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Newspaper's
MOBILE PR 4TING PRESS
AT Epsom Downs last week, when the Derby was being ran, a remarkable motor vehicle was seen. This was a new mobile printing press just put into service by the Evening Standard Co., Ltd., and, by the courtesy of the directors of that company, we are able to give a full description of the vehicle, which is certainly interesting as displaying one of the more unusual services to which the modern commercialmotor chassis is adaptable.
The new vehicle carries a printing press driven by electric power obtained from the engine, which is capable of printing stop-press news at the rate of 8,500 copies per hour, and it is to be used at race meetings and important Public events throughout the country for the purpose of iprinting, on the latest available editions of the Evening Standard, still later news received by telephone from the editorial office in London. It is the latest addition to a fleet of 128 vehicles, which is employed for the distribution of the Evening Standard and the Daily Express.
The chassis is the Guy Victory model, having a six-eylindered engine of 80 ram. bore and 120 mm. stroke, the 38th Guy vehicle in this important fleet. The body was built by J. Flurlin and Sons, Ltd., 191, Cambridge Road, London, E2, having been designed by that company in conjunction with Mr.
t T. D. Botterill, M.I.E.C., who is the transport manager of the Evening Standard Co., Ltd.
With the printing press, dynamo and other equipment, the vehicle weighs about 4 tons 3 cwt., and in addition it has to carry five men and a load of up to 10 cwt. of newspapers. The available body length behind the driver's seat is 12 ft., and the interior width is 6 ft. 7 ins. The body has well-rounded lines, which eliminate any suspicion of the ugliness that sometimes attaches to special-purpose vehicles. The roof is of the clerestory pattern, the height to the cant-rail level being 5 ft. 10 ins., and the height at the roof centre ,6 ft. 9 ins.
There are four clerestory lights at each side, and two at the front and rear, these admitting a plentiful supply of daylight to the interior. In addition, there are two side windows, 2 ft. 51 ins, wide, which are adjustable. All the glass throughout the vehicle is of the tinsplinterable type and the side windows have Quicktho operating gear. At the rear is a roller shutter 4 fr. 4 ins. wide.
In the centre of the floor, which, incidentally, is only 2 ft. 7 ins, above the ground level, stands the printing press, this being little over 4 ft. long and about 3 ft. 3 ins, wide, thus leaving ample space around it for the compositor and snaebine minder to work. The wheelboxes are rectangular in shape, being 1) ans. high, 1 ft. 8 ins, wide, and 3 ft. 4i ins. long. It is, therefore, easy to step over them when passing from the front to the rear of the press. At the forward end, on the off side, is a detachable composing table, whilst at the rear is a table for stacking printed newspapers.
c32 The sides of the body panelling, both before and behind the glass windows, may be opened, coffee-shop fashien, the upper panels hinging outward to form canopies and the lower panels to form four distributing tables, 4 ft. 4 ins, wide, from which newly printed copies may be handed to waiting newsboys.
For further illumination of the interior six ceiling lights are fitted, as well as two special lamps for type-setting purposes.
The electrical transmission by which power is con
tinually supplied.
veyed to the printing press is particularly ingenlobs, and credit is due to the Electrical Auto Services Co., 1-3, Brixton Road, London, S.W.9, which was responsible for the electrical equipment. A power take-off is arranged at the off side of the gearbox, the engagement being with the constant-mesh wheel of the layshaft and incorporating a simple dog clutch, which the driver operates by means of a removable key.
The drive is taken rearward, by a shaft having a Hardy fabric coupling at each end, to a positive unit consisting of a short, rigid shaft, carried in one ball bearing and one roller bearing, in a housing that is securely bolted to the frame. This short shaft carries at its rear end a double-V pulley, from which two 1-in. Whittle belts drive a similar double_ pulley at the rear end of the dynamo shaft, the dynamo itself being mounted between the seats of the driver and his mate.
The shaft from the gearbox to the belt pulley is not horizontal, being parallel to the main transmission line, which extends to the underslung worm of the final drive, and the dynamo is set ata corresponding angle. Adjustment of the double Whittle belt is effected by a screw gear which, after slackening four holding-down bolts, permits the dynamo to be moved transversely without difficulty.
At 900 r.p.m. the 1i-kilowatt dynamo develops 220 volts d.c., the current
being conveyed by armoured cable to a motor of this. capacity fixed to the frame of the press. An enginegovernor is attached to the power. take-off, so as to be in operation only when the press is in service. There are two revolution counters--one taken from the power take-off and the other from the dynamo, any disparity between them indicating belt slip. A compact switchboard is mounted in a central panel behind the driver's seat, a further safeguard being a 250-280-volt electrical cut-out On the dynamo itself. The ordinary electrical equipment of the vehicle is augmented by an extra 12-volt 75-amp. battery.
The traveller in charge of the van keeps in telephonic communication with
the editorial office at Shoe Lane, London, and the latest information, comprising race and football results, cricket scores, etc., is rapidly set up in type and printed upon the editions of the Dverbing Standard which are distributed to boys for selling on the spot. The vehicle is meanwhile fed from London with still later editions.