300 Purrey Steamers a Year.
Page 6
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The Bordeaux Works Manufactures Steam Trams, Railcars, and Tar-sprayers 300 Steam Wagons are Turned Out Yearly for All Parts of the World.
It may be remembered that in our issue of 6th February we described the Purrey-Exshaw steamwagon system, system, and we gave an illustration of a six-tonner at work in London.
There is undoubtedly, as we then wrote, an increasing demand in this country for steam-propelled vehicles for heavy haulage and, having heard, in certain quarters, renewed favourable reports of the Purrey-Exshaw, a machine that is, as yet, not properly appreciated in this country, we recently called upon Mr. D. M. Turner, who manages the company's interests for the United Kingdom, at his offices in Si, Shaftesbury Avenue. Mr. Turner succeeded in interesting us considerably in his account of the firm's progress, and we came away with some photographs of the Bordeaux works which we herewith reproduce.
This undertaking was established in 1900 by M. Valentin Purrey, inventor of the system. In 1910 the business was taken over by Mr. J. H. Exshaw, who is now sole proprietor. M. Purrey had long since got over the experimental stages,
and the present owner has found it necessary to lay down fresh plant from time to time to meet with the increasing output of the concern.
The number of employees is now well over 400. The Bordeaux works are well equipped with modern machinery and the firm has its own foundry and body-making departments. We shall publish next week illustrations of the machine and erecting shops ; these will serve to give our readers a capital idea of the fact that the PurreyExshaw undertaking is one of considerable magnitude.
Realizing more fully that the Purrey-Exshaw is, in other countries, very far from being an experiment, we feel that it may be as well to recapitulate the principal constructional features for the benefit of new readers.
Three models are being built, and these are of four, six and eight-tons capacity respectively. The generator, which is of the flash type, is carried on the main frame channels at the front end of the chassis and is supported by crossmembers. A group of flash tubes proceeds from a, lower rectangular collector to an upper cylindrical tank. The water is raised from the lower collector through the vaporizing tubes, and the steam produced is collected in the upper tank and then. passes through super-heating tubes contrariwise to the direction of the hot gases. It is finally directed to the upper compartment of the lower collector. This system of circulation guards against risks of condensation.
The whole heating surface is in direct contact with the fire, intense vaporization and rapid circulation_ in the tubes resulting.