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Passing Comments

22nd June 1945, Page 14
22nd June 1945
Page 14
Page 15
Page 14, 22nd June 1945 — Passing Comments
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ANelectrical insulator, known as Sintox, whioh is the product of a secret process, has been used fop the sparking plugs of Allied aircraft throughout the war. Research on this material was begun over 10 years ago by the late Mr. Alec Lodge, son. of 'Sir Oliver Lodge, in conjunction with Mr. Bernard Hopps. Its development was continued by the latter and the staff of the Lodge Plug Research Laboratories, final tests being completed in l930. High-quality: carefully selected mica had produced plugs which gave most satisfactory. service, but improvements in engine. design, coupled with the introduction of leaded fuels, rendered it imperative to discover an improved insulating material. some were tried, but showed inferior mechanical properties, certain being liable to fractore. Sintox, however, met all the requirements. It consists substantially of pure aluminium oxide, with a minimum amount of .silica and fractional percentages of certain refractory oxides to proinote crystallization and improve 1he mechanical properties. Its

412 New Material Improves Sparking-plug Effici ency tensile and compression ,strengths are twice those of the best electrical porcelain, and its rupture strength three times higher. Another valuable property is its thermal conductivity, which is 20 times that of the porcelain; its electrical resistance, when hot, is claimed to be 1,000,000 times greater. In future all Lodge plugs will have insulators of this material, which is readily distinguishable by its pink colouring.

A CERTAIN southern townI'M is cursed with a railway level crossing. This has been especially unpopular of late' because track repairs have necessitated the complete closing of a main thoroughfare for nearly a week, whilst for (raver a fortnight there was only single-line traffic at the site of the work. We are informed that no notice was put up at one end of the road affected, and only an inconspicuous one at the other, thereby causing much inconvenience to through traffic. The bus routes were, of course, diverted, but 'other road users could not have been expected to know this.

Level Crossing Causes Trouble to Road

Users

Henley's Tyre !rivennNE of the most important tion Saved Huge ‘-"examples of war work

Shipping Losses, . carried out by Henley's Tyre

and Rubber Co., Ltd., was the production of Buoyant Cable.. This, as its, name implies, had to flbat on water. It was employed on special mine-sweeping, to deal with the magnetic type, and wasP a clever method of introducing a powerful magnetic field into the radius of sensitivity of the mine. 'Whilst being flexible, it had to contain a fairly large cross-sectional area of copper to carry current obtained from the operating vessel. On Christmas Day, 1939, Dr. Percy Dansheath, 0,B.E., a director of the company, conceived the idea of making cylindrical tennis." balls " and using these as the basis of the buoyant core. The machinery for mak

ing ordinary tennis balls was readily adapted to produce over 22,000,000 of these cylindrical elements. Many hundreds of complete sets, involving over 1,000,000 yds. of cable, were constructed, and the efficiency of the device did much to help in conquering this deadly peril to our shipping.

Plastic Used for nNE of the problems in the Casings of Portable '"'-'manufacture of portable

Drills drills is that of reducing their weight so that they do not tire the operator so rapidly. Recently plastic casings have been substituted for those of aluminium, a reduction of 20 per cent, in weight being claimed as a' result of the change.


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