Passing Comments
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Triple Link in Agriculture
'f THE advantages of co-operation have been well HE in connection with the Smithfield Show and Agricultural Machinery Exhibition, which will be open at Earls Court from December 8-12.
It is not very long ago since The Smithfield Club, The Agricultural Engineers Association and The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders got together to make the Show a joint effort. At first it was thought highly venturesome to stage it at Earls Court, but interest in it has grown so rapidly that even the great space there is proving insufficient and some of the entries have had to be cut down.
The chairman of`the joint committee, Sir Patrick Hennessey, recently said humorously that it was interested in any agricultural products that walk, roll or crawl. Curiously enough, there were fat-stock producers who were motor manufacturers and motor manufacturers who were producers of agricultural machinery.
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F(eather) B(edded) Anfantry)
TS road transport making the Army soft? This I question is posed by a recent speech of Marshal of the Royal' Air Force Sir John C. Slessor, Chief of the Air Staff, who said: "Let us by all means use motor and air transport . . . but let us at the same time not forget how to march."
In his staccato style, which must disconcert junior officers, he added: "We—and, perhaps, especially the Americans—are liable nowadays to think we cannot fight without all sorts of things like N.A.A.F.I. supplies, cigarettes, cinema shows, Coca-Cola, doughnuts and a regular supply of newspapers. But we may as well face the facts of life, one of which is that the armies of free, democratic States, with a decent standard of living, do require more of these sorts of luxury than the hordes of totalitarian dictatorship-and that means transport."
If it was true in Kipling's day that "transportation is civilization," it is doubly so to-day.
Tense and Impressive Film
Fums constitute an excellent meditim for telling a long story in a short time. This applies particularly to that introduced recently by Shell-Mex and B.P., Ltd., under the title of "The Stanlow Story."
The building of the immense refinery, to which this refers, was a great task, made more difficult by drastic weather conditions and a site which for months was almost a bog. To many people a refinery is merely a mass of metal towers and pipes where the products are seldom, if ever, seen. The main interest in this film, however, was the way in which long fractionating columns and other equipment, weighing hundreds of tons individually, were transported and hoisted into position. Some of the largest were mounted on low trucks so that when the upper end had been lifted to 70-80 degrees, the lower end could be pushed along on its truck and sited with admirable accuracy and remarkable speed.
There must be almost perfect so-ordination between those in charge of the hoists and the men on the ground or, perhaps, part of the way up a base. Huge pieces of equipment are shown being lifted and mancetnieed an inch or so at a time so they can be bolted into position. A slight error might sweep men off precarious perches, or even crush them. Something of the tenseness shown _by the skilled workers in these operations communicated itself to the audience.
Canadian Truck 1?oadeo
TRANSPORT drivers from all over Canada corn' peted in the Sixth National Truck Roadeo, held in Toronto from November 8-10. This was the first roadeo to be held in which winning drivers of provincial contests from the Atlantic to the Pacific were permitted to compete for national honours. Each test was designed to represent the type of difficult driving problem which drivers of lorries normally meet during the course of their work. Only drivers who had a clean licence for the preceding year were allowed to compete, because the prime object of the roadeo is to encourage safe driving.