BRITISH FORWARD MOVEMENT.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3135, 18 September 1922, Page 7

BRITISH FORWARD MOVEMENT.

Six years ago the Institution of Civil Engineers in Great Britain formed! a Committee to study the reasons why timber and other' (materiailte used 1 in harbor construction deteriorated. Tn spite of the interruptions caused by the war, this Committee managed to compile a most valuable report, which was published about two years ago, and' it has now produced a second report-, in which subsequent experiences of a most valuable kind are described. The chief subject discussed in this second report is the protection of timber against attack by the teredo and other boring animal's. As part of this research, careful' investigation was made a,t a British marine station into the life history and habits of various marine borers. As a result, several promising methods of safe-guarding timber are described. Up-to-date information is also given on the resisting powers of concrete expoised to (the action of sea The investigations of the Committee aire being continued, and are likely to prove of increasing value to harbor authorities in all parte of the world. Bight through the history of the oil ongme the difficulty of starting, especially when the engine is cold, has occupied the attention of inventors. Hitherto the most popular way of netting over the difficulty has been to use a high-grade oil of the. petrol type for starting and, after the engine has trot go:ng. to change over to the crude/oil which forms the cheapest fuel for such P'nme movers. This arrangement, bowever, is really only a make-shift, and engineers have felt that the problem would not be really solved until an engine was designed to start "from cold on crude oil. This problem hai* now been solved by a British firm. The new engine, after receiving the usua.l first impulse from compressed air starts right away with the heavv fuel oil of the quality generally used in running. In point of fact, any fuel which can be pumped is suitable for this engine, which bias been satisfactorily running on tar oil and even on sewerage grease. Tin's grease is in the form of a thick paste and has to be warmed before it can be pumped:. The engine is of the horizontal four cycle type, and is of exceedingly simple and robust construction. The'single cylinder type is made in sizes ranging from 20 to 150 brake horse power, and the two cylinder type go as high as 300 brake horse power. To utilise a fall of water in order to raise water much higher than the height of the fall seems an impossibility. Nevertheless, it has been achieved by a British inventor, and without the use of any power except that supplied by the failing water. The action is entirely automatic—as the name suggests—and there are no moving parts except the sluices. The apparatus consists of a series of tanks and tubes built into the form of a lower suggesting a kind of water ladder. The paradox is only apparent, a the volume of water raised above the love] of the rail is less than that flowing over the weir, although the effciency is surprisingly high. The apparatus is expected to have a wide field of usefulness in irrigation, especially where V'icre exists a head of water that cannot at present be utilised in any other way. Another advantage is that a tall of dirty water can be used to lift clean water or any other fluid from another source. The invention has been patented in all countries, and astonishment lias bev.i expressed that this discovery was not made by the ancients, as it owes nothing to modern mechanical progress. It is, in fact, a supremely clever application of the natural mechanism of water and air, by which alternate suction and pressure is set going in the series of tanks, and continues for ever —or so long as the stream does noi

dry up. During the last three years a British oil company has been occupied in completing one of the largest oil refineries in the world. This refinery occupies a site of about 650 acres near a British port, and it has involved the expenditure of about three million pounds. From the jetties where the tank steamers are unloaded pipe lines are laid to eight tanks, which are capable of holding ten thousand tons of oil. Elec-trically-driven pumps are used to convov the oil from these tanks to storage tanks situated at the refinery about four miles away. The storage tanks have a total capacity of nearly twenty one million gallons. With this up-to-date equipment a ten thousand ton oil tanker can be unloaded in about twelve hours, and can be reloaded with refined oil in twenty hours. In fact, oil arriving at the dock one. 1 day can be returned as refined oil on the third clay. When work was begun, the refinery proved itself capable of dealing with fifteen million gallons of oil per month; but in course of time this figure will be greatly increased. This is the first occasion on which an attempt has been made upon a commercial basis to refine crude oil several thousand miles away from the source of productioin. Acetylene is one of the most wonderful substances in the world; and in order to make its marvels understood a British firm has produced a kinematograph film which reveals many of the processes adopted in compressing and using the gas. The compression is done in. cylinders which contain kapok, a down substance which is able to absorb an extraordinary amount of acetylene. In this form acetylene can be safely transported and employed in soldering, welding, and cutting metals and also in the manufacture of jewellery. Due of the most remarkable features of the film was the picture given of the welding and cutting of metals. The kinematograph records were taken at an extremely high speed and very close up to the work, so that when the reproduction is done slowly the actual flowing of the molten metal can be clearly seen.