BRITISH FORWARD MOVEMENTS.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3146, 4 December 1922, Page 7

BRITISH FORWARD MOVEMENTS.

The use of the electric starter has hitherto been confined to light automobiles, in which it now forms an essential part of an up-to-date equipment. Its advantages are, however, so great that a British company has been led' to adapt the electric starter to heavy automobiles. In this adaptation the starter is independent and is designed for use in garages where a number of heavy vehicles have to bn started up in succession. An electric .motor of six horse-power is mounted with a special' gear on a two-wheeled truck, which can bo quickly run to the front of the vehicle to he started. By pulling a. lever the operator lifts the truck off the wheels and places it firmly on three legs. Another simple operation engages the gear with the starting handle, and a. third starts up the motor, which runs, at 2000 revolutions per minute. The gearing ieduces this speed to 130 revolutions per minute at thi' starting shaft- this being the most effective speed for starting-up purposes. The same appliance can be used ill the .garage for pumping up large pneumatic tyres and other purposes. It has proved! itself very efficient in operation and is likely to become a recognised part of the equipment of large garages.

The batteries of electric vehicles require to he charged at a much lower electrical pressure than that usually obtained 1 from public electricity supplies. This fact involves the use of expensive and rather complicated plant in electric vehicle charging stations and therefore retards the general adoption of battery vehicles, especially in the ease of private cars. This difficulty has been got over in a, very ingenious way by a British inventor. He uses the motor on the vehicle itself for the purpose of reducing the current from the ordinary supply pressure to the pressure required for battery charging. Any additional regulation of pressure is obtained by moving the handle of the controller of the vehicle. Thus it is possible for the owner of a car of this type to connect iqi direct to his electric light supply without any expense beyond a simple arrangement of pings. A special form nr motor with a. double commutator :s required, but beyond this there is practically no change from the ordinary vehicle equipment. The invention is expected to lead 1 to a great increase in the use of small electric battery cars by people who want a clean, easily controlled. and smooth-running vehicle. Several other improvements have been recently introduced! into electric vehicles by British makers, with a view to increasing the mileage obtained on a single charge. Runs up to seventy miles at a good average speed have already been attained, and they will probable ho exceeded in the near future.

From time to time experiments have been made in artificial means of drying hay. but until lately these have not mot with success. A new and 1 highly interesting method was, however, recently tested with excellent results 1 on a British farm. This method takes advantage of the fact that wet grass, when piled in a rick, begins to ferment and therefore to generate heat. The conversion of grass into hay is not simply a process of drying; it is a chemical process assisted by certain bacteria, and it must be carried out at a certain temperature in order to give the 1 sweet fragrant hay which is attractive and nourishing to cattle. The inventor piles the newly mown wetgrass over a frame fitted with an elec-trically-driven fan. When the heat cs generated, hei starts up the fan and carries the hot- air through the mass of wet grass. By a. careful regulation of the air current he maintains the temperature of the grass at the correct level until the whole of it is converted into hay. The process' is much cheaper than the ordinary method of hay-mak-ing and it has the supreme advantage of being independent of the weather. It can he carried out on the field where the grass is mown, so that no expense in carriage is involved. Experts who have examined' the hay thus produced state that it is of very good quality.

Tlioro are two kinds of piles—those which are driven in by means of a v. eight let drop upon them, and those which take the form of a screw and l are got into position by being forcibly turned round. The usual way of driving screw piles by power is to place a contrivance known as a. spider on the head of the pile and turn this spider by means of a. rope attached to a winch. Tin’s is far from being a satisfactory method, as it requires considerably energy and imposes severe stresses on the staging to which the machinery is attached. A British firm levs consequently introduced a very simple and effective machine which obviates all these drawbacks. Tin's machine consist of a framework mounted and balanced on a heavy steel shaft which is bolted direct on to the top of the pile to ho driven. An electric motor is mounted on the frame and drives the shalt through a. worm wheel and various gears which enable the speed of the drive to ho adjusted to suit the size of the piles, the nature of the soil, and other conditions. A petrol engine may he used in place of the electric motor. The whole machine can easily he slung by a crane ewer the pile, and no elaborate staging is necessary. During a recent trial piles were sunk with, this machine at from; seven to ten times the rate previously attained in hand driving. It is a simple matter to arrange safety devices to guard against damage or breakage of the pile should an obstacle he met with while sinking. • s, , , There arc so many different types of centrifugal pumps 1 in existence that it might seem impossible l to invent another now type. Recently, however, a British firm introduced a special form adapted for marine purposes. In this service, owing to the rolling of tl 10 ship and to other causes', air is apt to he mixed with the. water in the sueftion pipe. The special feature, of this new type, which is electrically driven, is that the air is first separated from thle water, and afterwards both the air arid tlie water are dealt with separately by properly designed pumps. When the water reaches the suction branch iof the pump if is made to flow over a* weir where most of the air is automatically released. This air is dealt wrUh by a small reciprocating pump, while ft he centrifugal pump itself deals with the water. This pump has already been applied to motor ships service with conspicuous success.

Many forms of apparatus for use in. l oul atmosphere hy men eirjgnged on mine rescue work have heeu devised. Oxygen is frequently used fm Is'udr apparatus 1 , but liquid air has suK’h obvious advantages that more than' one 1 ofiort has been made to employ iit successfully. Until lately, however, pi o liquid air apparatus have been good evi ougb to receive the official approval of the Mines Department of the British i Board of Trade. The liquid air coni,a iner is carried cm the man’s back and co (nneeds to a breathing bag which lies nov er the chest and stomach of the weave r. Two short tubes lead! from the breatliin g bag to the man’s month, one tube rar Tying the inhale 1 valvo and the second! th to ex-

hate valve. The weight of the apparatus' when fully charged for two hours’ use is about 381h. An ■interesting feature of it is that by means of a single connection a second man can make use of the liquid air supply. * * * *

Practically every one of the small unconsidered! trifles* used in daily life, and am enormous number of parts used for engineering purposes, are made in presses operated! by power. These presses l have to be handled very carefully, otherwise the operator is liable to bring the press dWn. upon his own fingers. with disastrous results. In obedience to the safety first movement (and sometimes under pressure from- Government departments) many forms of finger guards have been devised, hut they are as often as not put out of action as a nuisance' by the worker's for whose benefit they have been installed'. The trouble is that they interfere with; the output and greatly complicate and delay the re-setting of the various tools. The latest type of guard devised by a British firm claims to- avoid all these drawbacks and to provide an efficient protection not interfering in any way with the working of the tool. It is operated by pneumatic power and is so arranged' that it pushes the operator’s hand out of danger. It works silently and is adapted to any size or pattern of press. It is fixed by means of two screws only, therefore, it can be removed or attached within a couple of minutes. The makers claim that it actually increases' the output of the press by giving a simple and effective assurance of safety to the operator.