16-HOUR A DAY MAN

Greymouth Evening Star, 26 October 1929, Page 3

16-HOUR A DAY MAN

A ROBOT AT WORK.

A robot, pulsating with life, grotesque, terrifying in its efficiency, is at work ' in Norwich, England. All th rough the summer it will do its 16liour day, never tiring in the heat.

The City Council decreed that 20,000 tons of mud should be removed from the River Wensum, between the New Mills and Dolphin Bridge. On to railway trucks they packed this inhuman monster, assembled him at Norwich, and launched him into the rive} - in all his horrid blackness.

He was specially built, adds a writer in the “Eastern Daily Press,” for the present job to Messi's Mornement and Ray’s design-. He is the only member of his species. He is bringing to light the results of escapades by children who are now grandfathers and grandmothers. He is a new breed of suction rlredger; his heart a, 90 h.p. crude oil engine of the semi-Diesel type. When first. set to his present task he was defeated by those children of seventy years ago. In the “good old days” rubbish dumps abounded in this part of Norwich. ■ They were playgrounds for children, who amused themselves by throwing tins and buckets into the water. ’There at the bottom of the river many of them lay undisturbed for the best part of a. century. Then. R.U.R. (Ray’s Untiring Robot) pushed his trunk deep down into the water, and with the mud drew up the tins and buckets. Unfortunately this breed of Robot is epicurean in his taste, and the tins stuck in his gizzard. Valuable time was wasted. Messrs Mornement and Ray gave him another limb. A running chain passing over his trunk now deflects unpalatable food.

The strength of the monster may be imagined by the fact that on one occasion a 281 b weight, complete with ring, was sucked up by him and yet the pump did not break. Near the city station hundreds of bullocks’ horns have been, brought to the surface. Various theories as to how they came to be thown into the water have been advanced. By some it is said that they were thrown into the river years ago during a cattle plague. The present method of river excavation replaces the old spoon-and-bucket method of a hundred years ago and also the steam grab dredger method, which is still used extensively. Mr Robot is not only cleaning the river, but he is, con verting waste marsh on the railway side into useful allotment land.

This is how he does it. Floating in the middle of the river, he dips his trunk deep down. The powerful pumps start their work and. the protecting chaip helps by agitating the mud. The mud is drawn up through the pumps and pushed through about a thousand feet of steel piping, kept floating on the river by rafts composed of barrels.

The pipe leads to the banks, where tons of mud and water are thrown ashore. A muddy fountain plays into the air, stones rattle along the thousand feet of piping in a few seconds. Then wh'en Mr Robot has sucked up all the mud within his reach he takes a drink, and a fountain, crystal clear, replaces the muddy spray. Robot is pulled a little further across the river, down goes his trunk again, and up goes the muddy fountain ; and so the work continues. The water, of course, drains - back into the river, whilst the mud is left on the banks. The value of the land thus converted from swampy marsh is shown by the quite good results which have been obtained by some of Robot’s attendants who have planted potatoes in the .land reclaimed,.