Aveling and Porter : Stand 72, The world-famed Rochester hous.:
Page 11
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
of Aveling and Porter, Ltd., has staged two representative examples or its latest models of steam and petrol road vehicles. The steamer is a most handsome machine, with high-sided body and ramps, built for Schweppes, Ltd., and it carries a load of that maker's mineral water cases. This is a used wagon, having been in the service of Schweppes, its owners, from the 30th Al ay, 1912, since which date it has worked for 304 days, and has covered a distance of 11,070 miles ; it has done over 51,000 ton-miles of useful work for its owners at a cost for repairs of 2s. 6d., this cost being rendered necessary through the breaking of a copper pipe by reason of the driver's accidentally standing upon it. It was only taken out of service for the Show on the 12th inst.., and has since been varnished for the exhibition. This information was given to our representative by Mr. Maidens, the engineer in charge of Schweppes, which company has now five Aveling and Porter steamers, and is most pleased with their working.
The particular machine shown was one of the smartest of the machine:i on parade at Grosvenor Road on Whit-Monday last. Its wheels are shod with steel tires, although in many instances rubber tires are fitted to this model.
The Aveling petrol wagon, however, is a more recent introduction,
and it follows the orthodox lines of petrol-wagon design. Its fourcylinder engine is housed under a bonnet, and the drive is through a lined-cone clutch through a fourspeed-and-reverse gearbox and cardan shaft to a worm-driven back axle, the main casing of which consists of massive steel castings. The rotative effort of the back axle casing is resisted by a. cast-steel triangular torque member, whilst the top leaves or the rear bearing springs are left to take care of the tractive effort. Probably the most interesting feature on this chassis is the means of carrying and anchoring the blocks for the footbrake gear. These are secured to a bridge piece made out of 4 in. by 2 in. rolled channel, each of the blocks being anchored to acrosshead, which is free to slide vertically by the small amount. necessary to allow the two blocks to accommodate themselves to the varying degrees of wear, so that, should A hard block and a soft block be mounted together, the hard block would not be left to do the whole of the work.