Speeding Up the Distribution of Oils.
Page 71
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IN view of the heavy charges for demurrage added to the cost of detaining lorries at the goods yards for the purpose of using their engines to work pumps, an interesting innovation has just been introduced by Mr. Crette, district manager of the Bedford Petroleum Co. In order to speed 3.1p the transfer of (CS from the railway tanker to its lorries, the company has had constructed a two-wheeled trailer on pneumatic tyres which can be hitched on to any lorry and brought to the scene of
operations. This trailer is equipped with a powerful motor pump.
On the occasion when the accompanying picture was taken at Mar -seilles, five tons of heavy lubricating oil were pumped from the rail to the road tanks in less than 20 minutes, and as another lorry was waiting its turn there was no time wasted before the rail truck of the P.L.M. wits emptied.
Previous to the installation of this system the procedure was the lengthy one of emptying the oil by gravity into drams and then transferring it to lorries by manual labour, or, in certain eases, an improvement was effected by using a tank lorry provided with a small pump under the driver's seat worked by the engine of the lorry. Tht time taken, however, was considerably longer than with the new system and, in addition, there was the delay of waiting for the return to the goods yard of the pumpequipped lorry.
The installation shown in action is equipped with a single-cylindered motor driving a rotary pump with a volumetric capacity of 18,000 litres per hour. A bonnet with four detachable doors covers the whole chassis. When in use the chassis is raised on three legs and the • tyres are clear of the ground, thus preventing vibration. Oil-proof rubber hose of 80 mm. bore and bronze
couplings are used. The installation has been constructed by the Ateliers Esperandieu, Marseilles, to the designs ,of a British engineer.