S.I. No. 48/1926 - The Road Vehicles (Calculation of Horse Power) Regulations, 1926.

STATUTORY RULES AND ORDERS. 1926. No. 48.

THE ROAD VEHICLES (CALCULATION OF HORSE POWER) REGULATIONS, 1926.

DEPARTMENT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC HEALTH.

THE FINANCE ACTS, 1920 and 1926.

No. R.C. /201/3/1926.

WHEREAS by sub-section (3) of section 13 of the Finance Act, 1920, as adapted by the Adaptation of Enactments Act, 1922 , and the Ministers and Secretaries Act, 1924 , and as applied by sub-section (3) of section 20 of the Finance Act, 1926 , it is provided that the unit of horse-power for the purpose of any rate of duty on mechanically propelled vehicles under the Third Schedule to the Finance Act, 1926 , shall be calculated in accordance with regulations made by the Minister for Local Government and Public Health for the purpose.

NOW THEREFORE I, the Minister for Local Government and Public Health in exercise of the powers vested in me as aforesaid do hereby make the following regulations:—

1. These Regulations may be cited as the Road Vehicles (Calculation of Horse-power) Regulations, 1926, and shall come into operation on the First day of January, 1927.

2. From and after the date on which these regulations shall come into operation article 39 of the Road Vehicles (Registration and Licensing) Regulations, 1921, as amended by the Road Vehicles (Calculation of Horse-power) Regulations, 1922, shall cease to have effect.

3. (1) For the purposes of the Finance Act, 1926 , the horse-power of any mechanically propelled vehicle deriving its motive power wholly from an internal combustion engine worked by a cylinder or cylinders shall be taken to be:

(a) In the case of a single-cylinder engine, the horse-power attributable to the cylinder of the engine.

(b) In the case of an engine having two or more cylinders, the sum of the horse-powers attributable to the separate cylinders.

(2) The horse-power attributable to any cylinder of an internal combustion engine shall be deemed to be equal to the square of the internal diameter of such cylinder measured in inches divided by a numeral:

(a) In the case of a cylinder having a single piston, the numeral used as divisor shall be 2.5.

(b) In the case of a cylinder having two pistons, the numeral used as divisor shall be 1.6.

(3) The horse-power of any mechanically propelled vehicle deriving its power wholly from a steam engine shall be taken to be proportional to the effective heating surface of the boiler supplying steam to such engine, at the rate of 1 horse-power for every 3 square feet in such effective heating surface, and the effective heating surface shall be taken to be:

(a) In the case of a boiler having horizontal or approximately horizontal tubes, the whole of that surface of the tubes which is exposed to the flame or hot gases.

(b) In the case of a boiler having vertical or approximately vertical tubes, half of that surface of the tubes which is exposed to the flame or hot gases.

(4) Any mechanically propelled vehicle deriving its motive power from an electric motor or motors shall be deemed to be of 8 horse-power.

(5) In measuring cylinders and boilers, and in calculating horse-power, fractions of inches and feet and fractions of a unit of horse-power are to be taken into account. Provided that in the final calculation of horse-power a resultant fraction of less than .1 of a unit of horse-power shall be omitted.

(6) Where it appears that, in consequence of the exceptional design or construction of the engine of any mechanically propelled vehicle, the horse-power as calculated under those Regulations is substantially less than the average power which the engine would develop in continuous use on the road if there were no restrictions on speed other than these imposed by the vehicle itself, then such average power shall be taken as the power of the vehicle.

Given under My Seal of Office, this sixteenth day of

August, in the Year of Our Lord, One Thousand

Nine Hundred and Twenty-six.

(Signed), SEAMUS DE BÚRCA.

Minister of Local Government and

Public Health.