused of prejudice, I personally favour an English-built car for these purposes. The work in them is, I believe, better, the material is certainly stronger, and as strength and durability are more essential for practical work than paint and artistic lines, I should recommend my readers to go to the well-known English firms for their vehicles.
For golfing, yachting, and in fact for every pursuit where you have to go from home to begin your day's amusement, the saving of time will grow upon you, and give you more leisure moments and more hours of amusement. The War Office, who have of late become more practical in these matters, are genuinely taking efficient steps to perfect mechanical traction for the army. The one department—the Post Office—which has especially to cover long distances, and to whom the saving of time ought to be, but apparently is not, of the utmost importance, appears stolidly indifferent. Just as for years after the introduction of railways the Post Office fought shy of the use of them for mails, there are still provincial towns near London to which a seedy pair of horses and a broken-down-looking driver convey His Majesty's mail every day or night. We have no chance at present of seeing a saving of time in the matter of the rural postmen or the provincial mail-cart. Why should there not, for instance, be a late motor-mail service from London, leaving about two a.m. after all the main-line railway services have ceased, to convey letters, perhaps posted with a late-fee stamp, up to midnight for the country, and deliverable in towns within a hundred miles of London by the first post next morning? I am confident that were an experiment of this kind started the number of letters so posted would very soon make the demand for motor-cars a very large one on behalf of the Post Office, and the convenience to the public would be undoubted. From eight o'clock in the evening until eight o'clock the next morning you cannot telegraph to most country towns, and after eight o'clock, unless you send to the mail train at the terminus, correspondence by letter is impossible. There must be thousands of people every night in London, and in every provincial centre, who would gladly pay an extra penny, or even twopence, if they knew that by so doing a letter would be delivered next morning by the ordinary first post. A motor-car also enables one to send a written message to a telephone station night or day.
That the motor-car has come to stay is a commonplace, but few can foresee what a change it will make in our economic, political, and social life. I believe that the revolution worked by railways is a small thing compared with the revolution to be produced by the motor-car.