More Attention to Life Guards. WE are glad to see
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that efforts to provide some means' whereby the lives of careless pedestrians may be safeguarded are not entirely abandoned, although in the present instance we fail to note any very outstanding novelty in the arrangement shown; our only object
in mentioning the device is to show that there is still hope in the minds of some that the problem may be solved.
Patent No. 310,612, by Burton Smith, of 6, Skirrow Street, Cottingley, near Bradford, describes an invention which relates to life guards for motor vehicles. The particular device is in the nature of a front guard consisting of two parts so arranged that as one part is moved back by hitting an. obstacle another part will drop towards the ground, and at the same time the movement of the first part will operate a sanding device and apply the brakes. The welbtried device common to al tramcars performs the same functions, mid has saved the lives of many, but in a tramcar the arrangement is elm Plified by the Targ,e amount 'of overhang of the front of the vehicle. This permits ample time for the " tray " to drop before the front wheelscan come into Contiot with the object or person under the ear.
This is not so easily achieved-in the case of other vehicles, the front wheels of which must of necessity be nearer the front end of the frame.
Still Another Locknut.
THE locknut described in specifica tion No. 802,969 by Watson Hartley is one of that class in which a helical split or slot is formed in the nut extending right through to the bore and being in a reverse direction to the helix .of the
nut itself. Added to this feature is another, namely, the forming of the working face of the nut so that it is not at right angles with the bore. This last point, the specification admits, has been previously proposed. The specification goes on to say that the angular working face of the nut is so arranged that the slotted and more resilient portion first engages the face agaiest which the nut is to be tightened, the effect of this being to close up the slot, thus. causing the threads of the nut to grip tightly the threads of the bolt.
It is it somewhat curious fact that in automobile work one seldom sees 'anything used but the ordinary slotted nut and split pin, although almost innumerable forms of locknut and other securing device have been brought out from time to time, some of them possessing considerable merit.
Possibly the reason is that certain locking .devices soincrease production costs as to make their employment an uneconomic proposition in these days of extremely keen competition.
Charge-forming by Means of Catalytic Action.
SPECIFICATION No. 296,755, in the names of Dmitry Balachowsky and Philip ie Caire, both of 43, Rue Canmartin, Paris, relates to charge-forming and supplying apparatus for internal-combustion engines of the type in which fuel mixed with a small Proportion of air is passed into a catalyser and afterwards enters into a poiver-driven mixing device supplied with additional air, which air may be under pressure, to make a combustible charge. .
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The catalyser is formed. of one of the metals which, when heated, are known to effect the catalytic decomposition of hydrocarbons, and it may or may not be packed With one or more of such metals. A list of these appears on page 909 " Catalysis in Organic Chemistry" (Sabatier, translated by Reid), 1923 edition.