Passing Comments
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American Tyre Maker A FTER an absence of six Reintroduces Puncycar s, t h e Seiberling iure-sealing Tube . Rubber Co. of America has
reintroduced its cleverly designed puncture-sealing inner tube. In this, the part under the tread has an internal layer of plastic rubber held by bulkheads of strong rubber. Thus any holes in the tube caused by nails, glass, etc., are immediately sealed. Improvements have been made to prevent excessive weight.
A Warning ConcernA SERIOUS explosion ing the Use of Gas as r which occurred recently Fuel in connection with a gas driven taxicab in Paris, in , which the driver and four passengers were burnt to death, draws attention to possible dangers in the use of gas as an alternative fuel. No details are available as to what the particular fuel was, but we presume that it was cdal gas. Such an accident might be caused in various ways. Unless great care be taken in the selection of cylinders and their periodical examination, they might burst, particularly if heated by unusual sun strength. A small leak would be unlikely to cause an explosion unless one or More A24
cylinders were almost empty, so that there was an explosive mixture in them. Under such conditions, there might also be a flash back resulting from a back fire into the mixing valve, but this is an improbable combination of circumstances. The rapidity with which great heat was developed in the case to which , we refer indicates the almost instantaneous discharge of a considerable quantity of gas, and points to the bursting of a container. This, of course, may have been of the balloon type, a rent in which might rapidly emit a fairly large quantity of gas. Wei gas at high pressure the frac,ture of a pipe might also result in a considerable flow.
Much Use Now Made
A T the Basingstoke Works
of Magnetic Crack of Thornycroft great use is Detection . . . • made of magnetic crack detec
tion. All appropriate parts bought outside are tested in their finished condition, whilst others, such as. connecting rods and steering components, are examined in this way before any machining (other than rough fettling to provide bases for the detection work) is performed. In this way considerable expense which would be involved by wasting expensive machining on defective material is obviated. U.S.A. Controls and A MERICA is looked upon Restricts Payments by as almost the home of
Hire-purchase . . hire-purchase. Therefore, a
new regulation concerning this is of particular interest, in view of its possible reaction in other countries. Most hire-purchase arrangements between £12 10s. and £1,250 are to be controlled. For motor vehicles there must be a payment of one-third down, and for other articles one-fifth. Purchases up td £250 must be completed in 15 months, and over that figure in 18 months. This move is probably to avoid big losses in case of possible slump. A lesson in this respect was taught not long after the first great war, when many thousands of people could not meet their commitments and the hire-purchase people were flooded with "returns."
Thicknesses of Thin TH'Nfilms of plastic and
Materials Measured by other materials can now be
Beta Rays gauged continuously for thick
ness as they issue from the machines producing them, and this without any measuring device contacting the surfaces. The instrument employed for this purpose by the American Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. depends upon the comparative absorption of beta rays issuing from a radioactive carbon isotope. Thus, emanations passing through the sheet produce in an ionization chamber a tiny electric current, which is amplified by valves to operate a standard form of meter which is calibrated directly to register thicknesses. It is claimed that accuracy to one-millionth of an inch can be attained, and the cost of the apparatus is small