A £40.000 MERRY-GO-ROUND.
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The Part Played by Road Locomotives in Erecting, Dismantling, and Transporting the Expensive Equipment of a Modern Showman.
WITH August upon Us, the thoughts of many of the inhabitants of rural areas will be turned towards the pleasure fairs and regattas, held upon. the village green, which this month brings in its train. Many of the older inhabitants who have witnessed the passing of these annual fairs from their earliest youth can appreciate the remarkable changes which have been made in the methods of dealing with the diversified impedimenta which forms part of the equipment of the modern showman or like entertainer. Few,however, we should imagine, have any idea of the cost of the modern "merry-go-round."
Forty thousand pounds ! That sum fairly represents the capital involved in Messrs. Anderton and Rowland's latest " Golden Dragons" roundabout, which made its first appearance at Newton Abbot in August, 1921. Built by Messrs. Orton, Sons and Spooner, at Burton-onTrent, it left their works at 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 23rd, and arrived. at Newton Abbot at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, July 27th, the journey of 240 miles being undertaken by three Burrell tractors hauling seven loads.
There is no centre steam engine in this up-to-date novelty, power being generated by a 30.-kilowatt dynamo. Cables are buried deep in the earth, and run to the centre of the roundabout. On one side is a magnificent French organ, and on the other side a beautifully illuminated running waterfall. At the righthand side of this is the control box, and all controls, both for power and light, are worked from this box. The cars travel over a live centre rail. There are eight cars, each holding fifteen passengers, and a separate electric motor is fitted under each car. The controls are very ingenious, and there is a special device for controlling speeds. The whole machine, which is illustrated on nage 746, is 60 It in diameter, Some idea of the extent of the decorative effects cart be gathered from the fact that three artists were continuously engaged on the decorations for three rponths, and the excellence of this work will be understood from the fact that one of these artists was an .B.A. exhibitor. There are 300 car figures, 24 arc lamps, and". 400 small incandescent. electric lights used in the construction of the plant. The largest road locomotive built by Charles Burrell and Sons, Ltd., of Thetford (the " Earl Beatty ") is a 60 b.h.p. engine with compound cylinders. It has road wheels of 6 ft. 6 ins. diameter, 22 ins. wide, and is fitted with two dynamos made by Davenport, Hackett and Co., of Manchester. These dynamos supply the electric power for the lights and organ, and drive the scenic cars round.
The tractor is fitted with a jib crane
at the rear for kfting the cats from and to the scenic machine. The weight of each car is about three tons, and this crane enables the cars to be removed-front track to trolley with the utmost ease. Messrs. Anderton and Rowland (purchased their ninth Burrell road locomotive some time ago. One has to see these locomotives hauling huge loads up some of the worst Devonshire hills to realize the pitch of perfection to which these engines have been brought. Whether it is in the haulage of such loads, or whether it is in their dual capacity:, of creating light and power for their attendant pleasure-giving equipment, they can always be depended upon. Mr. Davey, manager to Messrs. Anderton and .Rowland, speaks in glowing terms of the work of ,these machines, To watch the huge roundabout being dismantled and to see the tractors manipuhting their loads in a very confined space, unloading and loading the passen-, ger cars; to see them at night creating the current., or in the early hours of the morning dismantling and getting on the way again; to witness these things is to bring home to us how remarkably well Messrs. Burrell have built tractors. Mr. Davey can remember the time when the naphtha lamp was the illuminant of the fair ground; when horse-power was the only power, and nowhere more than in showland has motor and steam haulage
wrought greater changes.