156 The Right Hon. Lord Montagu of BeauUeu [April 3, 



Again, our system of road-making- and the details of road ex- 

 penditure have, during the last few years, been brought greatly into 

 prominence, mainly owing to the increasing use of motor cars, while 

 hotels, the value of land and houses, the dress of ladies and gentle- 

 men, the creation of a new class of skilled drivers, the conditfons of 

 insurance against accident, the earnings of railway companies, and 

 incidentally the speeches of railway chairmen at half-yearly meetings, 

 and the attention and advice of physicians have all in their turn been 

 affected by the coming of this new means of locomotion. Nor is it 

 to be wondered at that it is so, for since the earliest dawn of civihsa- 

 tion, animals have been the only means by which mankind could 

 progress on land faster than by the use of their own legs. It is 

 difficult, moreover, to foresee the magnitude of the changes which the 

 motor car will eventually bring about in social and political con- 

 ditions. But it is quite safe to assume that cheaper, quicker, and 

 more comfortable locomotion on roads will tend to decentralise towns, 

 to repopulate the country, and to introduce the British public to a 

 knowledge of their own country. These processes are already 

 beginning. 



As figures are somewhat dull and uninstructive when read out by 

 a lecturer, I have prepared some slides which will illustrate to the 

 eye of the spectator the progress which automobilism has made 

 during the last ten years. 



Increase of ]Motor Cars and Motor Cycles, 

 (3 yearly periods.) 



1897. 1900. 1903. 1906. 



650. ... 9,500. ... 48,000. ... 125,000. 



Estimated Amount of Capital invested in the Motor 



Industry £12,000,000. 



Estimated Number of Persons Employed in the 



Motor Industry 300,000. 



Estimated Number of Miles run in a year 3,150,000,000. 



Estimated Value of Motor Cars and Cycles used in 



Great Britain to-day £29,320,000. 



As regards the mechanical side of motoring, it is interesting to 

 record that the need for specially hardened steels capable of bearing 

 great stresses, has induced British steel manufacturers to make 

 experiments, which have mainly been successful in the direction of 

 producing such materials. In the early days of motoring, gears 

 required to be renewed constantly owing to the case hardening on 

 the steel teeth wearing off and exposing the softer metal below. 

 Nowadays all speed rings, and many other wearing parts are made 

 of the hardest possible material, and there are cases in which even 

 after the heavy strains caused by motor-bus work, these gear wheels 

 have shown practically no wear after running thousands of miles. 



