Lampa Alight.
Page 21
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Light your lamps at 4.47 in London, 4.37 in Edinburgh, 4.36 in Newcastle, 4.50 in Liverpool, 4.50 in Birmingham, and 4.57 in Bristol.
A Home-made Scotch for a Heavy Vehicle.
The sender of the following communication liar beaut awarded the 10s, prize this week.
111702j " F.H." (Cleckheaton) writes :—" I am sending with this letter the sketch of a trailing scotch [We have had this redrawn.—En.] which can be fitted to almost any type of steam wagon. The scotch is made of ash or similar wood.
" When on the ground and in position, it is suitably shaped at the front so as to meet the surface of the
wheel tire. A squared shaft is passed through its centre, to the ends of which are fitted bars, to which are attached chains. These chains are attached at their other ends to hooks on the bodywork, one on each side of the wheel. By makiirg•the shaft square, the difficulty of the block overturning when in use is obviated. A flexible wire cable is fastened to the iteaa of the scotch and passed over suitable guide pulleys, after which it arrives at a large pulley at the front end of the wagon. A ratchet wheel is provided to take the lever and a, suitable pawl, so arranged that movement of the hand lever lifts the scotch. On good roads two or three strokes of this lever would lift the scotch from the ground. Releasing the pawl would allow the weight of the scotch to unwind the cable so that it would fall into position behind the wheel."
One or Two Useful Tips.
[1703] " H.A." (LandonVivrites :--" I recently had to fit a stud to an aluminium gearbox casting. The stud was screwed the British standard fine thread, which is specified by the War Office for all subsidy machines. The gearbox was drilled for the reception. 'of the stud, but not tapped, and, unfortunately, on inquiry, I discovered that we did not possess any but Whitworth-thread taps. For the moment I was nonplussed, but eventually surmounted the difficulty in the following manner. " I procured a bolt of the same size as the stud and cut flutes along its thread, backing them off so that it resembled a tap. I then hardened it. With this simply-made tool I was able not only to tap out the hole for the stud, but used it for some time, and am still using it, to ease the threads on nuts of that size, "Standardization is a great help in many ways ; for example, take the radiators fitted on the subvention types: the inlet and outlet flanges are all of the same size and standard on all these chassis. Moreover, notwithstanding' radiatorguards, occwional damage is received by this component of the chassis, and consequently in the workshop we frequently have to test radiators for leakage, either to ascertain where this is taking place after some accident, or to discover whether a recent repair is complete. I have, therefore, had a. few blank flanges made which can be used. for stopping up the inlet and outlet flanges when it is desired to make a test."
Repairs to Water Pump on a Mann Steamer.
[1704] "E.J.H." (Chepitow) writes :—" I recently had the misfortune to break the delivery branch of the water pump on my Mann steam wagon. The fracture was a clean one, and occurred just on the valve side of the union.
To repair it, I procured a clip to go round the suction branch of the valve. A steel plate was fitted over the pipe, so that it a bore on the nut the union, and two bolts were cut, of the right length to connect the clip and the plate. With the addition of a little jointing material applied to the fractured surface, I was .able satisfactorily to repair the valve in this manner.