How to Disable a Chassis.
Page 16
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A Few Further Suggestions Selected from the Large Number Which Were Received in Connection with our Recent Competitions.
In our last issue we published a selection from the many letters which reached us as the result of our competition in connection With the disablement of a steam wagon on active service. We then promised to publish a further selection of a few of the more interesting answers which were received in connection with that particular competition, as well as with the one which dealt with similar treatment to a petrol chassis. Owing to the exceptional demands on our space at the present time, we cannot devote more tnan one more page to this subject. Below will be found a few more letters, that we were unable to include last week, and with which we propose to conclude this subject, which has proved of so much interest to readers at home and abroad.
Sitting on a Revolver.
"My proposal may sound foolish, but you will find my method accounts for a life, to say nothing of a possible collision. Whereas, if the enemy do not gain possession, we can use the machine as before. " Those chassis which have the petrol tank under the driver's seat, should have, bracketed to the frame under the tank, a revolver. On our men leaving the machine, they fix a suitable piece of metal in a slot in the cardan shaft, so that, as soon a.s the enemy gets the gears in and starts off, this projecting piece from the cardan shaft engages the trigger of the revolver, sending the bullet through the petrol tank, and with a bit of luck into the driver's body."
G. N. B. (Finsbury Park).
[We do not think that the average driver would feel comfortable even if that " suitable piece of metal " were not in position in normal times.—lifti Put the Rocking Shalt Out of Lice.
"This is my plan for disabling an overtype steam wagon at a few momenta' notice. First place the reversing lever in neutral position. Underneath the two bearings on the rocking shaft there are four 1-in. setscrews, put there for adjusting the wear of the rocking shaft, I should pull them all up tight, taking care to break one or more of them off in the casting. It would then be impossible to move the reversing lever from neutral position until the broken
setpins were drilled out.
"I should then take the caps off the injector, putting them, together with the cones, in my pocket. I should similarly get rid of the top and bottom caps on the pump and the valves out, of same.
"I should finally take the pins out of the brackets cennecting the radius rods to the frame, dropping the rods and taking care to take the left and righthand-threaded adjusting sockets away with me.
"This whole jab could be done in a few moments, and I think they would have a game on to either drive or tow the wagon away. But if I had one more minute to spare, I should certainly take away the
exhaust pipe. A. G. (Rugby).
[This method would be one which, in our opinion, it would be very difficult to detect, especially by men who were not accustomed to the overtype steam wagon.—En.] Run Into Anything Available.
"Take off the stay from front of firebox to bottom of undercarriage, and so weaken front fork, or rather reduce its power to withstand shocks. Next, run the front wheels against a wall or any obstruction with the object of breaking the fork at the neck. If no obstruction available, turn round and run into B10 trailer, and if no trailer, chain front wheels together in front so as to allow them to make nearly one turn before the chain fetches up underneath boiler, then put on steam and break fork that way. "This is the only way to prevent the wagon being driven or towed, and at the same time it would not be expensive to put right in the event of our troops retaking it, as it is presumed they would have spares. The breaking of the steering wheel or withdrawal of pins would not prevent the engine's being towed, as the enemy could chain a drawbar to the front axle. "Next, if time allowed, I should take away the jet horn the injector, and also the check valves from the pump. Then, if I still had time, take out the cotters from the big-ends, and take off the crankshaft bearing caps. Blow off the boiler so as to melt out the fusible plug, and let all the water out of the tanks.
"If I had to abandon the engine altogether, I should drop a few nuts between the gears, so as to bend up the shafts and strain the frame. But even without doing this, I think that, if the engine were disabled in the way I have suggested, it would he difficult to get it going again without considerable delay." R.F. (Dorset).
The proposal to smash up the front axle bracket would not meet the conditions we laid down.—En.) Tips From a Foden Driver.
"To commence operations I would screw the jack valve in the injector lightly on its face, and extract the cone valves ; this would make the injector useless. Then tighten the pump eccentric strap on the sleeve ; this would, of course, seize up shortly after being run a little. "Disconnect the pipe leading to the pressure gauge. Insert into this a piece of waste, connect up again and blow steam through ; this would wedge the indicator and the pressure of the boiler could not be ascertained unless the enemy had a spare indicator and connections.
" Unscrew the Ii in. setpin that fastens the compounding tap in position. The compounding tap or exhaust tap is given half a turn and the 12in. setpin screwed down again ; this would, of course, block the exhaust, and to help matters the cylinder end cover would have to move bodily to allow the exhaust steam which would be under pressure to escape. The last and most important item to overcome is towing. I would suggest that the pin which fastens the swivel to the front axle should be removed ; this could easily be done, and by jamming the front wheels. The collar and split pin are taken off and dropped in the smoke-box. The pin is then almost extracted.
." Anyone going to this wagon in this condition might overcome the water supply 'touch,' but would be lost when the front wheels or rather the front portion of the boiler were to sink into oblivion, and, of course, the fusible plug would give way through shortage of water. " With reference to last week's article, I heard of a good tip which baffled a good authority on motorcars. The carburetter was filled with water, thus making the whole mechanism useless apart from
towing. H.B. (Sandbach).
[This is a good letter, and contains a number of interesting suggestions from one who evidently thoroughly understands the Foden type of wagon. The proposals, however, for the prevention of towing are not in our opinion effective ; it would be possible to replace the pinning of the front axle and to tow the whole wagon.—En.]