The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-21
LONDON MOTORMEN
CAREFULLY TRAINED
Required To Pass a Rigid
Examination
INSTRUCTION SCHOOL
Use Skeleton Car Three Months There
Before Man Is Allowed to Take
Charge of a Real Car.
Eyes Are Tested
By CHARLES H. MANDY

BY CHARLES H. MANDY
There is considerable talk of reso-
Tuition being presented to the board of
city commissioners asking them to pass
an ordinance requiring the motornien
who operate cars on the streets of the
city to pass an examination as to physi-
cal qualifications and ability to handle
a street car. The examination would in
clude test of eyesight, an emergency
test and knowledge of first aid to the
injured
Every locomotive engineer is required
to pass such an examination as is every
steamboat engineer on chartered
streams, yet neither of them has the
number of passengers daily as does the
street car motorman. The street car
companies do train the men to run the
cars and are always striving for eff
ficiency. There are many thoroughly
competent motermen running the cars
through the city but 1t is thought
higher degree of efficiency could be
obtained by strict examination of all
men who are entrusted with running a
car
Training In London
The following from Tit-Bits, the we'll
known English publication. shows the
careful methods of training motormen
In that busy metropolis:
"'What did you say, misterg said the
driver of an L. C. C. electric tramcar to
our reporter. "A fairly simple job, this?
Yes, 1 don't think! Do you know that
the London county council have a school
at Clapham especially for training cleo
trio car drivers, and that 1t takes three
months thorough training before man
is considered capable of driving a car
through the streets?
Our representative replied that he
had heard something of the kind, and
gently suggested that the gentleman
should tell him what the training con-
sisted Of
The Eyesight Test
well, the first thing every candf
date undergoes is a thorough testing of
the eyes. There are three tests that are
there is a color test, and you have to
read printed letters at distance; then
there is a couor test, and you have to
be pretty smart at it, too; and finally
there is the flash test. What's that?
Well, I'm not a scientist chap, but it
seemed to me that it was deliberate
! attempt to blind one The chap who
tries your eyes suddenly flashes a very
bright electric spark few inches away
| from your face, and a second or two
| later asks you to read some more print
ling. If yourrsigh t. is.snot, clear after
! three seconds--well, you don't enter the
L. C. c. training school.
"I haven't got time now to tell you
all about the training that we have to
undergo, but 1 think I've got time just
to give you the outline of 1T. In the
school there Is skeleton car, which
shows the driver the exact effect of
every action he does, and the instructor
shows one all the possible faults that
may arise in the machinery and how
they may be repaired. If you think this
job is easy, you just go and listen to one
of those instructors for an hour. shall
be surprised If you don't come back
with fearful headachei
A Difficult Dead Section
After about four or five weeks of
this instruction on the skeleton car in
the school. you are taken for your first
driving lesson in the street. An inspec-
tor is on the front with you, and the
nervousness. L suppose every new man
is bundle of nerves the first time he
drives car through the streets, what
with the traffic and-the inspector!
Anyhow, 1t has got to be done, and If
the pupil is to nervous to drive at a
good average speed the second time he
goes out he is disqualified and has to
leave the school.
Even II you pass this test, however,
you are not out of the wood; in fact,
you have got one of the most difficult
tasks of all still to undergo-that Is,
dead section running, where the current
is cut off. The most difficult dead Sec
tion in all London is the Elephant and
Castle. and the pupil has to drive over
this a dozen times. If he should fail
three times to negotiate it proprely he
is disqualified. 1t takes another months
instruction, too, as rule, before one
Is able to accurately judge distance and
speed.
"'And do you know what the maxi
mum pay of a driver is, after all this
skilled training? Thirty eight bob a
weekw'
Thirty eight bob Is the equivalent of
| alb out SO in American money.