DAMAGE TO ROADS

Dominion, Volume 27, Issue 188, 8 May 1934, Page 9

DAMAGE TO ROADS

New Measuring Apparatus Science has for the first time succeed cd in directly measuring the bumps which an ordinary ear gives to an ordinary road. This has just been achieved by tlie National Physical Laboratory, Teddington. England,.and a full-scale apparatus which makes such records under ordt.i ary working conditions is now approaching completion. As a result an extended series of tests is to be carried out by the laboratory oa roads in all parts of the country, usinea fleet of assorted motor vehicles. This was revealed by Dr. 11. J. Gough, superintendent of the engineering department of the laboratory, in a discourse delivered at the Royal Institution. “It is a joint: investigation,’ Dr Gough staled after the lecture, “which should tell the Ministry of Transport what kinds of vehicle do most damage. Hie highway authority at what point of wear repairs should l>e undertaken, and (lie motor industry which types of vehicle stiffer most from bumping. “We shall start at first with a fleet of four vehicles.” Dr. Gough added, "a six-wheel heavily laden lorry, a fourwheel lorry, a light ‘four wheeler.' and a heavy or medium ear. Measurements with the six-wheel lorry will he begun almost at once. "It is an investigation which could be almost indefinitely extended but within a limited field we hope to get results of practical importance fairly quickly. We shall be studying the effect of different types of tire in conjunction with tire manufacturers." Tlie method of measurement Di Gough explained in his discourse, depends on two pairs of springs The movement from these springs is translated in turn into electric current, into a dancing spot of green light on the end of a "calbode ray tube." and into a cinema film. The new apparatus is doubly remarkable. If. enables the records to be made on what is virtually a standard vehicle instead of from a special trailer as before. It also gives a direct film repre - senting the violence of successive bumps. With the old apparatus two separate records had to be added together to give the required result.