Britain at Work
A Pictorial Description of Our National Industries

BRITAIN AT WORK. 150 Body-shop is the Repairing Department. In days gone by an omnibus lasted twenty years ; now, at the end of fifteen, it is only fit for firewood. The change is due to the tendency to turn out showy, lightly built vehicles, which shall be as attractive as possible. The coachbuilders and the allied trades reap the benefit of this evolution in fashion in the form of increased demand for their labour. The painter especially plays an important part in the finishing of the modern street-car. His work may not always be artistic. But it means bread to scores of families—to thousands, when one comes to re- flect that the Paint-shop at Highbury is but a type of many hundreds in England alone. Painted on the corner of each omnibus are a couple of letters that are always a puzzle to the layman. Take the mystic symbols “ Q M.” These characters indic- ate that the car belongs to “ Q ” district—every company’s territory is cut up into districts— and “ M ” denotes its order of rotation with regard to all the other cars on the same o route. When a London street-car leaves the factory its first journey is to a police-station, where the christening ceremony is performed. No champagne flows over its timbers. In- stead, a constable screws on to its platform a number surmounted by the Royal arms. The Express omnibuses are a survival of the days when the poor man did little driving; and they are still chiefly availed of by well-to-do business men. They are drawn by three horses, after the manner of Mr. Shillibeer’s omnibuses of the early Victorian period, and carry thirty-eight passengers, which is twelve more than the usual comple- ment. They run only in the morning, the chief points of departure being Holloway, Tollington Park, Kilburn and St. John's ACKING FORAGF AT TILLING Wood. A new Express has not been built for a long time, and now that ordinary cars are so numerous the class seems doomed to extinction. The advertising business done by the Metropolitan Omnibus and Tramway Com- panies is worth considerably more than £ 100,000 a year. The annual income of the London General alone, from this source, reaches ,£40,000. If this branch of revenue were from any cause to be withdrawn from the poorer companies, the consequences to them would be simply disas- trous. It is rather a reversal of the natural order of things that places like Hull and Coventry should have excellent systems of electric trac- tion, while the Londoner must travel as far afield as Shepherd’s Bush to see an electric car. Com- parison in this respect with any of the great cities of Europe, or America, is entirely un- favourable to London. The New York electric tramways are the most pretentious in the world. Money has been poured out on them with a prodigal hand. And as much more would be promptly expended if only Science yielded up some new and potent secret which the engineers could utilise to better purpose than electricity. The electrical “ conduit ” principle is that upon which the leading New York lines are constructed. The advantage of this method is that the appearance of the streets is not impaired, as the electric current is conducted through an underground wire. Blackpool was the first town in the United Kingdom to avail itself of the “ conduit ” plan. Occasionally, however, the washing over of the tide overlays that portion of the line on the sea-front with sand, causing some incon- venience ; but otherwise the enterprise has been rewarded with success. Perhips the