Page:Motors and motor-driving (1902).djvu/434

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
388
MOTORS AND MOTOR-DRIVING

same way as the County Councillors, and were also invited to a demonstration in London on February 26th, which was well attended. Following a drive to Sheen House and back a conference with the Chief Constables was held at the Automobile Club premises, when the visitors were afforded every opportunity of stating their views. A demonstration was also given at Leicester on June 29th, before a large body of municipal and county engineers assembled for their annual conference. A noteworthy achievement of the year was the raising of the speed limit in Scotland from ten to twelve miles an hour, the Secretary of State assenting to that alteration upon representations from the Club. In May the Motor Union was formed in connection with the Club, as a defensive association for the protection of the civil rights of members. A special Legislation committee was also appointed in August, with two of his Majesty's judges among its members, to consider the provisions of a new Bill for the regulation of motor vehicles. The Club held three quarterly hundred miles trials, two consumption trials, two hill-climbing trials, and a week of test trials at Glasgow. Several tours and runs also took place, the anniversary run to Southsea on November 16th being an enormous undertaking, considerably over a hundred cars making the journey, notwithstanding a dense fog at the start. The year closed with a total membership of 1,154.

Very early in 1902 the Club's activities were displayed in the shape of an important trial of brake-power in Welbeck Park, in the presence of the chief engineering inspector of the Local Government Board. The results were dramatically effective, even very heavy cars being stopped inside two lengths at a speed of eighteen miles an hour. At the annual meeting of the Club on February 27, it was shown that the finances were in a satisfactory condition, notwithstanding the heavy expenditure on the County Council campaign. By a decision to migrate to new and much larger premises at 119 Piccadilly, the Club entered upon a new chapter of its history.