German Field-Laundry Plant.
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There is little need to emphasize at the present time the extraordinary care for detail which characterizes the operations of all the principal belligerent armies in the present great war. This applies, of course, not only to the medical services, but to the various subsidiary organizations which care for the health and .well-being, Of the troops individually. We have already given in our columns an illustrated description of motorborne equipment to enable soldiers to have hot baths in the open. This particular installation was a British one. We have also, on other occasions, published particulars of the care which has been taken to ensure the proper washing of soldiers' clothes by plant carried on motor-vehicle units.
We are now able to place before our readers an illustration and brief description of the latest motor-borne laundry plant which has been adopted for the use of some of the Austrian armies.
We may briefly recall an equipment intended for similar purposes which the German armies adopted some while ago. This was a fieldhospital washing establishment turned out by the German Daimler lorry works in Mar ienfelde by Berlin. It consisted of a tractor and three trailers : the former carried the mangle, while the washing plant conveyed on the trailers waS made in such a way as to be fastened down by baulks of timber at whatever place the plant was stationed. The lorry itself was used to go out. mad fetch the clothes, etc., which were to be washed.
The first of the trailers carried the boiler, a steam turbine, a drying cupboard, and a supply of disinfectants and vessels ; the second had on board the washing machines and pumps for cold and warm water ; the third one carried the stores of various sorts of soaps, coal, soda, petrol and tools. As the clothes were brought in from the camps and bivouacs, they were sorted in a tent., and those which were particularly soiled or contaminated were treated in cresol solution previous to being washed. The capacity of this washing unit was 1500 kilos. a day, and one officer and 12 privates were employed in its working.
The washing establishment to which it is our desire to draw attention particularly at the moment is a similar but smaller one, which has now been put into service with the Austrian field force. The Austrians at first used plants of the type described above, turned out by the Marienfelde works, but these, it appears, proved too bulky and difficult to transport, so cer B30 fain Army engineers in Budapest designed the new one, which consists of one tractor-wagon and one trailer only, the former being the subvention model of the AustroDaimler works. This vehicle carries a washing machine capable of treating 1200 kilos. of clothes daily, as well as a separator, drying chamber, soap stores and tents. The trailer consists of what is known as a 15 h.p. Semi-mobile vehicle, whilst a steam pump furnishes the washing machine with hot water, the water boiler providing steam for the drying chamber additionally. The two vehicles are connected by a transmission shaft. The necessary pipes are fixed on the tractor and trailer respectively, and can be connected by flexible, copper hoses. Tbe bodywork on the trailer has double wood walls with an insulated coating, and these are collapsible. They also form the walls for the drying chamber, which latter has a heating area of 72 square metres, allowing 100 kilos. of clothes to be treated in an hour. Condensed steam from the drying chamber is led back to the feed• reservoir of the boiler, and so used over again. The operation of this plant is similar to that already described as being carried out by the German motor washing establishment, but the Austrian one is served by one Landsturm engineer and 22 Landstorm privates. The whole equipment can be loaded on the lorry and trailer in from six to eight hours.