50 Years' Experience Behind Eagle Equipment
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NOT the least interesting side of our industry lies in the wide diversity of types of vehicle employed in it. The war. period proved that the motor industry, with its kindred ramifications, was able to meet every demand made upon it, no matter how fantastic.
Whilst a large number of manufacturers was called upon to produce goods other than those they normally turned out, many were directed to concentrate on the making of equipment in which they had specialized and for which they were appropriately tooled up.
One was the Eagle Engineering Co., Ltd., Eagle Works, Warwick, the -wellknown maker of trailers, semi-trailers, and specialized types of body for municipal purposes. Between 1939 and 1945 no fewer than 27,500 trailers and semitrailers were made for the various Services in this company's works.
To-day the concern is sending something like 60 per cent, of its output overseas, but, at the same time, it is hoping to meet the demands of the home market, which, as we all know, are almost insatiable.
In the matter of trailers, types are made to meet every conceivable need, from a modest 2-tonner of standard design, to 50-ton special purpose machines. A feature of the Eagle 12ton eight-wheeler is the oscillating axles. With four wheels in line, each pair of wheels is mounted on a short axle, which is fixed so that it can oscillate.
There being two such axles, independently mounted, each pair can rise and fall, or each wheel of each axle can follow the road surface without communicating complex stresses or vibration to the trailer body. Withdrawal rear axles are used on Eagle low loading trailers, such as are employed for carrying excavators, or other heavy machinery.
By withdrawing the axle, the platform can be lowered practically to ground level, and, by using ramps, the heaviest types of load can be transferred to the platform with a minimum of inconvenience.
Both hydraulic and hand-operated tipping trailers figure in the list of trailer types available. One is a 10-12-ton three-way tipper having band-operated hydraulic gear. The Eagle Eng;neering Co., Ltd., has, for many years, specialized in the production of special-purpose bodies for refuse collection, in which figures the Eagle moving floor. In one particular example, the sides and roof of the body are extended at the rear to form windshields, so that, when the refuse is being dumped into the body, cross-winds cannot blow it into the streets.
The great aim, in all cases, is to provide hygienic equipment, whether the appliances be for refuse collection, gully and cesspool emptying, or night soil collection, and the close collaboration of the company with sanitary authorities all over the country is reflected in the concern's present-day designs.
An interesting side-light on the subject of cesspool emptiers is that a horsedrawn type, produced about 50 years ago by this concern, operated on the
DURING the war, the automobile works in Czechoslovakia became mere auxiliary enterprises in the framework of industry in a Nazi-controlled Europe. The production of cars was stopped and development work prohibited.
The Germans, however, did not succeed in preventing Czech technicians from working on new designs in secret, and, in some cases, prototypes were actually produced. Discovery, of course, meant the concentration camp and perhaps immediate death. New designs were actually tried out before vacuum principle, the necessary vacuum being created while the appliance was being drawn to the cesspool. The exhauster was chain-driven from one of the road wheels.
Semi-trailers and tower wagons form a big proportion of the company's present-dad production. As with the four-wheeled trailers, there are many types of semi-trailer—in fact, it may be said that any requirement in this connection can be met.
Although the company makes a standard type of tower wagon, special the eyes of the German supervisory staffs!
The result was that, immediately after the war, When the main industries were taken over by the State, vehicle makers had several types of machine
demands can be met in this direction, as with other types of equipment. The tower is raised and lowered by screw gear driven off the gearbox; by eliminating cables, troubles due to stretch are removed.
The foregoing is intended to give just a brief insight into the types of equipment for which the Eagle Engineering Co., Ltd., is responsible, but it should he sufficient to show that there are few requirements in respect of the particular spheres of activity mentioned, which cannot be satisfied.
which represented a substantial advance on pre-war models.
Production to-day is confined to four types of commercial vehicle, the respective carrying capacities being 4, 3, 6 and 9 tons.
The li-tonner is a Skoda, having a four-cylindered overhead-valve engine developing 52 b.h.p. A four-cylindered oil engine is fitted in the 3-tonner, which is of Praga make. The capacity of the engine is 4.5 litres, and it develops 60 b.h.p. at 2,000 r.p.m.
A six-cylinderecl oil -engine powers the Skoda 6-7-tonner, the unit being of 11.8 litres capacity. It develops 145 b.h.p. as a maximum. The largest of the four—the 8-10-tonner—is known as Model 111. This vehicle has a 12-cylindered air-cooled oil engine of 14.8 litres capacity, developing 210 b.h.p. The machine is a six-wheeler, and the drive is taken to all three axles.
The centres of commercial-vehicle production are mainly at the former Avia works, near Prague, the Praga works in Prague, and Tatra in the province of Mcravia.