Passing Comments
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Signpost inscriptions -THOSE who are concerned That Require Bringing I with the repainting of Up to Date , fingerposts would be well
advised to study modern conditions instead of slavishly copying the original legends. The directions on some posts stand in obvious need of revision—for instance, the name of Haywards Heath (a place of little consequence 50 years ago, but now a fairly important market town) does not appear at all until one is within a few miles of it, an omission which causes much difficulty to drivers coming to it from a distance.
A Vehicle Which THE accompanying illustraTravels Over Snow I tion shows a model of a
and Ice . . simple and interesting type. of vehicle for use over ice or upon snowbound roads. The actual machine has a Villiers air-cooled engine of 24 h.p. The drive is taken first to a gearbox and then to a tractor wheel which carries detachable and specially shaped spuds. It can be used with a platform body, or the latter detached and the machine employed as a
" tricycle." This and other interesting types of ice machine are being produced in the U.S.A.
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Ensuring Comfort A N interesting method of When Designing New r-1. making certain that a
Bodies driver or passenger has ample room in a body is employed by Thrupp and Maberly, Ltd. An articulated model, in plywood, of a 6-ft.-man, complete with hat, is superimposed on full-scale drawings of the bodies.
The Colonial Empire QOME interesting facts about B ri ta in's G re atest i'-"the Colonial Empire as our
Export Market . . greatest export market were given recently in an address by Major W. E. Simnett, M.B.E., before the Institute of Export. The total trade of the Colonial Empire in 1934 amounted to £360,000,000. The 1935 figures show already that trade has steadily improved, and the total is now greater. This compares with a total of £500,000,000 before the depression—a difference mainly accounted for by the fall in prices; it is quite possible that the volume is greater now than in 1929. The Colonial Empire takes over 11 per cent, of our exports and is the largest single market. India comes next with about 9 per cent., whilst in the case of the United States the figure is lees than 54 per cent. THE influence of road transport is being increasingly felt in even Such • remote districts as the Hebrides, Orkneys and Shetlands. One applicant in that part of the Northern Scotland Area wished to replace by a lorry a small sailing vessel which had been laid up for the winter!
A Lorry in Exchange for a Small Sailing Vessel A New Light Alloy IT is always interesting to With Good CharacI follow the development of teristics the materials of construction.
In this connection, a new light alloy, named Ceralumin C, consisting of nickel, aluminium and a small amount of cerium, has been produced. The cerium permits the use of a high iron content without brittleness, and it is claimed that, when heat treated, the material has great tensile strength at ordinary and high temperatures, a satisfactory elastic limit, a high Brinell figure and a fatigue strength of 18,500 lb. liter sq. in. at 20,000,000 cycles. It is intended for die, chill and sand castings. Extra toughness can be obtained by omitting treatment after quenching, and ageing for five days at normal temperatures. Vaporizing Oil is No pr HE boom in paraffin
Longer a Popular vaporizers was short lived.
Fuel Not long ago there were a dozen or more concerns marketing equipment for converting petrol engines to run on the heavier fuels, but recently, as a result of an inquiry from overseas, we experienced difficulty in finding more than a few companies still engaged in this work.
Free-air Supplies Must n NCE or twice, lately, we
Be Efficiently Adminishave called, with commer tered cial vehicles, at public garages for "free air." If time be money, our experiences have not always proved so inexpensive as the above commonly used definition of this commodity would suggest, because the equipment has often beeh in a state of partial disrepair and has caused rather lengthy delays. There seems to be no excuse for this, for the various compressedair plants available are excellent. Through inefficient maintenance, a service, which brings in no direct profit, may become unnecessarily costly to its owner and an annoyance to his customer, thereby defeating its own object, which is to attract business.