THE SERVICES

Evening Post, Volume CXVIII, Issue 34, 9 August 1934, Page 14

THE SERVICES

(From "The Post's" Representative.} LONDON, July 6. Major W. C. Hartgill, M.C., E.A.M.C. (Dannevirke) has been promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel. He joined the E.A.M.C. at the outbreak of the war and saw continuous service. After tho war ho was seconded for duty under the Colonial Office and was in Somaliland.

Flying Officers F. C. Allen and I. L. S. McNicol (Wellington and Oamaru) have been transferred to tho Reserve (June 28). ' ,

The following Now Zealanders wore among the flying officers who wero successful in promotion examination "B" for the rank of flight-lieutenant, held last March: B. L. Kippenberger (Studholme), D. W. Morrish (Whangarei), G. E. Nixon (Christehurch), and AY. F. Pharazyn (Dannev^rkc). The lastnamed obtained over 80 per cent, of the total marks.

Commander E. L. Berthon, D.S.C., lately commander of the training ship, Philomel and Naval Officer in Charge at Auckland, has- been selected to command H.M.S. Crusader, when the Second Destroyer. Flotilla reeommissions after tho summer cruise.

feet in overall diameter, and tho rotor itself has a diameter of twenty-four feet and its peripheral speed is over 100 miles per hour.

This spinning section of the generator weighs CO tons, yet that tremendous weight, and, of course, the weight of the. moving section of tho turbine, and tho connecting shaft, 24 inches in diameter, run on a single suspension bearing, This bearing consists of. a highly polished steel face and bearing pads faced with white metal, separated by a film of oil, and that it is possiblo to operate so huge a mass on such a. bearing is one of the most, astonishing things about modern engineeringl. The big end of a car is simply not in it with these suspension bearings. Power will be generated at 11,000 volts, but, to save transmission losses, will be .stepped lip to 110,000 volts befovo it leaves the outdoor station to mills and works and homes north and south. It has been the invariable experience of engineers the world over that tho demand ' for electric power apparently knows no limits. The future development of five great turbo-generators at Waitaki will look after the demand of tho South Island for a good many years —probably not as long as even the margins allowed provide for —but the possibilities of tho Waitaki will have been by no means exhausted, for there are other possible dam sites nearer the lakes. And in any case the politicians will bo again in the thick of (word) designing of hydro-electric stations, and it may be that, after all, the Waimakariri people, will win out, unless, of course, the engineers, as they have done in tho, past, discount politics by plain, facts, thg result of full investigation, "