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TRANSPORT FOR ROAD AND PUBLIC WORKS.

An Important Congress and Exhibition Which Has Gained the Support of the Local Authorities.

rri HE fourth Public Works, Road and Transport _L Congress and Exhibition, held last week at the Agricultural Hall, showed considerable developments over the first which was held in Westminster six years ago. No fewer than 2,000 delegates were present and took part in the various conferences that were held, and they enthusiastically inspected the great variety of exhibits which was staged in the Agricultural Hall, Islington. Delegates came from the municipal offices of the country, from overseas and, in particular, in great strength from countries in Western Europe, and there was every evidence that the appreciation of the Exhibition and Congress which is being expressed by the local authorities was equally felt by the visitors from overseas.

The Congress dealt with every subject that could be comprised within the term "public works," including advances in agriculture, roads and road construction and maintenance, public lighting, the prevention of river pollution, gas and electricity, water and other public services, and last, but not least, with transport.

The country is spending. on roads at the present time about 145,000,000 annually, and in Great Britain there are 287,000 miles of roads which are vested in local authorities, and as Sir Henry Maybury, who was chairman of the Congress Organizing Committee, said in our presence, these roads are such a source of benefit to the community generally that every effort must be made to extend and improve the system. Since 1920, 200 miles of new arterial roads have been made, and as much has been constructed in local communications.

In addition to the development of the roads there has been a kindred advance in the condition of bridges, many having been reconstructed and new ones having been built, thus co-ordinating the whole of the highways and bringing them up to a strength which enables them generally to carry the heaviest possible loads, It is amongst the hopes of Sir Henry and those who are concerned with the future of the highway that, at the Congress, there have been laid the foundations of the first steps in the establishment of a Chair of Highway Rngineering at the University of London.

The Exhibition itself occupied the whole of the available space at the Agricultural Hail, including the Gilbey Hall and the great gallery.

In our previous issue we gave full details of the exhibits, so that those visiting the Exhibition might have before them a complete yet concise guide to the exhibits, and all that it is now necessary for us to do is to supplement these remarks with comments upon the exhibits as we saw them staged at the Hall.

The Transport of Goods and Materials.

Dealing first of all with the transport vehicles, the Lacre Motor Car Co., Ltd., hai one of its modified E-type 21-ton lorries on view, the modification in the type, which has now been built since war-time, when the Laere Co. had a contract for the 21-ton vehicle, consisting in the mounting of the engine equipped with a gearbox, radiator, petrol tank and silencer and their various connections upon a removable sub-frame. The sub-frame is secured to the main frame of the vehicle by 12 bolts and nuts, the undoing of which and the fitting of four-wheel jacks enabling the whole of the power unit to be withdrawn from the vehicle in the space of about 10 minutes, the only extra work required to be done being the uncoupling of the . connections to the sliding rods for altering the gears. All normal small attentions to the engine can be given without the need for removing the power unit.

The lorry shown had an 11-ft. body on a 9-ft. 9-in. wheelbase, the position of the driver alongside the engine giving the advantage of large body space.

E38

Built for the Stoke-on-Trent Health Department and shown by Electricars, Ltd., was a 30-cwt.

refuse-collecting vehicle, the body of steel being made to tip by electric power. it bad a wheelbase of 7 ft. and was mounted on wheels 20 ins. in diameter. The battery was housed under the driver's seat and had a capacity of 168 ampere-hours, which, over give-and-take roads and with full load, is ample for a day's work of from 26 to 30 miles, that being about as much as is ever wanted to be travelled on one charge, whilst, of course, should an extra pressure of work occur, the battery could receive a boosting charge at midday. The motor, which is of the series enclosed traction type, is housed midway in the chassis, and the drive to the rear axle is through an overhead worm. Electricars are used by many municipal authorities, and have done a great deal to efket the elimination of the horse and dustcart.

A Handy 1-ton Works Runabout.

The Lister Auto-Track has the whole of its driving mechanism mounted as a unit with the 41 b.p. J.A.P. engine, driving by chain through a clutch to a road wheel situated immediately underneath it. The power unit swivels at the forward end of a U-shaped channel frame, the frame at the rear being mounted on two wheels. Displayed at the exhibition by R. A. Lister and Co., Ltd., were two with the normal short wheelbase, permitting the carrying of a 1-ton load on a platform or a side-tipping body, the former being of great value in factories and the latter in roadconstruction work. There were also shown two on longer wheelbase.s with end-tipping body and swivelling tipping body respectively. The prices of these vehicles ranged from £90 to £125.

Millars Tructractor, which was displayed by Millars Machinery Co., Ltd., was a three-wheeler, the engine being mounted over, and conveying the drive to, the rear wheel. Mounted at the forward end was a steel body with a capacity of 2 tons, arranged to tip forward. This vehicle can also be obtained equipped with a platform body. With a load up, it is able to haul from 16 to 20 tons, and its ease of manoeuvring is extraordinary, the steering lock being only 10 ft., thus enabling the vehicle to be operated in places thatmight otherwise he regarded as inaccessible.

When the vehicle is required to be used for haulage it can be converted so as to become a front drive, the conversion consisting of reversing the driving axle so that the small pinion engages the crown wheel in an opposite direction.

Foden's exhibit consisted of the Foden traetor which, with the trailer, is capable of hauling a load up to 10 or 12 tons at 8 or 10 m.p.h., and of ascending gradients of 1. in 7 an mod roads at proportionate speeds. The layout is the conventional design of the Foden overtype 6-tonner with Ackerman steering.

Should the vehicle be operated in awkward places, such as happens in the ease of timber haulage, •a fitting is mounted on the front axle with rollers at top and bottom and sides to act as a guide for the winding rope. The Paden tractor is a very powerful-looking machine, its overall length being 16 ft. 2 ins. and its height 9 ft., the canopy extending almost from end to end.

Avoiding Dust Spreading.

An entirely new dustless dustcart was shown by Shelvoke and Drewry, Ltd., in which the body is completely closed and has on each of its sides three large parts enclosed by aluminium doors which are each operated separately by a treadle-bar, chain and a couple of levers, so that the dustman, arriving beside the vehicle with a loaded dustbin on his shoulder, places his left foot upon the treadle-bar and, exerting a slight pressure of about 10 lb. to 14 lb., causes the cover to rise at a rapid rate (owing to the leverage), giving him a clear opening for the contents of the dustbin to be shot into the interior, the -cover to the port instantly closing when his foot is taken off the treadle-bar. The arrangement is extremely simple and entirely effective, as

the closing of the port within a second or two of the contents being shot into the body immediately traps the dust at the moment when it commences to rise.

The body is tipped hydraulically, has a capacity of 7 cu. yds., and the cost will be about 1680, the vehicle being taxed at £40 per annum.

Other municipal appliances shown included the standard S.D. Freighter dustcart with a new type of hydraulic ram tipping gear and a watering wagon equipped for spraying and gutter flushing.

Cleansing and Road Maintenance.

What is known as the Gosport system of dealing with street refuse was shown by Tuke and Bell, Ltd., in the form of a low-load tipping wagon which was equipped for haulage either by a tractor with a drawbar or by a horse with shafts; the shafts always remain with the horse and the drawbar with the tractor.

During the process of collecting refuse from house to house the vehicle is drawn by a horse, and the operations are so timed that when the vehicle has acquired its full load the tractor has returned from the tip with an empty vehicle, and the horse and shafts are removed from the full one and their place taken by the tractor with its drawbar. The vehicle is then hauled to the tip and the load is tipped by hand assisted by gravity ; that is to say, the shaft with a couple of winch handles is rotated through a two-speed gear, the low gear being required for a few moments while taking the first part of its weight and getting the body off the flat, at which point the higher gear may be used, the body then running backwards until the point of balance is reached, when gravity accomplishes the rest and the load is thus tipped with a minimum of Tabour.

Tnke and Bell developed this dppliance at the request of the Cleansing Superintendent of the Gosport Corporation.

The Fowler patent steam gully emptier, with its rectangular tank and fitted with street-watering and washing apparatus, was shown on a Fowler 6-ton steam-wagon chassis equipped with a two-cylindered V-type compound engine.

The gully emptier and watering apparatus were described by us in a recent issue in connection with the equipment of a Karrier petrol-engined chassis, John Fowler and Co. being now prepared to supply the appliance for either type of chassis. The 10-ton steam road roller which was shown had been built for Norman E. Box, Ltd., of Manchester, and was equipped with a Woods patent road-spraying plant.

The Lure sweeper and street cleaner mounted on three wheels is still one of the best-selling lines in sweepers, and, tgs with all other Lucre products, it will be continued under the new regime arising out of the amalgamation of the company with Walker Bros. (Wigan), Ltd. One change has been made in this appliance in the employment of a plate clutch instead of the Ferodo-faced clutch previously used, it being found that the plate clutch meets the difficulty of operation in the extremely dusty atmosphere created by the broom used in sweeping the streets.

On an Atkinson-Walker 6-ton steam wagon chassis W. and J. Glossop, Ltd., of Halifax, showed a specimen of their machine which, having a 1,000-gallon tank, enables hot tar to he sprayed on the road at a rapid rate, its Capacity being from 6,000 yds. to 7,000 yds. per honr. The tar is heated by high-pressure :team and, automatically, in the spraying only the hottest tar is selected. Any width of pass from 2 ft. to 7 ft. 6 ins. can be sprayed and the adjustment of the spraying jets is itself automatic. The actual machine shown was used for treating with a special preparation the Mall, Constitution Hill and Marlborough Gate to enable these roads to stand the heavy traffic which was diverted to them during the reconstruction of Piccadilly, the whole of the work on those roads being completed in four days.

A group of Marshall rollers included a 8-ton tandem roller, a 10-ton single-cylinder roller, and the popular Universal roller, each of which is exceedingly well known to roadmaintenance engineers, and is to he found amongst the road maintenance equipment of many local authorities.

Barford and Perkins, Ltd., which specializes in road rollers, showed types of power-driven appliances, including the 21-ton roller, which is a standard light roller of worldwide use, its great point being that it offers a clear sight so that the whole width of a pathway, even close up to a fence, may be rolled. A 15-ton motor roller was shown areongst-the new products equipped with the Berliet-Imbert woodburning, suction gas nrodneer. The fernece was equinned to use wood waste, which need not cost any snore than 10s. per ton, and it was stated that the appliance on exhibition had travelled by road from the works, a distance of 84 miles, at a cost of no more than 48. 80. for fuel and lubricating oil. The actual driving time was inside 24 hours, and the fuel used, wood toppings, weighed 8 cwt. 18 lb.; in addition to this seven pints of petrol were used mid four pints of engine crankcase oil.

The second new Barford and Perkins appliance was a Diesel-eng,ined roller weighing in working order 10 tons. The engine works at an initial compression pressure of 400 lb. per sq. in. Solid fuel is injected, and control of the engine speed is obtained by the control of the amount of oil so injected. The power output is 32-35 h.p. at 800 r.p.m., the range of engine speed being from 400 r.p.m. to 900 r.p.m., although it has been worked successfully at as low as 250 r.p.m. Its operating weight is 111 tons. This type of engine will operate at a running cost of fuel and lubricating oil of 31d. per hour.

John Allen and Sons (Oxford), Ltd., makes a speciality of overhauling and repairing heavy vehicles and road appliances, and in order to give an example of its work ip this direction it showed a 10-ton compound steam roller which had been completely overhauled and modernized by them, the work, so far as one could tell from an outward inspection, seeming to be quite good, an impression which we understand from those who have had experience of their 'work to be well justified.

This concern showed an example of its new waveless girder roller, girder tracks being used in place of wheels in order to secure a waveless surface, the girder tracks being designed to be equivalent to wheels 18 ft. in diameter. It was claimed that this type of roller when perfected (because the implement exhibited was admitted to be purely experimental) will be able to travel over roads which are quite impassable to a road roller, and to avoid some of the drawbacks of rolling by means of cylinders".

The Chaseside Drigineering Co., Ltd., being distributor for Middlesex for the Fords= tractor, as developed various adaptations of the machine, one of these being a mobile crane which is capable of lifting 15-20-cwt. loads and makes a particularly sturdy and efficient portable crane for working in confined spaces.

Two adaptations shown were the tow-lift loader embodying a shovel which will lift up to 5 ft. 6 ins., and the " Hi-lift" loading shovel which will lift up to 10 ft. The latter is quite an ideal appliance for picking up stone, gravel or other quarry material and loading it into lorries. It will deal with half a yard of material at the time, and, assuming that the lorry is brought, as it would be, close to the heap, and giving a run of from 8 yds. to 20 yds. backwards and forwards between heap and lorry, 30 tons to 35 tons can be transferred in an hour at a cost of one penny per ton. A Dorchester concern which is using one of these shovels for handling gravel used to spend 7s. on the shovelling of 35 tons of material. "With the "Hi-Iift " loader its experience is that, taking every charge into consideration, it can handle 42 tons for 3s., which is obviously a substantial saving.

The great novelty which was displayed by Robey and Co., Ltd., was its new Lion road roller, the form of construction being interesting in that the boiler casing is machined at each end, the forward end carrying a casting which embodies a head for the front rolls, and the rear casting carrying the crankshaft, second motion shaft and back axle; thus the use of horn plates is entirely avoided. The boiler and engine are of a type which are used in the 6-ton steam wagon. A special point about this appliance is the mounting of the scarifier by a patented method, the scarifier arms being mounted only on the axle box and not on either the tank or boiler, the latter never really being sound practice.

The Advance roller introduced by Wallis and Steevens, Ltd., a few years ago showed a big improvement over the normal tandem roller, in that the rear rolls accommodate themselves to the camber of the road, thus getting central and equal consolidation for the full width of the road and Is better finish to the surface, the materials not being spread towards the road margin.

A new appliance introduced is the 3-ton Simplicity roller. The special feature of this is the setting of the boiler obliquely at an angle of about 30 degrees, which fact ensure S that whether the machine be going up or down hill the firebox and the water tubes are always completely covered. A lime fire grate is einuluyed and there is a complete absence of stays. Incorporated in the appliance is the special construction of the rolls with the automatic cambering action which is embodied in the Advance roller previously described.