THE POWER POLE OF THE FUTURE.
NEW DISTRICT INDUSTRY. At yesterday’s meeting of) the Horowhenua Power Board Mr A. E. Hyde (Shannon) reported on a visit he had paid to Hawera in company with the Board’s, engineer (Mr J„ A. Smith) during the month. The visit had been made for the purpose of investgating the manufacture of power poles, which was being undertaken by the South Taranaki Power Board. “The South Taranaki Board,” said Mr Hyde, “is operating a very efficient and up-to-date plant and two men are turning out five poles a day. The plant consists of a spot welder, a reinforcing twister, concrete mixer, vibrator, moulds and skids. No trouble was experienced ih handling the poles, the 33ft. vaxiety of which weighed 17cwt., which was practically the same as the weight of the wooden one. They were erected in just the same manner as the wooden pole with pikes. After inspecting the plant I am satisfied that the time has arrived when this Board should manufacture its own concrete poles as I am convinced that they are the goods. Tests in Taranaki have shown that the. worst pole will outlast the best hard wood pole so we have nothing to risk.”
The engineer gave technical details in connection with the operation of the South Taranaki plant which he considered was most efficiently operated and was certainly turning out very good poles. The mixture used was 1.8 of sand, 3.8 of crushed metal chips and 1 of cement.
Mr A. Richards (Otaki) spoke in favour of the Board taking up the manufacture of poles and advocated the selection of Otaki as the site for the work. The Boai’d would be able to obtain a suitable site on the river bed there, he said, where there was an unlimited supply of metal and sand available.
The Chairman (Mr G. A. Monk) pointed out that a committee had been set up to go into this matter and he recommended that a further inspection of the Waipukurau plant be made before a report was submitted for consideration.
This course , was agreed to, it being decided that the report bo tabled at the April meeting.
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https://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/newspapers/MH19380223.2.26
Bibliographic details
Manawatu Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 4903, 23 February 1938, Page 3
Word Count
362THE POWER POLE OF THE FUTURE. Manawatu Herald, Volume LVIII, Issue 4903, 23 February 1938, Page 3
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