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News and Comment—con.1

17th September 1908
Page 11
Page 11, 17th September 1908 — News and Comment—con.1
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

The annual dinner of the Cycle and Motor Trades Benevolent Fund will be held, under the chairmanship of Mr. Albert Eadie, at Me Hotel Cecil, on Thursday, the 15th proximo.

A Rubber Exhibition.

The first International Rubber and Allied Trades Exhibition which has ever been held was opened at Olympia, on Monday last, by Sir Henry A. Blake, G.C.M.G. (an ex-Governor of Ceylon, the -Bahamas, Newfoundland, Jamaica, and Ilong-Kong). The exhibits consist chiefly of samples of rubber and guttapercha from all parts of the world, but there is also a representative collection of machinery such as is employed for the working up of the rubber from its raw state to the numerous finished

articles for which it is used. During exhibition, a series of lectures, ty

experts, is to be given on the manufacture of rubber tires, mechanical rubber goods, and many other articles. "A Talk on Synthetic Rubbers and rubber substitutes and assistants" will be the subject of one of these lectures, by Mr. H. C. Pearson, the Editor of the " India Rubber World." Although it is not, strictly speaking, a motor exhibition, there is much to interest manufacturers and users of motor vehicles. The exhibition will remain open until Saturday, the 26th instant.

An article on an allied matter—that of tire repairs appears on pages 23 and 24 of this issue,

Dennis Motor Fire Pump on Trial.

Arrangements were made for the performance yesterday of an exhaustive series of tests with one of the latest examples of the Dennis motor fire pump. It was arranged that a party, consisting of members of the Press, the chief officers of a number of Fire Brigades, and other interested persons, should be conveyed in motorcars to the scene 4 operations at Weybridge. No definite programme was laid down beforehand, but it was decided that a full series of tests be carried out that should include suction both direct from the river and from hydrants from the main coupled direct on to the engine. The Weybridge, horse-drawn, steam fire engine was to be in attendance, and it is hoped, at the moment of writing, that comparative data of an interesting nature will be rendered available from the performances of the rival types of machines under like conditions.

So far as the efficiency of the standard type of steam fire pump is concerned, there is room . for but little improvement, but the horse-drawn machine lacks the all-necessary qualification of considerable speed on the-!road. .Attempt have been made in several

directions to remedy this shortcoming, by the evolution of a self-propelled steam .pump, but this type has proved to be costly in upkeep, and, • in its present form, it is unwieldy and inadvisably heavy. The cost of maintaining steam constantly, while the machine is at rest in the station, has in some cases reached the sum of per annum.

The employment .4 a reliable inter. nal-combustion motor, which shall both drive the pump and propel the vehicle, simplifies the problem to a great extent. It remains only thoroughly to introduce this latest form of machine to those who are responsible for the upkeep of the Fire Brigades throughout the country, and to endeavour to overcome the innate conservatism with which various circumstances have so long imbued the policy of many of the firemasters of Great Britain. The enterprise of the Dennis Company bids fair to awaken a deal of interest in the possibilities of this type of fire-fighting appliance.

The latest Dennis machine, of which we reproduce an end view photograph, possesses a new form of turbine pump, and this is driven through suitable gear

ing by the petrol engine. Arrangements are provided whereby this pump is self-charging there is always a. perfeet vacuum maintained, and-the bump will commence to deliver water almost at the moment of placing the suction strainer in the source of supply. It is unnecessary for us again to describe the principal mechanical details of the Dennis fire pump. as we gave a full account of the machine in our issue of the 23rd of July. We may have occasion to refer next week to the conclusions which may be drawn from the nresent trials.


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