Warming Engines in Open-air Parks
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New Radright Portable Unit which Maintains Cooling Water at Operating Temperature
Tmaintain an engine temperature high enough above freezing point, not only for safety against damage by frost, but also for facilitating starting up, is no mean problem in large, open garages and open-air parking grounds. The installation of some form of permanent heating apparatus is expensive and frequently impracticable, and with this in mind, the Equipment and Engineering Co., Ltd., 2 and 3, Norfolk Street, London, W.C.2, has introduced the Radright mobile unit.
Some time ago this concern produced equipment for permanent installation in garages, which bore the same name; the new apparatus is a development of the original scheme.
The Radright system is to feed steam at low pressure by pipe lines into the radiator water, thus maintaining this at operating temperature. For this purpose a small boiler, fired with coal, is employed, and at various points in the pipe line there are valves and flexible connections.
In the case of the portable unit, the boiler, coal bunker, water tank and steel piping are mounted on a platform lorry or trailer, anti the tapping points, of which there are 10 on the standard outfit, are arranged across the end and at the rear of the sides, the hoses, when not in use, being coiled. The boiler is of the vertical type, and is fed with water by a hand pump. Its chimney is hinged and a bracket is provided to support it in the lowered position. Forming a base for the boiler is a sheet-steel floor, 6 ft, square, which protects the vehicle platform from hot ashes, clinker, etc. The total weight of the apparatus, including fuel and water, is approximately 2 tons.
On the radiators of the vehicles there are fittings for the attachment of the steam hoses. Each of these simply comprises a valve inserted in the base of the radiator with a short flexible connection having a quick coupling.
The steam, of course, condenses on contacting with the radiator water, giving up its heat in the process, and the surplus water caused escapes by the usual overflow.
The Radright portable unit has been developed primarily for fleets of A.R.P. vehicles and pumps, parked in open spaces, but obviously it has wider uses. B3I its employment the water in the radiator can be maintained at any predetermined temperature, and the advantages of keeping the crankcase oil in a fluid state, so that the engine is quite free, even on the coldest morning, and of not having to waste fuel in warming up, are obvious and material.