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Passing Comments

30th January 1959
Page 28
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Page 28, 30th January 1959 — Passing Comments
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A Worthwhile Association

IT has for long been the impression amongst many tech nicians that the Diesel Engineers and Users Association, 18 London Street, London, E.C.3, which was founded in 1913, has been concerned almost solely with power units employed for stationary purposes. This has applied also to the Association's interest in gas turbines.

Actually, this is a misconception and the body has recently issued a leaflet setting forth concisely the benefits offered to those connected with oil engines and gas turbines for all classes of application. Technicians responsible for the design, manufacture or maintenance of these units are eligible for membership. Other people interested in them in any way are eligible for subscribership, or the special subscribership (E) at meduced subscription of £2 2s. per annum, compared with the £3 3s. for the two other grades, which is available to those concerned with education in power production. Whilst members and subscribers have equal privileges, control is vested in the members.

Included. among the facilities are friendly, informal meetings held monthly in the winter, and visits' to appropriate engineering establishments in the summer, whilst the six issues of the proceedings include the well-known "Working Costs and Performance Report." Meetings are now held in the Memorial Hall of the Institute of Marine Engineers, where there is more room for visitors, and the

conditions are much better than formerly.

Whilst nearly all the larger manufacturers are subscribers, as are many of the bigger users, the main membership is comprised of smaller users, whose experience helps the makers to improve their products.

Putting it on the Spot

ppo ESEARCH on the properties of lubricants has, in the " past, been mostly concerned with these materials in their bulk form. A newer approach to the problem is to study their performance in the small but critical areas of near contact. Such a contact is where a ball " rolls " on the raceway in a bearing. The basis of the test is how well a lubricant serves its purpose on the spot.

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Some Early Touring Maps

A CONTRIBUTOR to this journal states that although " map making began some 4,500 years ago, the touring map came into existence only with the automobile age, and that the first appeared in the Chicago Times-Herald in 1895 in connection with a Thanksgiving Day meeting. This may have been so in the States, but in Britain road maps and routes measured, from well-known spats such as Hyde. Park Corner, London, Holborn Bars, etc., with the names of towns and cross-references as to the routes on which they lie, were published well before A.D. 1800. In fact there are one or two in the offices of The Commercial Motor dating from as early as A.D. 1791, whilst another, printed a few years later, contains a record of a case in the Court of King's Bench in which the publisher took action against another for " piracy " of his publication and plagiarism.

Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

A PERFECTLY innocuous-looking 30-cwt. van which is 1-k regularly employed on wages collection for a company with over 2,000 employees, provides several surprises for any bandits foolhardy enough to risk attacking it. This vehicle, which is operating in Britain, but the whereabouts of which must not be disclosed, is painted in the standard livery of the company and is indistinguishable from other Vehicles in the fleet. Those lucky enough to be shown the interior, however, see several non-standard items!

For example, two short-wave radio sets are fitted, one in the cab and the other in the main section of the body, which is separated from the cab by a glazed partition. The glazing in this partition and in the rear doors is protected by wire screens which are strong enough to withstand. blows from ice picks or other weapons which have been used on previous occasions to break into such vehicles. Inside the cab there is a powerful electrically operated siren which, in addition to being controllable from the cab, can also be operated by means of a long cord which reaches through the van and can be held by the security officer when the van is actually being loaded outside the bank. At the first sign of trouble the cord is pulled, whereupon an

insulating pad is jerked from between two contacts and the siren wails its warning.

A thick stainless-steel bar is bolted into the floor at the rear of the body and to this the money boxes are chained and padlocked, stainless steel also being used for these items. Self-locking padlocks are employed and these are opened when the van leaves the factory and the keys left behind, it being necessary only to snap them shut when the boxes are in poSition. The rear dOors themselves are not locked but are barred from inside, thereby giving the occupants of the van a chance to get out in the event of an accident.

There are seats for four persons in the body against the partition, and in addition to having the short-wave radio and the siren control these personnel can switch off the engine ignition from a concealed switch inside the body, there being two more concealed switches within the cab.

A security officer travels in the cab and he carries a• " powder pistol" which is loaded with a blue powder to enable the officer to mark an attacker. No proper firearms are carried, however, the other personnel being armed with truncheons—which might well also leave blue marks!

New Process for "Plate" Glass

THE idea of the century for glass making has been I developed by Pilkington Bros., Ltd., and is referred to in The Financial Times. It is called the" Float Process" and was originally put forward in 1952 by Mr. A. Pilkington, technical director of the company._

The essence of the scheme is to float the molten glass on a bath of melted metal so that, while it is soft, it touches nothing but liquid. Thus the natural surfaces of the glass are preserved, uniformity of thickness is obtained and no grinding is required. In fact the fire-polished surfaces are said to be better than those achieved by the former grinding and polishing, whilst the method is continuous.

Although glass of this type is being supplied to Triplex for motor vehicles and will later be available for building purposes, mirrors and shop fronts, it is believed that it will be many years before the present normal production rnOthods will be entirely replaced, but the new glass should become cheaper, as the plant will be smaller, less costly and will not require so much manual labour.


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