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New Fire Brigade Appliances.

23rd January 1908
Page 16
Page 16, 23rd January 1908 — New Fire Brigade Appliances.
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An Electric, Turntable, Motor Escape for the Liverpool Fire Brigade.

The use of the storage battery for the supply of energy in self-propelled vehicles is, in this country, a limited one and the limitation of its use may be put down to a very large extent to the confined radius in which a vehicle which is relying upon such a source of power must work. In the case of the commercial vehicle, or touring car, such a limitation is fatal to economical and really serviceable running, but, in the case of lire appliances, which work from a fixed centre, and in a small area, this disadvantage is one which is of little import. The average distance that such machines are required to travel, to outbreaks of fire, might be stated as well within three miles; in half a dozen towns only, perhaps, there would be a possibility that the machine would have to go more than ten miles to the point of action. In fire-brigade work, therefore, with batteries capable of running the vehicle 25 to 3o miles, very little difficulty should occur, as the batteries can be kept up to concert pitch and always fully charged for the outward journey. by Putting in the charging plug at the station, immediately upon the return home of the vehicle from its work,

The electrically-propelled, motor, turntable escape, which has recently been put into service by the Liverpool Fire Brigade, relies upon the storage battery and electric motors for its propulsion. The escape, which is the production of Iienry Simonis and Company, of Norfolk House, Norfolk Street, Strand, W.C., is illustrated at the foot of this page, the view showing the ladder in its normal position for travelling. The full extension of the ladder is t7 feet, and this enormous height will bring the highest buildings into easy range. The whole escape is carefully balanced on a turntable, placed at the rear of the chassis, and the ladder can be extended to its full length in 30 seconds, by means of electric power. When fully raised, the ladder can be turned in any desired direction, by means of the turntable, and any angle can be given to it immediately.

The storage battery of this vehicle consists of 8o cells; these are divided up into ten sets of eight cells each, and the whole is placed over the front wheels. The sets of cells are independent and interchangeable, and, should one require attention, it can be removed easily without affecting the capacity of the machine further than the to per cent. loss entailed by its absence. The battery supplies two electric motors, one of which is arranged to gear with each front wheel ; they drive direct from pinions on their armatures on to internal gear rings on the front wheels. The front-wheel drive, it should be noted, reduces very largely the tendency to side-slip, a matter of considerable importance in such emergency work as fire fighting.

The controller is regulated by a lever, which forms part of the steering wheel. This lever works on a quadrant, and can take up nine different positions, five in one direction, and four in the other. The first five govern the forward speeds, whilst, of the latter four, the first two control the two electric brakes, and the others the two reverse speeds. The drive is very simple, and the front axle can be locked round to 18o degrees, and in this respect compares favourably with the old horse-drawn engines. For large machines, such as escapes, which must manoeuvre in confined spaces, this is an advantage which cannot be too highly estimated.

Glasgow has been the pioneer in the direction of the use of this type of machine and our second illustration on this page shows a petrol-electric fire escape which was supplied by Henry Simonis and Company, to the Corporation of that city some time ago, the ladder on this machine being only some three feet shorter than that of the Liverpool escape. This vehicle has given the Corporation such satisfaction that an order has been placed with the company for a 450-gallon, petrol-electric motor pump, constructed on much the same principle.

Tags

Organisations: Liverpool Fire Brigade
Locations: Glasgow, Liverpool

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