A British Producer-gas Development
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WillEN, over three years ago, Major W J. A. Macdonald, D.S.O., MC., was experimenting with his producer-gas plant for road vehicles in its early stages, we published a detailed description of the equipment he had installed on a Ford lorry, together with our impressions of the behaviour of the Vehide on the road."
As subsequently reported in this paper, Major Macdonald formed a company under the name of High Speed Gas (Great Britain), Ltd., 26, Victoria Street, London, S.W.1, further to develop his invention, and quite recently this concern acquired the old Gilford works at Park Royal.
An accompanying illustration shows a 4-5-ton lorry, which has since been built, and is the forerunner of a 4tomicr and a 7i-tonner which will shortly be produced for the British market. This vehicle is equipped by the
system to run on producer gas.
Under the bonnet, in front of the radiator, is the producer, from which gas is supplied to an expansion chamber mounted amidships on the off side of the frame. Thence it flows by two B28 tubes, ribbed for cooling, to a cleaner, which balances the expansion chamber on the near side of the frame. Leaving the cleaner, it passes on to an electrically driven blower, which creates a suction in the above-mentioned parts of the system, and impells the gas via a throttle valve to the induction pipe of the power unit.
The 5.3-Iitre engine develops, on gas, 55 b.h.p. and runs with a compression ratio of 8 to 1. The fuel used is anthracite peas,, and the consumption with a gross weight of over 8 tons is stated to be at the rate of 1.7 lb. per mile.
We hope to be able to publish, in the near future, a full description and-roadtest report of one of these models.