BRITISH ENGINEERING MERIT.

Dominion, Volume 12, Issue 214, 4 June 1919, Page 9

BRITISH ENGINEERING MERIT.

. ■ - .-•■•' : -« •■■■ WAR -.TESTS O'P THE LOCOMOTIVES. ' It sometimes .happens that an invention pioneered .in one country is taken up by another : and developed more rapidly aiid successfully thaii ili : its original hbme,' This did iibt occitr, hdwevDi;, with the. invention which created the modern ilidustt'ial era—the sleain (iiigine. Both in tho stationary form and in the loconiotixo British engineers have iujycr lost the lead which,the genius of Watt iiiid Slephciison gave them. For speed and efficiency tin, neiiormalic'es of the modern British louoiuotives are unsurpassed, ihirini; the war British railways carried an'- .enormously increased traffic, although hundreds of locomotives were sent to 'Franco, and soinc as far as Mesopotamia,.for military transport purposes. li\ Fraucb nnd Flanders, moreover, hundreds'..of-miles of light railway were constructed and equipped i'ram )o;hjmotivij and rolling slock factories in Britain. New. types of engine wero rapidly evolved for this iiniisiial' form of .transport; and Sii , .Douglas Haig has'testified to tlie.r.emjirkablo.eflleiuhcy .of the locoiiiotiviis arid other I'ljuipment hirned out in large qiinnlitics at Kliott notice. Tho., success of tho British lotufiiotive works in this phase of military eiigihceriiiß is duo iii part to the Fact that for maiiy yciirs llit'y have been turning out locomotives for dvery vat-iety of spt'cial purposo—iniiietii quarries, decks, p'niiiaiioiiij, fnctories and so on—in o«i'ry part of the world. Tlie'expericnce tiicy have gained during tho war will be tlierelore .of positive • assistance in . feolyiin:, tho transport'problems of countries overseas; Moreover, the war has increased their productive capacity and .encoiiniged tho adoption , nf menus for. achieving.a More rapid output of Incomoliyi's with steel and other metals, of the highest grade and'machined within the finest limits of ' pi-obision!