Farewell

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Last year one of the magazines I enjoyed so much before the war, C. G. Grey’s inimitable weekly The Aeroplane, became the eventual victim of take-over deals and quickly faded out. Now The Automobile Engineer has gone, its title above remaining, incorporated with that oi IPC’s Engineering Materials & Design. The erudite •companion to The Autocar first appeared around 1910. I remember nearly going insane at the age of 14 (going?) when trying to understand one of the articles in a 1927 issue, about the virtues of turbulence versus squig and flame-front propagation in the cylinder heads of internal-combustion engines, debated by Whatnough, Ricardo and other eminent authorities; I cannot recall whether Weslake joined in at that date. Later I used to accumulate pocket-money to spend on those exciting Extra Motor Show issues, with their clear photographs of different engine and chassis components and, for those days, quite critical treatment of those designs and details which the journal considered ineffective. In those days The Automobile Engineer was edited by W. L. Fisher and was notable for very detailed illustrated descriptions of all kinds of chassis, apart from the learned coverage of production techniques and design matters. Later, like The Aeroplane after C. G. Grey abandoned it, the style deteriorated, but, it’s a pity that this famous journal has succumbed. — W. B.