New Aids for Transport Engineers
Page 45
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AN EMERGENCY SOURCE OF H.T. CURRENT.
A useful item of equipment marketed by D. W. Riches and Co., Carrholm Crescent, Leeds, 7, is the Clip-On breakdown coil fox use should the battery or coil of a vehicle engine become faulty. The device incorporates a trembler-coil, Ever Ready battery and switch, and is provided with straps for attachment to any convenient fixing and leads for connecting it to the main distributor, terminal and to earth. It retails at £1 15s., and can be carried on the vehicle to elimininate a risk of delay on the road, or kept at the -fleet headquarters for use in getting home a machine the ignition system of which has ceased to function. It is suitable for 6 and 12-volt systems.
AN AUTOMATIC GARAGE-DOOR OPENER.
To enable a driver to run his vd'-dicle into its closed garage without the need for .getting out to open the doors, Constable Hart and Co., Ltd., Broadway Buildings, Westminster, London, S.W.1, has brought out an automatic door opener, described as the Parlee.
It is an electrical device, operated from the mains supply, and is caused to function by the weight of the vehicle closing a ground switch as it approaches the garage. A. master switch conveniently situated puts the apparatus out of action. It is guaranteed for one year, is easy to install and costs, in standard form, £6 6s. With automatic door catches the price is £7 7s.
AN ATTRACTIVE CYLINDER REBORER.
We are asked by Fredk. J. Gordon and Co., Ltd., 114-116, Euston Road, London,N.W.1, to state that it has just been appointed sole concessionnaire for the Rottler boring bar, which it is marketing at £67 10s. The tool has a range of 2/ ins. to 41 ins., is quick in operation, incorporates a self-centring device, and can be attached to the cylinder block by only one bolt. It is almost entirely automatic in action, having a power feed and return. It is light but rigid, accurate and capable of producing a high finish. It is supplied with all necessary equipment for sharpening and setting the tool, etc.
A NEW PORTABLE AIR COMPRESSOR.
An indispensable item of modern garage or repair-shop equipment is an air-compressing plant. Tyre inflation, paint spraying and working pneumatic tools are but three of the useful purposes for which it can be employed.
John Andrews, Ltd, Ashton-inMakerfield, Lancashire, has recently introduced a portable electric compressor, which costs only £16 10s., and should make a strong appeal to operators of small fleets. It is mounted on a small truck, having two wheels shod with
Dunlop cushion -tyres, and incorporates a 1 h.p. motor, driving by belt a twocylindered horizontally, opposed compressor. This is air-cooled, has a bore. and stroke of 2 ins., runs at 500600 r.p.m., and is said to be capable of inflating a 40-in. by 7-in. tyre to 100 lb. per sq. in. in five minutes.
A single casting forms the crankcase and finned cylinders of the compressor; the detachable heads incorporate mushroom-type inlet and ball discharge valves.
Stationary sets, embodying air reservoirs are also available, whilst smaller plants having / h.p. motors and singlecylindered compressors are also made.
AN INEXPENSIVE SCREEN-WIPER VACUUM TANK.
A new product of Trico-Folberth, Ltd., Great West Road, Brentford, London, is a small vacuum trnk for use in conjunction with suction operated windscreen wipers. Whilst suitable for any make of machine, the Reservac, as the device is named, is standardized in three sizes for Ford and Fordson models. These cost 10s.. 12s. 6d. and 15s. respectively and the largest is claimed to maintain a vacuum capable of making, unaided, 30 to 40 strokes of the wiper blade. A suction wiper that does not " fade out" when hill-climbing is certainly desirable. A NEW VARIABLE-LEVEL OIL FILTER.
The location of the orifice of the oil-pump suction pipe near the bottom of the sump leads to the contamination of all the oil in the engine lubrication system with impurities which would otherwise settle on the bottom and
remain there undisturbed. Furthermare, in cases where water and sludge have accumulated to a considerable extent, after the machine has been standing, upon first starting up the engine these impurities constitute the entire lubricating medium fed to the bearings during the first few revolutions or strokes of the oil pump.
A practical means for avoiding this undesirable state of affairs is to draw oil from a higher level. Unless provision is made for varying the level an obvious drawback presents itself. Accordingly, a floating intake, the orifice of which is at all times as near the surface of the oil as is practicable, has much to recommend it. Such a device has been recently introduced by British Wire Products, Ltd., 11, Victoria Street, London, SAVA. It is known as the B.W.P. variable-level oil intake, and consists of a gauze-covered intake mounted below a float, the assembly being connected with the pump suction pipe by a gland which permits free movement, within limits, up and down respectively, as the oil is replenished and consumed.
Another advantage afforded is a reduction in the time that elapses before the circulation becomes normal, through the oil warming up, for normal conditions occur before the temperature of all the oil has risen.