NEW EQUIPMENT
Page 40
Page 43
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
and Publications
ANEW sparking plug cleaning and testing machine has been introduced by the Spark Plug and Ceramics Division of S. Smith and Sons (England) Ltd. The division manufactures both K.L.G. and Lodge plugs and the tester is one of the first joint products since the two manufacturing concerns were merged.
The unit embodies many features from previous Lodge cleaners anti testers although it bears the name K.L.G. Outside dimensions are 1 ft. 8-75 in. by 1 ft. 3.25 in. by I ft. 3 in. The upper face slopes and contains, all controls, air-pressure gauge and fault indicator, the gauge and pressure control being located between the covered cleaning and testing apertures. Compressed air and main supply connections are at the rear of the unit.
Makers: S. Smith and Sons (England) Ltd., Spark "Plug and Ceramics Division, St. Peters Road, Rugby, Warwickshire.
Keeping in Touch ATWO-STATION system has been added to the range of intercommunication layouts offered by D.J.P. Telephones Ltd. Features are low cost and flexibility. The latter is because other stations can be added as the need arises. The maximum number is six which can consist of one central and five sub-stations or all six able to call each other.
The basic system consists of two single-button telephones, 100 ft. of G.P.O. specification cable and a battery which will power the system for about three years. Lightweight handsets are provided and the telephones have a buzzer as the normal calling signal, but extension bells can be fitted if required. The system will operate over distances of over 1,000 yd. for which extra cable is available and a five-year guarantee is given.
Makers: D..1.P. Telephones Ltd., 156 Camden Hig h Street, London, N.W.1.
Price: Two telephones, 100 ft. cable and battery, £9 9s.
'THE third issue of the small road map of England and Wale I published by Rist's Wires and Cables Ltd. has recentll been issued. The map shows main through routes and motor ways including those under construction and planned for th( future. There are detailed plans showing access points am service areas of the three main motorways, the MI, M6 and thi M5 and M50.
Published by Rises Wires and Cables Ltd., Milehouse Lane Newcastle, Staffs.
ABATTERY charger which can be installed perrrianentl on a vehicle is now obtainable from all Ford dealers ii the U.K. A 1.5A charging rate is provided and the charge is suitable for 12 V systems.
The size of the charger is not much different from that o an ignition coil; it is about 2.5 in. in diameter and 4in. ii height. The weight is just over 2 lb. Connection to the vehicli battery is from two coloured leads fitted to terminals at thi top of the unit and also at the top is a three-pin socket whicl is covered by a plastics cap when not in use. A fuse is incor porated in the positive-lead terminal and a special three-ph plug is provided.
Makers: Ford Motor Co. Ltd., Dagenham, Essex.
Price: £2 19s. 6d.
American 011 Filters A MERICAN Luber-Finer oil filters are now available in th, U.K. through recently appointed sole concessionnaires. Various types are available and a feature of the filters is tha they eliminate the need for oil changes on both petrol an' diesel engines as they refine the oil continuously whilst th engine is in operation and so maintain it in its original con dition.
Concessionnaires: Filtration Service Engineering Ltd 8 Cotton Lane, Moseley, Birmingham, 13.
For Two Not One T" price quoted for the Anchor Lok spring brakes feature' in last week's issue should have read "not mare than £3 per pair ", and not E35 each as quoted.
As a tribe, journalists tend to get pretty blase, having "seen it all before '', but I must report having spotted just about the most colourful display of lighted Christmas trees I've ever seen •anywhere. The trees-29 of them—are outside the Great West Road, Middlesex. headquarters of the Firestone Tyre and Rubber Co. Ltd.
Most Illuminating
NI y old friend Norman Winter tells me that his company has been putting on these fancy displays for several years. For those of my readers who like statistics, six trees are 37 ft. high, eight are 18 ft., eleven are 15 ft., and four are ten-footers. Over 5,000 coloured lights festoon them, and will remain alight 24 hours a day until Twelfth Night.
Lifting Problem The larger trees, incidentally,
posed quite a lifting problem for Firestone. They were delivered from Gloucestershire towards the end of November; but how to put them in position ? The company decided to use a helicopter. The Ministry of Civil Aviation (worried since the main approach to London Airport, some four miles distant, is near the Firestone factory) said they could fly a helicopter only within their own boundaries. This meant bringing the helicopter in by road. However, the only ones that could be so moved were too small to lift the trees. In the end, Firestone had to rely on road transport (and why not ?) to supply a 60-ft. jibtnonated crane on a 15-ton chassis—and up went the trees !
Almost everyone I meet these days in both the manufacturing and goods vehicle operating industries seems to have one main topic of concern: just when are we going to get the new weights and dimensions in force, what will the figures be, and will they include existing vehicles? If I could divine the answers I'd rapidly make a packet as a consultant, I'm thinking. I'm told that one company in the industry—Carter Engineering Co. of Tamworth—is trying to get an interview with the Minister to see when 36-ft.-long rigids will become legal. Mind you, they've a special reason for wanting to know, having let slip that they've already sold their first 12-car Carveyor, although they won't be ready to build it until about next March.
Meanwhile Carter have come up with the rather startling news that they now supply a car transporter which "given certain conditions that will be resolved in the near future"
Car Transporters
will make the journey from Coventry to London Docks in two hours! That's only half an hour longer than it takes our prodigious Norman Tilsley in a car.
Professor Colin Buchanan's paper, given to the People and Cities Conference last week, in which he reviewed his now famous report, "Traffic in Towns", makes amusing reading.
Talking of the anxieties he experienced before the report was published he said this: "The bigger anxiety has been the likelihood that the report would turn out to be a complete flop—rejected by Ministers on the day of publication, scorned by the professions, spurned by property owners and developers, vilified by the motoring organizations, deemed wholly incomprehensible by the public at large, but grudgingly admitted by all to be quite a nice example of printing".
The Professor continued, amid laughter, "1 thought, for me to attend a conference of this kind would make the spectacle of a Christian being fed to the lions seem, by contrast, like afternoon tea at the Vicarage".
Very Well Printed
Bradford Headaches Assuming that drivers belonging to the Transport and General Workers' Union are engaged in carrying goods to the textile mill near Bradford where a labour dispute is in progress, and that they comply with their union's reported advice to deliver only to points outside the picket line, some tricky problems are likely to arise. Differences of opinion led to the textile employers concerned laying off their employees attached to a particular union. Subsequently non-union labour was engaged—and out came the pickets. Will the union drivers drop their consignments in the road—and will they find means of notifying the mill that the goods have arrived?
If goods are deposited short of the address to which they should have been delivered what about the charges? Is there a case for reduction? If so, how much? My forecast is headaches all round!
Lost Anything? Have you lost six
volumes on World War One—or perhaps a few tennis bails? Or could it he that you've lost your shirt (not on a horse, on a bus)—or a set of false teeth? Too bad if you mislaid any of these items in Newcastle recently, for all of this property, found on Newcastle upon Tyne Corporation buses, has now been auctioned. Total takings were £300! Now, where's my umbrella?