TREND OF DESIGN

Evening Post, Volume CXIX, Issue 98, 27 April 1935, Page 28

TREND OF DESIGN

AIMS MOST DESIRABLE

MR. L. H. POMEROY'S VIEWS

Interesting observations on the progress of the motor vehicle and the trend of future design with the view of reducing traffic congestion and increasing public safety were made by the president of the Institution o£ Automobile Engineers, London, in his presidential address at the Royal Society of Arts. The address created unusual interest in the motor trade of Great Britain, particularly because of the fact that the president (Mr. L. H. Pomeroy) frankly advocated the development of. design to the ends of high acceleration and reasonably high speed, and urged that this was not only compatible with, but essential to, the safety of the motorist and the public. "The keynote of the address," says "Motor Transport," "was the need for well-directed progress, and Mr. Pomeroy indicated the directions in which the chief opportunities for advancement lay. The basis of success, he said, had been design and manufacture, not the cash register. It seemed that the stage was being set for a very radical redesign^ the automobile, in which an attempt, would be made to secure the ends now attained by other means. It was therefore important from time to time to examine the considerations in automobile design which were related to future progress and plan accordingly. These, it seemed to him, • resolved themselves into the possibilities of dealing with road congestion, public safety, silence, and increased standards of comfort. "After emphasising the importance of quick acceleration in relieving congestion, he said it was highly necessary to develop braking systems which required no greater pedal effort or trouble than that of the average accelerator" pedal, and which would still be immune from the consequences of panic braking. "Commenting on the subjects of silence and comfort, he said it was reasonable to assume that suppression of noise would increase the probability of accidents, but on balance it was probably desirable that the careful should live in peace rather than that the careless should continue to live by increasing-the modern inferno. In his view the problems of noise were primarily related to. those of rigidity. Each time we made a part more rigid so did we raise the speed at which it could become resonant. The most important steps in producing over-all silence had undoubtedly been those of the introduction of the , counterbalanced crankshaft and the flexible mounting of engines. The situation in respect of transmission noise was not quite so good, and the rest of the chassis has not kept pace with the engine and transmission. The outstanding nuisances, however, related to air noises round the body and.to tire noises. "As-to. the commercial aspect, Mr. Pomeroy said that motor manufacturers would do no harm by bearing in mind that, while human opportunity and prosperity were a function of the opportunity to work, it was their bounden duty to make all their products obsolete as quickly as possible. The present state of affairs with large unemployment and a low standard of living to those employed was an economic absurdity arising from the fear that ever haunts and shadows enterprise and throttles achievement. There was, he thought, a definite lack of drawing-board research, and the principle of thinking about it first and doing it after. He believed that the fundamental training of character of the British engineer gave him that ounce of instinct which was worth a ton of experiment." A new system of hydraulic transmission has been developed in Germany- in; which the required gears are selected automatically, the driver depressing the accelerator pedal only On the subject of extending silence zones over the whole 24 hours, the British Minister of Transport, Mr. Hore-Belisha, was asked whether he had consulted any motoring organisation. "It is not my practice to consult motoring organisations before answering questions in the House of Commons," was Mr. Hore-Belisha's reply. Pressed as to whether he did not ask any motoring organisation or the Traffic Advisory Committee to advise him on the point, the Minister said he failed, to see why he should consult anybody before saying he would favourably consider it. If silence zones were decided upon no warning signs would be displayed.