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Bus Exhibition at Charing Cross
THE London bus is the main feature of the latest "Moving Millions" exhibition opened last Monday at Charing Cross Underground Station. It can be seen every weekday from 10 a.m.-8 p.m. until September 25. Admission is free.
The show has been planned to appeal to both adults and children, and visitors are permitted to sit in the full-sized model driving cab of a bus and operate the steering, preselective gears and compressed-air braking system—just as if they were on the road.
Other exhibits are a crack detector for chassis parts, injection-pump testing machine and working models of a bus engine and bus lubricating system. Warn parts are also being shown before and after reconditioning.
Parents will appreciate the display of precision tools made by 17-year-old apprentices in their first year at the Chiswick works.
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Song of the Trutzking Vehicle
THE puff-puff of the steam railway engine and the rhythm of the wheels on the track have frequently provided the writers of popular music with live material for reproduction orchestrally. It is a welcome change, however, to hear a gramophone recording in which the mechanical throbbing of a heavy trunking oil-engined vehicle is dramatized in sound.
"Diesel Smoke and Dangerous Curves," sung by Burl Ives with Grady Martin and His Slew Foot Five, concerns an American lorry driver who attempts to make up time on a tortuous and hilly route after lingering .at wayside cafés. The bends in the road are not, it appears, the only curves that can prove dangerous. Desperate haste, a pricking conscience, burnt-out brakes and stripped gears are portrayed in .song and sound with almost frightening realism, The theme is sordid, the end tragic. but the orchestration is excellent.
Will He get a Rocket?
A READER tells us that he has solved, to his own I-1 satisfaction, at any rate, the mystery of the flying objects" now so frequently reported.
He has noticed that there is usually one of large size surrounded by small satellites and that they continually change shape. His theory is that each big object is a wage claim, whilst its satellites are high prices, for none can dispute the fact that nearly all have gone sky-high in the past few years.
For Snow, Swamps and Deserts
A MOST interesting type of heavy mobile equipment is announced by the American concern R. G. Le Tournead of Texas and referred to recently by The Financial Times. Designed especially for use on snow, deserts and in swamps, it has eight wheels shod with the largest tyres yet made for any motor vehicle. Each tyre is 10 ft. in diameter and 4 ft. wide, and tests have shown that they are capable of supporting a 23-ton vehicle when pumped to a pressure of only 5 lb. These tyres, which were developed by the Firestone Tire and Rubber Co., give a total of 16 sq. ft. of rubber in contact with the ground, both front and rear.
Power is provided by a 400 h.p. engine driving a dynamo and each of the wheels has its own electric motor and reduction gear. The vehicle is said to be capable of achieving 8 m.p.h. on a loose surface.
Bases as Stock Exchanges
A WELL-KNOWN brokerage firm in America I-1 have equipped three buses as offices, which carry a staff of two. Their purpose is to interest people, particularly those in suburban areas, in buying shares on an instalment system.
Some idea of the cost of operation can be gained from the fact that that of each vehicle per day is estimated to be about L60, which will be borne by the branch of the business from which it operates. If one of these travelling offices discovers a particularly lucrative place, the head office will consider setting up a permanent branch there.