The Supply Department.
Page 19
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Selected Information which is likely to be of Interest to Makers, Owners, and their Buyers, Brown Bros., Ltd., of Ureat Eastern Street, London, E.C., sends us a sample of a small useful fitting for attachment to the step or other convenient part of a car, in order to facilitate the unscrewing of the caps of standard petrol cans. It consists of a simple east-iron bracket on which are formed suitable snugs that. fit. into the slots of the standard petrol-tin cap. If a fitting like this does nothing else but save the corners of other cans, it should be welcomed, at any rate by the people who own the cans, if not by those who borrow or hire them. The price is is. 3d., retail.
The Imperial Hydraulic Meter.
We have had our attention drawn to an interesting form of petrol meter, an example of which was recently installed at the depot of the now defunct Express Motor Cab Co. The meter contains a small three-cylinder hydraulic engine with the pistons grouped symmetrically in a vertical position round the centre of an enclosed casting. The ports are arranged in the centre column of the casting, and the three piston rods operate on a three-armed valve which has a combined oscillating and rotating motion aliout its own spherical seating. The body and cover of the easing are of cast-iron ; the valve and piston rods are of hard gun-metal, whilst the valve seating and the bushes are of vulcanite and the cylinders may be either of vulcanite or gun-metal. That this form of meter is likely to come into general use for the measuring of petrol supplies we are not at the moment convinced, but the machine is en interesting one and its actual application to the reotorements of a large motor garage brines it within the realm of practical politics. Beek and Co., Ltd., 130, at. Suffolk St., E.C., is the maker of this device.
The Use of Cane in Tire Construction.
We illustrate herewith a spring wheel of a very remarkable nature, which has been the subject of over four years' experiment. It cannot be denied that users of industrial vehicles are nowadays invariably sceptical of the remarkable claims that are made by inventors of spring wheels generally on the scores el upkeep cost, length of life, resilience. etc., etc. It is inadvisable, however, to allow scepticism to go to such lengths that a design, because it is quite unconventional, shall he dismissed with scarcely any consideration.
At first sight we must admit that the device which has, during the course of several years, been developed by Mr. R. V. Wagner, 34. Gray's Tim Road. W.C., appears freakish, hut, its behaviour in service, at any rate, warrants consideration. The weight is supported on the inclined ends of innumerable, short lengths of cane, whose lower extremities are fixed in a perforated wooden rim which runs round the ordinary wheel felloe. The canes, as the drawing here shows. are spaced very close together, and in order that the superimposed tire shall not creep to any appreciable extent, for half the width of the felloe the canes are inclined in one direction and for the other half in the opposite direction ; both, however, are in the vertical plane of the wheel. Some four years ago Mr. Wagner first of all began to experiment in the use of canes in this way, and he has much to tell of the eliminations and alterations that he has embodied since then. A wheel which has completed something over 4,000 miles on a high-speed heavy limousine car certainly goes far to disarm the ready critic. Little seems to have happened to the rim_ of this wheel other than a slight wearing of the ends of the canes. Mr. Wagner has discovered that
to ensure .successful running it is necessary to assemble this wheel in a peculiar way. He had much disappointment by the adoption of a rim which was not endless but which was joined by lap plates. He now uses an endless tread, which may be a steel band covered with a hemp tire, in which he has some faith, or may alternatively be of hinged metal sections. The cane-mounted portion of the wheel is not built on to an endless felloe, but on to sections which can be inserted into the endless tread. When these are all in position then the centre spoke portion of the wheel is inserted, and by a special process the felloe is forced out in such a way as to hold the canes up into the tire. It is only necessary to add that the lengths of cane are impregnated with a special composition which renders them immune from splitting and from the effects of the atmosphere, water and oil. Each standard section of canes, we are, told, will support a steady load of IC tons.
Mr. Wagner, who is nothing if not an enthusiast, will be pleased to justify his method of construction to anyone who is interested. He claims extraordinary cheapness of running for this remarkable form of wheel. The whole spring portion, including the tire and tread, he can produce in comparatively small numbers even, at. under £3 10s. apiece.