Page:EB1911 - Volume 18.djvu/952

Rh done in the motor trade being £6,327,000 inclusive of repair work and the production of parts and accessories.

The number of cars and chassis imported into and retained in the country (those imported and afterwards re-exported being excluded from the statistics) in 1909 was 7747 as compared with 6530 in 1908. The absence of a classification, in 1907 and previous years, for chassis prevents further comparison in the matter of numbers, but taking the value of the motor-cars, parts and accessories imported into and retained in the United Kingdom, there is a total of £4,170,121 in 1907, £3,753,140 in 1908, and £3,922,781 in 1909; the average value per car falling from £432 in 1907 to £333 in 1909. The value of the motor cycles and their parts imported into and retained in the country was £71,101 in 1907, £52,206 in 1908, and £48,327 in 1909.

The number of British made cars and chassis exported in 1909 was 2802 as compared with 2441 in 1908, and of British made motor cycles 1893 in 1909 as compared with 1048 in 1908 and 800 in 1907; the total value of the exports of cars, parts, chassis and motor cycles in 1909 being £1,669,361 as compared with £1,315,913 in 1908 and £1,378,180 in 1907.

With the growth of the motor-car movement there have, naturally, been great developments in the outside industries catering for the motorist. Most affected by that movement has been the oil trade, considerable changes having taken place. In the distillation of crude petroleum for the production of lamp oils, &c., quantities of volatile spirit were obtained, the outlet for which, formerly, was small, as the spirit was mainly used for cleaning purposes. With the introduction of the petrol motor this spirit came into demand, and, as the demand increased, the situation changed and the crude petroleum had to be distilled mainly for spirit, thus leaving a surplus of the heavier oils. The situation was largely met by a gradual conversion of the petrol-consumers from spirit of ·680 specific gravity to a spirit of ·715 specific gravity, whilst for commercial motors even heavier grades were employed. The quantity of ·715 spirit obtainable from a given quantity of crude oil is considerably greater than the quantity of ·680 that could be produced, so that a better balance between the demand for motor spirit and that for lamp oil has been effected. The total quantity of motor spirit used in the United Kingdom in 1909 was 60,000,000 gallons, of which about one-half came from the Dutch East Indies, whilst a third came from America. Rumania supplied about 6,000,000 gallons and Russia about 3,000,000 gallons. Large quantities of lubricating oil were obtained from America, whilst the remainder (about one-tenth of the total) came from Russia.

France is the centre of the motor-car industry in Europe, and up to the year 1906 it undoubtedly led in the production of motor vehicles, but in that year the United States of America, as we shall have occasion to note, took the lead. The number of private cars in use in France had risen from 1438 in 1899 to about 23,000 in the year 1909, whilst industrial vehicles have increased even more rapidly in number. The following figures are obtained from the taxation schedules:—

The figures for the year, in the absence of the official return, are estimated.

The average h.p. per car (pleasure vehicles) has steadily risen from 5·06 in 1901 to 13·28 in 1908, the number of cars seating more than two persons having increased in greater proportion than those seating one or two persons.

The export of French motor vehicles had risen in value from 4,259,000 francs in 1899 to 144,352,000 francs in 1907. In 1908 the exports fell to 127,300,000 francs, and in 1909 an improvement to about 145,594,000 francs had taken place. The imports of foreign motor vehicles to France rose from 473,000 francs in 1899 to 8,676,000 francs in 1907, and since that period there has been an annual decrease.

In Germany the number of motor vehicles of all kinds in use on the first of January in each year is shown in the following table:— In 1910 45% of the total consisted of motor cycles, 49·3% consisted of pleasure vehicles and 5·7% consisted of commercial vehicles, the proportion of pleasure Vehicles having consistently risen in the four years.

The development of motoring and of the motor industry in the United States has been exceedingly rapid. As good roads multiply and extend the use of cars must be still further developed. The American farmer has discovered that he can make considerable use of the motor-car in connexion with his industry, and this fact largely accounts for the demand for high-wheeled buggies, and for vehicles having ample clearance between the machinery and the road level.

In the early days of the movement the American taste inclined towards steam cars, and the mistaken view that the vehicle driven by an internal-combustion engine could never be made to run as silently as a steam car was generally held. But in Europe the petrol engine became refined so rapidly that its equality with the steam engine in the matter of silence, together with its superiority in the matter of simplicity and suitability for the man who is not an engineer, soon created for it a popularity that prevented any material expansion of the business in steam cars. The makers of steam cars in America are able to cope with the major portion of the world’s demand for this particular type of vehicle.

The introduction of the Dingley tariff, assessing an import duty of 45% ad valorem on motor-cars (in the classification of “manufactured metal”), added to a further charge of about 5% for freight, encouraged American capitalists to embark upon the manufacture of motor-cars, and in 1899 thirty manufacturers produced 600 cars. In 1909 the number produced by 200 concerns was 114,891. Set out in tabular form such figures as are obtainable are very striking:—

The number of cars for 1906 is approximated and the number of cars and their value for the year 1910 are based upon the estimated output of the various manufacturers. In 1908, whilst the number of cars constructed showed an increase over the number for 1907, the total value had decreased owing to the commercial crisis of that year. In 1909 those manufacturers who had formed the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers, and who agreed to recognize the validity of the Selden patents, paid licence fees upon 94,891 cars, the remaining 20,000 cars being estimated as the output of the concerns that did not belong to the association.

Of the 200,000 motor vehicles estimated to be constructed in 1910, 165,000 were to be petrol-driven pleasure cars, 30,000 were to be petrol-driven high-wheeled buggies, and 5000 steam and electric carriages and commercial vehicles.

The history of the Selden patent may be given briefly A patent was applied for on the 8th of May 1879 by George B. Selden, of Rochester, New York, for a gas compression engine for propelling road vehicles. A patent was granted to him on the 5th of November 1895 for an improvement in road engines, and he claimed that any vehicle propelled by an internal-combustion engine, manufactured since that time, was an infringement of his rights under the patent. At the commencement of the year 1910, 71 manufacturers admitted this claim and paid to the Association of Licensed Automobile Manufacturers 1% of the catalogue price of their products as licence fees.

The imports of motor vehicles into the United States of America are not numerous, as will be seen from the following figures:— The exports rose from $599,927 in value in the year 1902 to $5,502,241 in 1907 with a falling off to $5,277,847 in 1908.

.—Baader, Die Unmöglichkeit Dampfwägen auf gewöhnlichen Strassen mit Vortheil einzuführen (Nuremberg, 1835); Badminton Library, Motors and Motor Driving (London, 1902); Beaumont, Motor Vehicles and Motors (London, 1900), and “Mechanical Road Carriages” (Cantor Lectures, London, 1895); Brander, L’automobile de 1822 à 1835 (Brussels, 1898); Farman, Les Automobiles (Paris, 1896), and Autocars, Cars, &c. (London, 1896); Fletcher, Steam Locomotion on Common Roads (London, 1891);