THE SERVICE TEST

Grey River Argus, 12 February 1936, Page 6

THE SERVICE TEST

How the Post Office Buys WHAT IS REAL CHEAPNESS? Tn a very large business such as Hit Post Office, the purchase of stores has to be done by a specialized department capable of securing not only the best value in a monetary sense but the best value in service, for it is well recognized that a “cheap” article is not always the cheapest in the long run. . The object in buying for a large organization giving public service, which must be continuous and reliable, is to use articles giving the lowest cost in service by the hour, the day, or the year. Not only the first cost but many Other factors have to be taken into consideration. Thus it follows that the stores business of the Post Office involving issues of goods valued last year at nearly £400,000 and carrying stocks totalling £487,000 must be conducted on well organized lines. The lowest tender is not necessarily the accepted one after the samples from all tenderers have been submitted to tests in the Department’s Laboratory, to ascertain how they comply with requiremens clearly out in the specification. Some of these tests are lengthy and severe. Insulators are tested for weathering qualities and porosity; telegraph arms for bending, ■warping, knots and shakes; telegraph wires for breaking strain, conductivity . and resistance to twisting; batteries for length of service; and lead-eovered cables (some of which carry 1,200' pairs of wires) are tested for conductivity and the efficiency of the light paper insulation around each wire. Many Government Departments utilize the Post Office stores organization for their large-scale purchases. The Mental Hospitals Department, for example, buys all its bed-clothing in this way and the tests to which samples are submitted can be quoted as an easily understood example of the method of buying according to inherent quality and serviceability. The housewives" of the Dominion will be interested in the testing of fabrics. Before placing an order for these materials, the Post Office requires quotations and samples large enough to be tested in three-inch strips in a special machine. The relative weights of the samples are contrasted and their wearing qualities analysed by submitting them to breaking strain tests in the machine. It has been found that a three-inch strip of sheeting tested on the warp will stand a breaking strain varying from 1031 b. to 1661 b. Tested on the weft the breaking strain ranges from 1001 b. to 1951b5., the majority of 14 samples recently tested resisting a strain of over 1501 b. Tests of 36inch canvas made from flax showed that the three-inch strip would stand

up to 7601 b. strain on the warp and 9801 b. strain on the weft. Khaki cloth, largely used by the Defence Department, was found to withstand an average breaking strain of 1631 b. Even thread is scientifically tested to ascertain its breaking strain. No. 40 linen thread of best quality is capable of withstanding a breaking-strain test of up to 111 b.