Passing Comments
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Dollar Exports Most Vital
pRESIDING at a conference organized by the Dollar Exports Council, the chairman of this body, Sir William Rootes, G.B.E., said the urgent problem which confronted us all is how to earn enough through our world export trade to pay for the imports, whilst leaving a balance sufficiently large to prevent our being at the mercy of every fluctuation in world conditions.
If U.S. defence aid was left out, we spent overseas in the first six months of this year, 24d. in the pound more than we earned by overseas trading. For the second half of the year, the deficit would probably be in excess of 6d.
The Dollar Exports Council was concerned entirely with the dollar markets, but it was believed that this area could afford one of the great opportunities for A28 the expansion of trade. We were now importing at the rate of over 18 billion dollars worth of goods a year, representing about £6,500m., and we were not getting the share of the export cake which we must have if our economic problems were to be solved.
Exports from the U.S.A. to Canada had risen from 63 per cent. pre-war to 75 per cent. now, but our share of Canadian imports had sunk from 18 per cent. in 1938 to 81 per cent. In the Latin-American dollar-account countries, our figure of 4.6 per cent. had not yet reached the pre-war share of 7 per cent. and this year we were overtaken by the Germans, whose share was now 3.7 per cent.
There had been a little better showing in the U.S.A., for we had won back 5.3 per cent. of the 6 per cent. pre-war figure. Unchecked inflation at home could make selling abroad almost impossible.
A.E.C. Line Production for Oil Engines
FEW works seem to remain in status quo for long, in fact, most that we visit are struggling to maintain or increase output, while modifying or enlarging their shops, many with the idea of obtaining better flow production and conserving limited labour resources.
A recent visit to the Southall works of A.E.C., Ltd., showed much progress in this connection, particularly in the re-equipping of the extensive section engaged on machining cylinder heads and engine casings, to deal with the introduction of the new range of oil units. This consists of vertical and horizontal engines built from the same basic components, hut equipped with different sizes of cylinder sleeve to give alternative capacities of 470 and 410 cu. in.
The main objective has been to reduce the physical effort required by the operators on the new lines and the components have merely to be pulled or pushed on roller runways; special slides and turnover devices are all at the same level, and only in a few cases has use to be made of mechanical hoists.
To achieve this, each worker now has at his command about 30 b.h.p., whereas on the former method of batch production the figure was only 7i b.h.p.
Where necessary in the lines, washing, drying and testing equipment has been installed, and in a. final cabinet for the engine casings a mist of rustresisting oil protects the parts. Careful time study determined the economic sequence of the machining operations, the machines being tooled so that they and the locating fixtures can be replaced in order to produce alternative types of engine.
Rdals—Britain's Cinderella
THE exhibition of photographs of roads, bridges and garages, and scale models, in the Great Hall of the Institution of Civil Engineers, Great George Street, London, S.W.1, certainly does not exaggerate the gravity of the traffic problems of this country. Jointly organized by the Institution of Highway Engineers and a group of other bodies concerned with road development and construction, the exhibition bears the title "Roads—How the World is Solving its Traffic Problems."
The pictures show how other countries in Europe, U.S.A., South America, Asia and the Dominions are preventing congestion on the roads. They provide striking evidence of the scale of work being carried out, not only by large and wealthy countries, but also by those both smaller and poorer than ourselves. In this connection, it is interesting to see that the countries in the forefront of motorway construction are Belgium, Holland and Western Germany, followed by the Scandinavian countries, all of whom have found it essential and economically advantageous to re-design their roads.