THE SERVICE TEST.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 5 February 1936, Page 5

THE SERVICE TEST.

HOW THE POST OFFICE BUYS. WHAT IS REAL CHEAPNESS ? In a very large business such as the Post Office' the purchase of stores has to be done by a specialised department capable of securing not only the best value in a monetary sense but the best value in service, for it is well recognised that a "cheap" article is not always the cheapest article in the long run. The object in buying for a large organisation giving public service, which must be continuous and reliable, is to use articles giving the loAvest 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 organised lines. The lowest tender is not necessarily the accepted one after the samples from all tenderers have been submitted to tests in the Department'? laboratory, to ascertain how they comply with requirements clearly set 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-covered 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 organisation for their large-scale purchases. The Mental Hospitals Department, for example, buvs all its bed-clothing in this way and 'the tests to which samples are submitted can be quoted as an easilv understood the 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 aimlvsed by submitting them to breakin.r strain tests in the machine. It has been found that :i three-inch strip of sheeting tested on the war]) will stand a breaking strain varying l ro;n 1021 b. to l(5(ilb. Tested on the wett the breaking strain ranges from 1001 b to 1i1.11b., the majority of 14 samples recently tested resisting a strain of over 1-jOII). Tests of 3(S-inch canvas made from flax showed that the three-men strip would stand up to 7«0lb. strain o, the warp and 9801 b. strain on the W ol't. Khaki cloth, largely used by the 'Defence Department, was found to withstand on the average a breaking of KilUb. Even thread is scientifically tested to ascertain its breaking strain. No. 40 linen thread of best quality is capable of withstanding a breakingstrain test of up to 11 lb.