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Lady Who is Keen WHILE road-testing a Guy to Get her Guy After " Vixen, recently, we drew So Long . . . into the entrance to a drive in order to stage a picture. Immediately we stopped, a lady stepped up to ask ' Is this mine?" Not knowing quite what she meant, we simply answered that we were afraid it was not. Oh!" she said, "1 thought perhaps you were delivering it to me, as I've had one on order for • 12 months." Before departing, she looked the chassis over with a critical eye.
Tests to Find Good, p OAD trials on a limited Open-textured " range of " carpets " made Asphalt " Carpets" . with asphaltic bitumen binders and designed to secure a dur, able surface, which will maintain an open non-skid texture without subsequent treatment, have been carried out by the Road Research Laboratory, Depart ment of Scientific and Industrial Research. The results are given in Road Research Bulletin No. 5, published by H.M. Stationery Office at 3d. Tests started eight years ago, and more than 800 experimental surfaces were laid. Such " carpets " are by no means the only ones capable of satisfactory application, but those tried are known to have the longest life consistent with the maintenance of a suitable texture. Crushed rock and certain slags are preferable as aggregates for them, but gravel can also be used, in which case the mix should contain a higher proportion of fine aggregate.
IT is interesting to note the
Vehicles
trends of design in other countries. For example, in new Dodge heavy models the engines have chrome nickel-molybdenum cast-iron blocks, aluminium-alloy pistons with three compression and one oil ring, a new type of crankshaft with counter weights, sodium-cooled exhaust valves, multiple-valve fuel pumps and down-draught carburation. Incidentally, these vehicles have five speeds, and there is a power take-off at each side of the gearboxes. Simplicity and EconI N workshops where there is omy in Engine-fume likely to be much " runningExtraction . . . . up " of engines (not on the
bench but in the chassis), some form of fume dispersal or extraction is necessary. Many devices are available, but we noticed recently a simple system that had the merit of economy. Hanging above each vehicle bay was a flexible pipe leading to the roof lights. The dodge was simply to pull the pipe down to exhaust level, slip it over the end of the exhaust pipe, and voila!
Wind Resistance Test A HUGE wind tunnel to for Proposed Severn 1-1. house a model 52 ft. long Bridge . . . . • • is being built to assist the designers and engineers concerned with the erection of the proposed 3,000-ft.span %uspension bridge over the River Severn. It was a high wind which caused the old Tay Bridge to collapse in 1879, and in 1940a wind broke up the Tacoma Narrows Suspension Bridge (nicknamed "Galloping Gertie "), in America. A film, which we remember seeing, was taken of the latter bridge while it was vibrating in a storm and until its final collapse. The investigation will be carried out by scientists from the National Physical Laboratory, and they will be able to observethe effect of a wind striking the bridge from any quarter, thus ceasing to be dependent only upon theoretical data.
100 " Old Bill" ERE are now serving Drivers Still on Lononly 100 of the 400 don Buses . . . London bus drivers who, as
members of Auxiliary Omnibus Companies, drove "General" buses in France in the 1914-18 war. When the drivers returned, they formed the Auxiliary Omnibus Companies' Association, to which the former London General Omnibus Co., Ltd., presented B.43, the famous "Old Bill." One of the first to go to France, "Old Bill" has the distinction of being the only London bus ever to have been driven into the forecourt of Buckingham Palace. This occurred on the occasion of the presentation of the drivers to King George V. Recently, Mr. Nathaniel Abbott, secretary of the Association, retired