Passing Comments
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THE largest tyre made in Britain is now in quantity production at the Wolverhampton works of the Goodyear Tyre and Rubber Co., Ltd. It is known as the 21.00 by 24, and is for use on 13-cubic-yd. scrapers, employed for levelling rough ground for airfields and housing sites, and for open-cast mining. This tyre has an outside diameter of 5 ft. 7.7 ins. It contains 502 lb. of natural rubber and 109 lb. of rayon cord, the whole being enough to build 20 normal tyres, whilst of interest to ladies is the fact that the rayon would be sufficient to make 1,239 pairs of silk .stockings. The bead wire alone used in each tyre is 3,100 ft. The load-carrying capacity is 17,300 lb. per tyre at 10 m.p.h. and 15,490 lb. at 25 m.p.h. Despite the fact that each tyre -has to bear a weight of up to 9 tons, the inflation pressure is only 40 lb. per sq. in.
A Tyre with 40-lb Rressure Carries Nine Tons
How Bread Rationing 'THE man in the street would Has an Effect on I hardly expect that rationing Haulage Rates flour and oatmeal and the fact that animal foods are in short supply would seriously affect haulage and, in particular, haulage rates. Yet such is the case Our inquiries department is already receiving requests for information as to modification of rates likely to be brought about as the result a these controls. The rationing of flciur and oatmeal means a cut in the quantities available for haulage; the shortage in animal food and the resultant slaughter of livestock has brought about a corresponding diminution of traffic of what is, after all, only another branch of agricultural or rural haulage. The consequence is that operators are feeling the pinch, there is a shortage of work and competition for what is left is already having the usual effect of bringing about a minor epidemic of rate cutting. LondonTransport's Big Contributions to Commercial Are . . . . ItifORE has been done by "'London Transport to raise the standard of art in industry than by most other commercial undertakings. The Board's posters delight the eyes of many Londoners. Lord Ashfield, chairman of London Transport, recently presented to Mr. John Cliff, J.P., chairman, London County Council, the original of one of the famous "Proud City" poster designs. The poster shows the ruined Treasurer's House of St. Thomas's Hospital, Westminster Bridge, and the Houses of Parliament, and the artist was Mr. Walter E. Spradbery. London Transport's newly appointed advisory art committee attended the presentation.
A Huge City Where IT is a sad reflection on Old Taxicabs Never I British enterprise that in the Die British Empire's second city, Calcutta, all the taxicabs are of American make. Many of them are at least 16 years old. A representative of "The Commercial Motor" who lived in Calcutta during the war, rode in a taxi of which the chassis frame was at least 4 ins. out of alignment. It left behind it four separate tracks and the ,antics of the burly Sikh driver with the steering wheel suggested that even he was aware that all was not well. Nevertheless, the vehicle was in little worse shape than many others. The railway method of shunting employed by taxi drivers on the cab ranks must be hard on the vehicles. Judged by the variety of fares charged for identical journeys, this treatment also causes serious disturbance to the taximeters!
Sparking Plugs Gas. MORMAL vehicle engines tight at 1,000 lb. per " have Compression ratios up sq. in. to about 6 to 1; others for racing, etc., have ratios as high as 12 to 1, necessitating the use of special fuels. In this connection, every aero plug produced at the Lodge factory, Rugby, undergoes a "leak" test at a compression ratio of over 40 to I, or 600 lb. per sq. in. At the Rolls-Royce factory, a set of these plugs which had just completed a test of 184 hours in a Merlin aero-engine was found to . be completely gas-tight when tried out at 1,000 lb. per sq. in., representing a compression ratio of 68 to 1.