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Turning The Tables WE have commented upon on Those Making VI' the bad practice of workers "Foreigners" . . wasting time and material in producing "foreigners." such aS lighters, models, etc., in factories. The Dunlop Co. is, however, turning the tables, for it is encouraging operatives at Fort Dunlop to spend any spare time at their disposal in the manufacture of Christmas toys for the children of Servicemen formerly employed at the factory, the materials used being oddments which cannot otherwise be utilized. Each child will have some such toy as adoll, doll's bed, model Tank, steam roller, crane, wheelbarrow or aeroplane. The Spotters' Club, the members of which keep a lookout for enemy aircraft, •is . constructing 48 different model teroplanes to be standardized for general production. THE U.S.A. Army has found, as a result of tests on cotton and rayon tyres in the large heavy-duty tyres, that rayon is superior. The makers have been asked to increase their output of this type. The present pro. duction is 100,000 tons of rayon cord for tyre par poses alone. The tyre tests are of interest. In the case of aircraft tyres, they mu'st hit the ground at 100 m.p.h. with the landing brakes jammed on, the tread part actually folding back on itself. Far the bruise test, a blunt, cone-shaped plunger is pushed down on to the inflated tread. Ordinary 9-in. tyres usually burst when the plunger has sunk in 6 ins., but it can reach the rim of a nylon tyre without bursting it,. and, the tyre will spring. back uninjured when the plunger is withdrawn.
Rayon Tyre Casings are Stronger than Cotton
PalmOil. Fuel May A N invention from India by Turn "Out to Be a which it is Claimed that Good Tip . . , ; motor vehicles may be -run-on any liquid fuel, including vegetable oil, has been patented by .Mr. T. K. Nair, former chiefchemical analyst and metallurgist to the East India Railway, and his son, all engineer in
the Defence Service. At Calicut, Malabar, a car fitted with their new carburetter has covered 52 miles en less than two gallons. ,
THE long list of institutes and institutions which takes up so much room in the London Telephone 'Directory may possibly be further lengthened by the addition of an Institute of Information. The British Society• for International Bibliography heard %paper read by Professor A. F. C. Pollard on September 28, urging the advisability of such a proposal. Details of the scheme are available from the secretary of the society, 28, Victoria Street, London, S.W.1. Will an Institute of Informationbe formed? 'Encouraging the A FILM indicating what Production of Rubber n happens to rubber after
in East Africa . . its collection, has been • made '. and will be shown to workers in the rubber-producing areas of the East African colonies. It will demonstrate some of the important uses of this product in the equipment of the Empire's fighting forces. An expert has been appointed to advise on rubber-production in these Colonies. , •
New Germ an SubA CCORDING to a report, stitute for Some Light r-ka, n e w material; called Alloys " Pressband," has been produced b y a company i n Wurtemburg. It is said to be a kind of processed wood and consists of thin birch veneers compressed with ela-stic sheets of vulcanized fibre, bonded with a dry synthetic adhesive. The material is said to be strong and light. The tensile strength is given as 11,000 lb. per sq. in., which, however, falls far short of that of steel, so that it is presumably intended tc replace, to a limited extent, the lighter metals.