THE AUSTIN TRENCH PUMP LORRY.
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How Commercial Motors are Assisting to Render the Front Line Trenches Habitable,.
One of the adverse and inclement conditions with which our fighting forces have to contend, and particularly in the main battle area, during unfavourable weather, is swampy and water-logged -trenches. Nothing is likely to have so harmful and deterrent an effect on tIM morale of our fighters as a condition which tends to produce an atmosphere of acute depression and gloom, with the resultant creation of jaded and dispirited action. Since an army counts its efficiency of operation mainly on its availability of able effectives it is, of course, of vital importance to eradicate any circumstances which may tend to lower the fighting strength. In the.early months of the present upheaval, particularly during the first winter of operations, much pain and suffering were caused as the result of lack of means for efficiently draining the trenches of water. Men had oft-times to fight waistdeep in water.
Much endeavour has been expended by the army authorities in order to render the trenches as habitable as circumstances win permit. To a, very great extent, this prevalent disability has been minimized by the introduction of duck-boards, as they are called, and the utilization of hand-operated and hydraulic pump equipment. The last-named has done 'much to lessen the watery habitat of our soldiers, but these methods are strikingly slow and tedious when compared with a very useful and comprehensive equipment which has been specially designed by the Austin Motor Co., Ltd., Northfield, Birmingham, for the express purpose of pumping water froth the trenches. We are able to reproduee-herewith illustrations of this most interesting equipment. It consists of an
Austin 23-ton chassis of standard design and construction, fitted with a low-hung body and flat sides; upon which are fastened the suction and delivery hoses in sections of convenient length. The entire outfit is exceedingly neat and compact, and when not • in use it can be suitably disposed within the .lorry, thus facilitating rapid transport from place to place. The power unit embodied for pumping purposes, adapted for running on either petrol or paraffin, is a
tour-cylinder motor of in. bore by 6 in. stroke respectivelY, developing 32 bhp, and directly coupled to a compound-wound d.c. dynamo. The power thus developed is conveyed to three 200-volt electric motors of weatherproof type, by means of flexible cables, and thence transmitted to the pumps, which are each capable of delivering 3000 gallons of water per hour. The pumps have the additional advantage of being able to deal effectively with muddy water, which is, of course, obviously essential if the equipment is to be used with success on active service. Provision is also made for a few lights to be run off the same plant.
So far as we can see, one of the outstanding points -nt thei Austin trench pump lorry is the fact that the pumping plant can be employed at some distance. front the flooded trenches ;. true enough, this distance may possibly not be sufficient to prevent detection on the part of the enemy, but the equipment might be so screened or camouflaged as to reduce this risk to a negligible minimum.
The extreme portability of the whole equipment, coupled with -its utility and general efficiency, has made it of the utmost value in rendering the flooded
trenches on the Western Front reasonably habitable for our troops, and there is little_doubt that the use Of such equipment will be greatly.-extended in the near
inture. If the use of the equipment was unnecessarily hazardous by day, its effectivcnesS would in no way be impaired by nocturnal employment. .
Such sin outfit, besides being invaluable for war-tiine application, is possible of employment -on. farms and in connection with large excawation or other operations, 'where power from . other sources is not readily available, . -and where the accumulation Of water may, by the employment of -Some such equipment, be. speedily and effectively removed.
Bearing in •mind the miscellaneous services for whieh the commercial vehicle has already been successfully utilized the motor -vehicle would apPear to possess an unrestricted range of utility, more especially for divergent war duties, that is to say, of course-, if due thoUght and consideration be given to the. conditions surrounding its prospectivefield of employment. This new adaptation of the commercial velijele • for a further phase of usefulness with ' our armies in the field certainly bears evidence to support this claim.