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nITRING a recent short visit to the works of
Vauxhall Motors, Ltd., we were interested to see the new shop, which covers an area of 7 acres, and is to be used for the private car assembly. The Bedford commercial chassis will continue to be assembled in the present shop, but a greatly extended production will be possible. Over 70 commercial chassis are completed each day at the present time. A point of interest in the new shop was the manner in yvhich the gas, water and compressed-air pipes and the tubes containing electric cables are each painted a distinctive colour. , This will greatly facilitate the work of the shop-maintenance department.
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T IME is said to be the great healer, but the 41 I years which have elapsed since the Road Traffic Act, 1930, was introduced have, apparently, not healed the wound in the pride of many local authorities at the removal of their powers of licensing public service vehicles. The situation is considerably aggravated by the restrictions imposed by the Traffic Commissioners upon the operation of municipal services within borough boundaries, in which areas, local authorities maintain, they should have complete freedom. It might be expected that public authorities would have a bond of sympathy with the Commissioners, but often this is not the case. A N idea for obtaining water during the drought has rl• been 'developed by Jowett CarS, Ltd. Near the works in Bradford is an old quarry usually containing some 30 ft. of rain water. On this is a device, colloquially known as "Noah's Ark." It consists of an electrically driven centrifugal pump• capable of lifting 4,000 gallons per day to the works 100 ft.
above. It is carried on four square floats. After being used for cooling the test engines, the water is returned to the quarry.
TWO titled Traffic Commissioners had " a taste of I their own medicine," so to speak, in a little comedy which occurred recently on the main Whitby-Scarborough road. The Commissioners were Sir John Maxwell, chairman of the Northern Traffic Commissioners, and Sir John Quarmby, one of the Yorkshire Traffic Commissioners. After walking over the cliffs from Scarborough, they felt that they had journeyed far enough, and hailed the first bus that came by. Their, efforts were in vain. The driver Tiered them. They were left to ruminate on the
difference between the powers of a Traffic Commissioner in his court and of a Traffic Commissioner stranded on a road. When eventually a bus did stop and pick them up, the conductor, unaware of the identity of his distinguished passengers, explained to them in one short sentence why they, had not been picked up before. "It's those damned Traffic Commissioners," said the conductor.
RUBBER is used for an endless variety of pur1 N. poses, but few people know that experiments have been carried out which indicate that it can be added with advantage to certain classes of lubricant. Tests in this direction were made as long ago as 1853. The addition of rubber increases the viscosity of the oil, without, however, increasing it unduly at low temperatures: it helps the oil to remain in a bearing and avoids drips; also, rubber-containing oil is more resistant to heat. The addition of fatty acids has been proposed from time to time to improve oiliness, but rubber is substantially non-acid and appears to improve more than one property,