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A Motorcycle Equipped as a Gas-mains Cleanser

21st July 1931, Page 63
21st July 1931
Page 63
Page 63, 21st July 1931 — A Motorcycle Equipped as a Gas-mains Cleanser
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Keywords : Sidecar, Vacuum Pump, Pump

IN the manufacture of gas such substances as naphthalene, tar, paraffin, rust and water find their way into the pipes, and the foreign matter must be extracted otherwise the house supplies would soon become clogged. A novel and decidedly unorthodox machine for extracting waste matter from the cutups which are built at regular intervals in the mains has been constructed to the design of Mr. Wilson, of the Tottenham and District Gas Co., and, after being in use over a year, it has been found to save the gas company more than £1,000 in the year.

The machine illustrated is a twin-cylindered Zenith motorcycle, which has to some extent been modified. The engine derives motive power from only the front cylinder, whilst the rear cylinder is used as an extractor pump to form a Vacuum in the tank built on the sidecar chassis. The carburetter intakeon the rear cylinder has been dismantled and replaced by a flexible hose connected to the vacuum tank on the sidecar.

Owing to the abnormally heavy service on which this machine is engaged the rear wire wheel has been replaced by a Morris Sankey wheel carrying a larger high-pressure tyre. The reason for the change is readily understandable when it is realized that the tank frequently carries 10 cwt. of waste material extracted from the gas mains, besides the driver and his assistant. Other than these alterations there is little variation from the standard design.

It is, however, somewhat remarkable that the front cylinder should be capable of supplying sufficient driving power, not only to operate the rear cylinder as a vacuum pump, but also to drive the fully loaded machine along the road. When the outfit returns to the depot the fluid matter is run off from a tap in the base of the tank, but the solid matter has to be extracted through an orifice in the top.

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