Armitage has food for thought
Page 27
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
WHEN the RHA communications unit (or public relations department as we oldies used to call it) calculated that its three-axled exhibition trailer loaded to 40 tonnes gross could carry 486,000 Yorkie chocolate bars — a sight to gladden the heart and rot the teeth of many a schoolchild — it failed to add that the vehicle would be less than half full.
In fact it has capacity for now fewer than 1,063,946 of these sweetmeats. If such a load were permitted, however, the trailer would need at least seven axles.
There are parts of the world, of course, where road trains operate and the mind boggles at the thought of a 150-tonne rig crossing the outback with 2,434,453 Yorkie bars, which the local aboriginals would have no hope of consuming before the lot melted. It has been conservatively estimated that each longsuffering abo would need to eat 175 bars in 14 minutes to beat the outback melting time for chocolate.
On the other hand, an 82tonne outfit crossing the Outer Mongolian steppes could carry only 1,226,243 Yorkie bars, but they would reach their destination frozen solid and in no state for ready-mixing with caribou blubber, the staple diet.
These calculations assume that the freight consists entirely of solid chocolate Yorkie bars, and not the less-dense peanut or raisin and biscuit variety, for which the sums would be different. Either way, with the prospect of multiple chocolate mountains being set up throughout the world, perhaps the Friends of the Earth have an unanswerable case for the retention of the 32-tonner.