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Masking with Plastic, A NEW method of masking Saves Much Tape and chromium parts while Time vehicles aro being spray
painted on the production line has been developed by an American company. Such parts are covered with a plastic coating instead of using tape, and the coating, covered in paint, is peeled off, leaving the chromium bright. This coating can also be used as a protection while vehicles are being delivered. When using tape to mask 20 chromium fittings, the work took up to 80 minutes; now the spraying occupies a maximum of eight minutes at a cost of less than one-third.
IT is interesting to note that I in the spring issue of the "Countryman," the Northern Transport Commissioner, Mr. S. W. Nelson, emphasizes the necessity of rural bus services. He advises parish councils, women's institutes and others concerned to make representations through their rural district councils to the bus operators, and, failing satisfaction, to their regional transport commissioner. He says that in some of the Yorkshire dales and the more remote parts of Cumberland and Westmorland, he has come across middle-aged people who have never even been to the Meeting the Travelling Needs of Country Folk
cinema owing to the lack of transport facilities. Farmers tell him that they cannot get employees to stay unless there are buses. Sparsity of the population makes it almost impossible to run such services remuneratively, but 'most of the larger companies have responded to his appeals for at least one service a week for shopping and recreation.
nNE of the most interesting `-•advances in connection with steel, and one which promises to provide a useful material for vehicle builders, has been announced by Colville, Ltd., of Glasgow. It comprises laminated steel in which a comparatively thin layer of stainless steel has a strong backing of commercial quality. This virtually incorrodible veneer will prove of great value where there is any danger of corrosion, and it will enable definite economies, to be effected. The stainless material is heated and rolled into a sandwich with the stronger slab of normal steel. The result is a protected medium which can be produced at something like 75 per cent. of the cost of all-stainless. The chief use would, 'of course, be where there is need for resistance to corrosion on one face whereas the other is not likely to be affected, Or where the latter can be protected in some other way.
Stainless-clad Steel for Use by Vehicle Builders
A Simple
Changing Device for Hydraulic Brakes . .
SOMETHING new in the control of hydraulically actuated brakes comes from the Wagner Electric Co., of St Louis, U.S.A. It is known as a ratio changer and has the effect of reducing by half the hydraulic pressure to the brakes on the front wheels, as compared with that for the wheels at the rear. Control is by a knob on the dash, and when this is put in the " off" position the pressure to all brake cylinders is the same The object is to prevent the locking of the front-wheel brakes when they are used on a slippery surface The device, which is small and neat, is installed between the master cylinder and those for the front brakes. APART of Rosebery Avenue, London, E.C.I, stretching from Finsbury Town Hall to the " Angel," Islington, was recently subjected to an unintentional gas attack. A van stopped suddenly, the driver descended rapidly and ran to a fire alarm. No flames could be seen, but a strong vinegary odour began to permeate the atmosphere, and it appeared that a carboy of acetic acid had broken Units of the fire brigade arrived, and they proceeded to wash out and dilute the acid. Passing the vehicle, one df our staff was caught by the invisible vapour, which caused choking and weeping, If there were men in the sewers they must have been disagreeably surprised.
Broken Carboy Results in Acetic-acid Gas Attack . .