Bird's Eye
Page 48
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
View BY THE HAWK
Round the Bend
IT is not very often that scientific developments find quick applications in vehicles. But news from America is that a method of transmitting light over distances and bending it round corners, a fairly new scientific finding, is being applied to trucks by General Motors of America.
A plastics "wire" that transmits light as copper wire conducts electricity is being used by the American company to illuminate automatic transmission selectors in trucks. The flexible "light line" consists of light-transmitting fibres and in the General Motors' application it runs from a bulb behind the dashboard to the transmission gear selector on the steering column.
The material used is called SeeLite and GM is the first truck manufacturer to put it to practical use. Who knows, one day we may have one big bulb in the cab and a "light-wiring harness" to all the lights on a vehicle!
Fire haulier
A LORRY driver took a fire to the fire brigade last weekend. As 1-1,flames and smoke poured from the 10-ton vehicle loaded with shale he set off at full speed for the fire station at Tynemouth, Northumberland, 500 yards away. Firemen went into action with a hose and the fire was soon under control.
"We have never had a fire brought to us before", a fire brigade spokesman said. The driver left without giving his name.
Portrait of a Pioneer
0 gave his initials to a commercial vehicle, raced Vauxhall open tourers in the 'twenties, and was so keen on getting performance out of powered boats that he once got booked for speeding in the Dee estuary?
No? More clues then: such as, who inherited his father's interest in steam engines as well as mechanical engineering and developed their road transport applications?
Answer: Edwin Richard Foden, who retired at 60 from the family firm of Fodens, but two years later was back in the c.v. business, with his son Denis and former colleagues, under the name of E.R.F.
In Portrait of a Pioneer, an attractive booklet which E.R.F. Ltd. has just sent me, there are some fascinating tales of Edwin Richard and his transport interests over a span of nearly 80 years.
Shock question
DURING the Freightliner hearing at Aberdeen last week the advocate for the objectors cited one or two hypothetical illustrations to Eric Hopwood, BR assistant to the manager, containers and Freightliners. In each case he used the name of Charles Alexander. Asked Eric: "Who is this Charles Alexander?" There was a deadly silence in the courtroom followed by an audible gasp. One observer suggested: "He might just as well have asked an Englishman who Willie Shakespeare was".
Later in the day I noticed Eric and Charles in a neutral corner of the courtroom in animated conversation, but I am given to understand that Charles was not making a takeover bid for British Railways ... which is possibly just as well for Eric.
Uncorked!
Asigh of relief from the West Country this week. For Transport Minister Barbara Castle relieved one of its—and Britain's— worst holiday bottle-necks on Monday when she opened the £984,000, 2.2-mile-long Honiton by-pass. Ten thousand vehicles a day have been known to squeeze through the market town's High Street.
'Porn' Scholar
SHORTLY after the death of Laurence Pomeroy (who, among other things, was Technical Editor of CM's associate journal MOTOR for many years), Ford Motor Co. announced the institution of an annual Laurence Pomeroy Scholarship in Mechanical Engineering. Now the first winner of the scholarship has been named—David Ross Blackie, a 19-year-old student from Edinburgh who is in the first year of a four-year engineering honours degree course at Heriot Watt University.
He is seen above accepting the award (worth 000 a year plus fees) from Harley F. Copp, director of Ford's product development group. As an inveterate seeker after higher performance, "Porn" would certainly have approved David's main hobby—modifying production cars for competition.