Global Travellers’ Club Officer In N.Z.

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29749, 16 February 1962, Page 5

Global Travellers’ Club Officer In N.Z.

"The Press" Special Service

WELLINGTON, Feb. 14.

Mr R. G. Coffin, who is in Wellington as a representative of the Mobil International Oil Company of New York, is a former president of the Circumnavigators’ Club. Membership of the club is granted only to those who have travelled round the world at least once. Mr Coffin has been round the world five times. Some of the club’s 60(J-odd members in 20 countries have used unconventional means. Captain Beach, of the submarine Trident, circled the globe beneath the waves, while another enterprising member flew round the South Pole in 40 minutes. The club’s motto is—- “ Through friendship, to leave this world a little better than we found it; and, luck to you.”

Mr Coffin, who is general manager responsible for marine sales and international accounts for his company, said that solving the problem of lubricating every type of ship from junks to passenger liners and finding new lubricants cost his. company several million dollars each year. His organisation, the largest operator in the field of marine lubricants, keeps such liners as the France, which arrived in New York on her maiden voyage last week, the Oriana, the Canberra and the Queen Elizabeth running smoothly. Speaking on the research carried out by his company,

he outlined a new technique for determining the wear in piston rings in ships’ engines. The rings were made radioactive and by the use of a geiger counter on the sump oils, it was possible to measure the amount of wear from radioactive particles of metal in the oil. This method.

supervised by a technician travelling in the ship, enabled experiments to be carried out in a few months when they would normally take years in a laboratory.