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Passing Comments

2nd September 1932
Page 36
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Page 36, 2nd September 1932 — Passing Comments
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KERBSTONES and flagstones are tested for wear at the National Physical Laboratory by arranging specimens in an apparatus to form a rectangular container. In this are then pla-ced a large number of steel balls and the apparatus revolved at constant speed for 24 hours, in one direction and for the same period in the reverse. The stones are then weighed and the loss due to abrasion noted. Bending and absorption tests are also made.

A USEFUL liquid that has some remarkable properties is trichlor-ethylene, which is used for washing grease off machinery parts. The chemical formula for this substance is C2IC13 and, although in scent and solvent ability it would appear to be an inflammable spirit, it actually is a fire extinguisher. Another peculiar thing is its heaviness ; the specific

gravity is about 1.47 and water floats on it—in fact to prevent evaporation trichlor-ethylene is stored in tanks under a surface layer of water.

IF the schedule of taxes becomes law in anything like the form in which it is proposed, there is going to be a boom in bodies constructed of aluminium alloys. *

IN conversation with a business man the other day we elicited the information that, out of a business experience of 26 years the first 13 had been spent as a railway official, and the remainder in charge of a commercial undertaking. He said that the second period had more than sufficed to remove from his system any virus of bias in favour of the railways which might have been implanted as the result of the former period. pASSENGER-VEHICLE operators who have to make frequent reference to the Notices and Proceedings issued by the Traffic Commissioners (commonly referred to as ".gazettes"), often express the opinion that much time could be saved if each page were headed Part I, II or III, as the ease may be. At present more time is often taken in turning over pages than in reading the section in which one is interested.

IT is often difficult to impress inexperienced vehicle users with the folly of buying on a price basis, of choosing the cheapest. One well-known commercial-motor agent, who is also a coachbuilder, has taken the law into his own hands, and refuses to supply cheap bodywork on the good-class chassis for which he holds the agency. The bodies he supplies are considerably more expensive than the average, but they are worth it. He backs his own recommendation by giving, with each body, a guarantee which extends to five-years' use or 85,000 miles. He showed us a photograph of a Thornycroft lorry, equipped with one of his bodies, which had covered 285,000 miles and was still running. THE larger haulage contractors insist that much of the trouble which is so rife in the industry to-day, especially that of rampant rate cutting by irresponsible members of the industry, is the outcome of the facilities for hire-purchase of vehicles which are so popular. If the practice which was described to us the other day extends, the time will soon come when the hire-purchase finance companies themselves will tire of the business. Hauliers of the unsatisfactory type now carry on their businesses by purchasing a second new machine, on the instalment system, after the first has given about a year's service. They then default on the payments for the first and allow it to be repossessed by the finance company.

WHILE recently in the Channel Islands, we were impressed with the number of 30-cwt. and 2-ton trucks used for carrying potatoes in Jersey and tomatoes in Guernsey. In Jersey most of the vehicles are either Fords or Chevrolets, with platform bodies well adapted for carrying barrels of potatoes. In Guernsey there are more British-built vehicles, the body chiefly used being the Luton, which is adapted for tomato-basket transport.

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