A New Multi-purpose Tanker
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A Commer Municipal Vehicle for Service in India, Which Has a Variety of Uses
THE municipal vehicle that Cornriser Cars, Ltd., of Luton, has just completed for service in Kathiawar, India, has several novel features of particular interest in that they combine to make the vehicle suitable for a variety of purposes without involving any change of body, or other time-wasting alteration.
The vehicle may be used as a street sprinkler and washer, a gully flusher and fire-engine: It has also the advantage that it can take its water supply in a variety of ways, including even the sea as a source.
Use is made of the Commer GL3 3ton chassis, which embodies a fourcylindered. engine, a four-speed gearbox and is mounted upon 32-in. by 6-in. pneumatic tyres, carrying a 750-gallon tank and a centrifugal pump. The lastnamed component is coupled through the medium of a variety of stop cocks and piping to the tank, and other parts for the several purposes now to be described.
For the pressure sprinkling of asphalted or cemented roads, there are two gunmetal sprinkler heads immediately behind the driver's cab and one on each side. They are capable of watering a street 50-60-ft. wide and aach sprinkler head is independently operated by levers, in the cab, in such a way that any head may be put out of action, or have the length of jet modified.
At the rear are gravity sprinklers of the box type designed for use on waterbound roads. These also are controlled by levers in the driver's cab, so that the device on either side may be operated, or both together.
An independent delivery pipe from the pump can be used for fire fighting and, for this purpose, the equipment comprises 100 ft. of hose and fire nozzle, which, when not in use, is carried in a box on the chassis.
The output of the pump for this work is about 100 gallons to 120 gallons per minute with a suction lift of 20 ft. It delivers at a pressure of 50 lb. to 55 lb.
when using a fire nozzle. The tank is equipped for gully flushing by
means of a 7-in, flushing valve and a 10-ft, copper-riveted leather hose.
Suction hose and a foot valve are comprised in the equipment, and this may be used either for fire fighting or for filling the tank from a wayside sup: ply or even from the sea. The interior of the tank is galvanized and the pump is equipped with gunmetal impellers, as a safeguard against the effects of sea water.
The tank may also be filled direct from above through a branch pipe, on the side, equipped with a non-return valve.
The pump itself is located on the near aide of the chassis and driven by a power-take-off shaft from the gearbox and roller chain. It can be primed by hand, using a small pump fastened to the rear of the driver's cab.
All the controls are in the cab. The gearbox power-take-off for the centrifugal pump is engaged and disengaged by the manipulation of a small handwheel flush with the floorboards and accessible through a small aperture.
There are six controls inside the cab, two for opening and closing the sprinkler heads, tsvo for regulating the spread of the sprinkler jets, two for controlling the gravity sprinklers. Just by the windscreen is a gauge to show the quantity of water in the tank.
Two of these vehicles are being provided under the present order.