For DRIVERS, MECHANICS & FOREMEN.
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.4 PRIZE OF TEN SHILLINGS is awarded each week to the sender of the best letter which we publish on this page ; all others are paid for at the rate of a penny a tow, with an allowance for photographs; All notes arc edited before being published. Mention your employer's name, in confidence, as evidence of good faith. Address, D., hi. and F„ "The Commercial Motor," 7-15, Rosebery Avenue, London, E.C. I.
Lamps Alight.
On Saturday, the 14th September, light your lamps at 7.47 in London, 8.32 in Edinburgh, 7.55 in Newcastle, 7.59 in Liverpool, 7.55 in Birmingham, 7.57 in Bristol, and 8.43 in Dublin.
An Extempore Radiator Cap.
The sender of the following communication has been awarded the 10s. prize this week.
[1895] " H.S.H." (Wood Green) writes :—" Some time ago, as the result of wear, the thread on the inside of the brass radiator cap on the lorry which I drive stripped. An order for a replace part met with the response that the pattern was an old one, and no stock was available. I did not want to go to the trouble of having a special one made, and hit upon the following means of holding the cap securely in place without a screw thread.
"To the top of the radiator, quite near to the cap, I secured one end of a piece of fairly stout chain. The other end was fastened to the radiator cap itself at a point in. to one side of the centre of the cap. The chain was then cut to such a length that, as is illustrated by the sketch I enclose (We have had it redrawn.—En.), with the cap in one position, the chain is quite free and the cap can be removed ; but if, after replacing, it be turned through nearly half a revolution, owing to the eccentricity of the point to which the end of the chain is secured, the latter binds tightly on the edge of the cap, which will then not move unless, considerable force be exerted.
"Apart from its economic value at a time like the present when spares are hard to obtain, the idea is one that might usefully be adopted as a standard, for two reasons. In the first place, the radiator cap is. permanently attached to the radiator, and cannot, therefore, be lost ; in the second place, half a turn' either way suffices to free it or secure.* instead of the cap itself having to be screwed on or off a. matter of or a dozen threads."
Strengthening Springs.
[1890] "T.R." (Walham Green) writes :—" I have been driving vans and wagons now for a good few years, and I have found that a lot of trouble is caused through the back-axle springs breaking. These almost invariably break off just by the centre rivet. I believe that the hole in the centre weakens the: spring just at the point where it should be strongest. I should like to point out that the springs could be made without a hole in the centre at all and this would ensure them being much stronger. 'Each leaf should be pressed down a little in the centre in order that they may fit together like a nest of cups. The spring box could be countersunk at the bottom for the spring tobed itself in, and the top of the box would
have a hole drilled through which could be tapped in order to take a bolt and check nut. A square piece of plate, the same size as the spring box and slightly punched out in the centre, would be required in order to fit the top plate of the spring. The tapped bolt could then be screwed down, and everything tightly held without weakening the spring."
The Clyburn-type Spanner.
[1897] . S.'. ki3 tbc up) writes :—"I suppose every man has his own particular fancy in the matter of spanner shape and kind. Personally I have always liked the Clyburn type and that sub-division of the type which is illustrated in the accompanying rough sketch (We have had this redrawn.—En.), Somehow it seems to fit in the hollow of the palm, the fingers being able to grip it and to leave the thumb quite free to rotate the adjusting nut which operates the movable jaw. Then the tapered jaws seem to be able to get Into places which are not so accessible to the jaws of other types of shifting spanner. k have got these spanners in three sizes in my toolkit—one which, on a basis of a, good American set, I made up some years ago, adding to it as occasion demanded and opportunity served-and of the whole range of shifting spanners in that kit (all of them good, let me add) I find my band goes naturally and instinctively to the shifting Clyburns, for the larger proportion of my jobs on nuts and bolts. With all the work they have had they have never shown the slightest trace of weakness and the shifting jaw does not jam under stress, so that I have had an immense amount of satisfaction with the particular type described, quite as much in fact as one would
expect from a whole range of open-jawed Clyburns plus the advantage offered by the shifting jaw for obtaining a really close fit on the nut."