Passing Comments
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THE chairman andmanaging
director of Ernest Turner (London), Ltd., Mr. Alan Turner, has taken most enthusiastically to the useful and interesting hobby of filming in colour. Recently we were present at a preview of the result of one of his efforts, which concerned wool upholstery materials and was based on the Exhibition of the International Wool Secretariat, to which we referred recently, and with which body his company associates itself, particularly in connection with the use of cloth upholstery for public-service and other vehicles. It was Mr. Ernest Turner who developed the Bedford. Cord type, taking as his cue the riding breeches of troopers in the South African. Wars, and passing on this useful idea to the, then, infant motor industry. In 1939 the company was stocking 250 different cloths for the various branches of transport, and many of these are still available. They represent the enormous production of Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. We may add that the film, was excellent, its depth of colour and accuracy eliciting many flattering remarks. It will be circulated both at home and in the Empire.
Colour Film to Assist Wool-upholstery Campaign . . . .
Avoid any Danger' THE tragedy, reminiscent of from Self-locking ConI that described in "The tai ners Mistletoe Bough," which occurred recently in Leicester, when td boyk of six years of age were trapped in a Iticker. of a disused parcels deliveryvan, should Serve aS' a Warning regarding a small point in design. No lockers or,' in fact, any other form 'of container Alfi
either on a vehicle or elsewhere, especially one which may not be used for some time, should be so arranged that the lid or door is self-fastening (unless it can easily be opened from the inside). The incident was, of course, quite out of the ordinary and resulted from a combination of unusual circumstances.
Tyre-rolling ResistWE are indebted to the ance and Friction on " I.A.E. Journal for an Roads abstract from the Swedish
" Teknisli Tidskrift." This concerns an investigation from 1930 onwards as to the
rolling resistance of vehicles. It shows that, in general, this varies linearly with speed up to 37 m.p.h., giving coefficients of between 0.01 and 0.02, according to the road surface. A later research in Germany indicated that at high speeds the relationship ceased to be linear, the, coefficient of rolling resistance rising very rapidly to values of 0105 or more, at speeds over 80 m.p.h.., with which figure, however, we, do not think commercial-vehicle designers need concern themselves at present. The coefficient:of friction, applicable in resistance to sliding is shown to he an ambiguous factor which may have the form of static friction, sliding friction or gripping " friction, the last giving coefficients in ei..cess of one. The coefficient of static friction appears-,to be less well understood, various researches giving glues falling or rising respectively with *Tease an vehicle speed. The maximum coefficient i:>f friction betimeen a pneumatic tyre and a road surface _appearsitor.-.oaccur under partial sliding conditions of between44-12 per cent., the value then being approximately 0S
W/OMEN workers at one of Load the Rootes Group factories have made a praiseworthy gesture in the interest of the. Government's fuel-saving campaign. At this particular factory no night shift was being worked, but the women have elected to go on night work to ease the load on the electricity supply during the peak period_ The factory, therefore, is now closed during the day and started up at night, thus helping to level out the load over the 24 hours.
"Backroom Girls" rEELING that they could Who do Useful In-I directly help the national spection War Work . effort by givihg two or three
hours of their time each day in king some form of useful war work, a small band of busy housewives recently applied. to the Nuffield Organization for suggestions as to how this idea could be turned to account. The works manager of the nearest factory tried an experiment in entrusting
them with the inspection of fuses, which require a scrutiny with 20 separate gauges before they can be passed for service. Meeting in a spacious library ever since that time, tor a few hours a day, in a party of between 15 and 24, these " backroom girls " have done valuable work in inspecting many hundreds Of thousands of intricate mechanisms. On part-time work; such as this, women have displayed remarkable capacity and keenness.
II, /IAN Y manufacturers are "'showing considerable interest in the proposed Institute of Road Transport Engineers. Most of them appear to look upon it as a co-operative medium which should prove invaluable ,when it gets into its stride. In this connection, we must record the appreciation of the organizing committee in respect of the generous and thoughtful loan to it of the London board-room ot J. I. Brockhouse and Co,, Ltd., for its initial meetings.
Manuacturers Appreciate Value of Propos ed Institute