SHAVINGS

Evening Star, Issue 20778, 28 April 1931, Page 2

SHAVINGS

Self-lighting gas fires are now manufactured in England. Those fires have a patent flint and steel lighter which, when the gas is turned on, ensures that it will be ignited at the proper moment and makes back-firing impossible. The (lint and steel mechanism is guaranteed to light over 4,000 times before it is necessary to replace the flint, an operation taking only one minute, and the saving in expense on matches alone is appreciable.

A British firm recently patented a new school desk which can be used in two different positions, flat or sloping, by a very simple adjustment. This desk eliminates entirely the use of heavy iron castings, which usually cause damage by scratching the floor when the desk is moved.

A mat. which had been “ in sewer and sea for six months,’* and yet unharmed, was an interesting exhibit of a mat company at the British Industries Fair held this year, says the London ‘ Times.’ The same company’s stand represented a small house made of mats, and it displayed all kinds of mats, including lettered mats, a new feature, and others in which a pattern was woven.

At tho present time about ninetenths of the timber used in'Great Britain is imported, and though measures of reafforestation may reduce this proportion. it must always remain very high. The annual value of tho timber consumed runs, however, to some £70,000,000 to £80,000,000, and all measures that can cither reduce the waste that is going on at present or favour the substitution of Empire timbers for foreign must have a special importance by reason •of the scale on which timbers are used. It is satisfactory to find that during the year the' new Forest Products Research Laboratory at Princes Risborough continued its comprehensive programme (London ‘ Times ’).

The future of tramways for the service of largo and medium-sized urban communities is engaging a great deal of attention througnout tho Midlands (England). Changing conditions have compelled local authorities to make their choice between tramways, motor omnibuses, and trolly, omnibuses. In the result policies have differed considerably. Ju Birmingham both omnibus systems have como into extensive use, but weighing the different factors Mr A. C. Baker, general manager of the Birmingham Corporation services, concludes that the survival of the tramways as an economic investment should be a good (L.il longer than the ten to fifteen years estimated by the Royal Commission on Transport. Ho points out that a, number of the larger towns, including Glasgow, Sheffield, Belfast, Leeds, ami Liverpool, are still spending largo suras on the development and improvement of their tramways, though they are all fully alive to the possibilities of motor omnibuses, and are operating them on a large scale as the complement and supplement of their tramways.

Difficulty is being experienced by the Brisbane City Council respecting the provision of bathrooms in seaside houses. The matter came before the Health Committee recently, when the Wynnum, Manly, and Lota Chamber of Commerce wrote urging that a by-law or ordinance should be framed enforcing the provision of bathrooms in rented cottages and houses generally at the seaside resorts. It was pointed out by the chairman of the committee (Alderman Stimpson) that the council "could not frame a by-law to apply to one particular section of the city area. Furthermore, if a landlord had a house for letting purposes, it would bo in his own interests to put in a bathroom, as by so doing it would enhance the value of his i property. “After all,” Alderman Stiinpson jocularly remarked, “ why do people want baths when they have the clean, fresh sea water at those seaside resorts? ”

Silver beech is being used almost universally by motor body builders in Dunedin, reports Mr C. Mildenhall, the New Zealand Sawmillers Federation’s timber utilisation officer. He states that the authorities of the city trainways department have now decided to use silver beech for framing and rimu for panelling and interior finish in the Dunedin trams, instead of American ash and oak. In view of the keen interest now being taken by architects, engineers, and timber-users generally in the wider use of New Zealand timbers for an increasing variety of purposes, Nil- Mildenhall stresses the added necessity that rests upon New Zealand millers to use greater endeavours to give tho highest possible service.

That the severe depression in the sawmilling industry has now extended to Southland is exemplified by the report (at the end of February) that of twenty-nine mills in the western district area, twenty-five were completely closed down and the other four were working short time or short handed and still 1 piling up stocks. The mills of Southland, as a whole, did not experience the full severity of the depression as early as those of the North Island and Westland;, hut when it did reach them it seems to have struck them “ good and hard.”— 1 New Zealand National Review.’

Unemployment among the sawmills continues to increase owing to further closing down, and in West Norrland alone there are 0,000 men idle (says tho Stockholm correspondent of the London ‘Times’). There is no prospect of any resumption of work until some agreement can be readied in regard to Russian shipments which are going to Sweden’s customers, such as Great. Britain, Holland, Belgium, etc. Tho situation is very precarious for this industry, which employs no fewer than 38,000 hands at tho various sawmills, and mill owners are powerless in the face of Soviet competition. Swedish prices are already down to the level of the cost of production; for the same qualities of timber the latest Russian prices work out at nearly £2 a standard lower.