BRITISH FORWARD MOVEMENT.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume XLV, Issue XLV, 25 August 1922, Page 3

BRITISH FORWARD MOVEMENT.

One of t]?e fundamental problems for tlio electric:'.] ejigineer is to change aJtcrnathig current into continuous or direct current. This change has to be ■n::dc for a "variety of reasons, and it is cvvoptiwially important in the case of d•.■».• trie railway working, where many engineer.-; advocate the use of direct cisu'OiJfc at very high pressure. Two lirii.ssh engineers have been devoting their attention to this matter devised a machine which provides far and away the most efficient means of producing high pressure direct current from the alternating current- generally produced by steam turbine-driven electric generators. It is impossible to doscribe this machine without elaborate technicalities, but ws may state that th© fust machine made, which has been under test successfully for about 15 months, changes alternating into direct current at 100,000 volts with cicney of about 95 per cent. The original design was so excellent that s&h-o-quent tests have not led to any alterations. This machine, -which is called a "Trausverter" because it first transforms and then converts the current, is expected to be of immense value to the electrification of railway* and also in linking-up of electric power stations which is so necessary to eceiioiut in the public supply of electricity. This machine may therefore be regarded a shaving passed through the experimental, stage. Machine's with an output of over 700 horse-power are expected to be at work in the near future.

Railway engineers are in fairly general agreement that creosoting is the most satisfactory method of preserving timber which has to be used in places were fungus and various insect enemies can easily get at it. It Is also recognised that th© process, to really effective, must bo carried out in carefully designed plant. There was recent iy erected and tested before shipme;..; abroad a large British plant which, is capable of creosoting nine hundred sleepers per day of eight hours, thest* sleepers being large enough for line-.; with a gauge of.one metre. The machine comprises two large receptacles, one above the other, the lower one being the working cylinder, which, is thirty-six feet long and capable of withstanding a pressure of two hundred pounds per square inch. The top receptacle contains the creosote; and one charge can be completely transferred from this cylinder to the lower in eight minutes. The boiler, which ia provided to supply steam for the pumps, is designed to burn wood waste, and the whole of the plan is produced so as to withstand the most severe service.

In no country, perhaps;, is the CSvil Service noted for originality in any direction ; and most of the inventions which are adopted bj- Government Departments have ccuie from outside sources. The British faculty for invention crops up, however, in the most unlikely places. A case occurred recently in Great Britain where a. retired member of the Post Office spent his pensioned leisure in devising a better way of performing one of the most e3ementary operations in a central post office —the sorting of letters into bundles, each for a particular locality, and the distribution of these bundles to the right place for dispatch on the appropriate mail vans. This earnest official had probably noticed that the usual arrangements in sorting offices were far from perfect. The mechanism was tm arranged that the sorting clerks oouli readily, unless they were most careful, send a bundle intended' for some norti; - ern district on to the track kid fo i-oiitheni district letters. As much r:.half an hour would be wasted in correcting such mistakes, which might easily lead to the loss of an important mail for the erring bundle. With the new mechanism, which was demon-st.-ated recently in London. England, to a number of Post Office experts, it becomes difficult instead of easv for iha sorting clerks to make mistakes. The whole of the complicated business of bringing order out of the chaos of'letters is thus simplified, accelerated, and made more accurate.

i<rom the scientific point of view alcohol is an excellent fuel for motor cars and other machines driven hy Internal combustion engines. In view of the important of the subject. Great Britain has < anised careful research not only into • Vj uses of alcohol of different streno ';:< and in different types of engines, )•■>::: into the possibility" ?f finding some - ;urce of alcohel Wn :h will be cheap ;.iid abundant. This research is being assisted by a Govera7iient grant, and it has already produced some highly interesting results. The efficiency of fuel alcohol is in fact higher than that of either petrol or benzol. A new series of experiments is now in hand with a view to investigating the influence of ether on alcohol, and also the influence cf clr?hol mixed with n<?trcl. benzol, pr.r*::s.n and other familiar oils. Tn rr"r>r":cri with the fuel question it is to note that discoveries of oil deposits have rewarded the patient investigation which has been carried out for some time in Great Britain. In one part of Scotland oil has been met with at a depth of over 1800 feet .and the oil is stated to be of excellent quality with a high percentage of petrol kerosene and lubricating oil. The ordinary small hand-operated! drill is widely tised on account of ite convenience, but it has the drawback that it is not quite so accurate in its work as a proper machine drill. "With the object of getting over this disability a British firm of tool-makers has designed a new type of hand-drill which does as good work as the high grade machine while retaining all the simplicity of the hand-drill. Both a high and a low speed are provided; and another very useful feature is the automatic action by which the drill is fed forward ss it proceeds through the work. The work table of this little machine can be swung to any angle and also rotated round a vertical column, so that the drilling of holes at any angle is a comparatively easy matter. The machine is designed for hard work and can drill holes un to lin in diameter. The height of the machine is only 40in, and it is made throughout with exactly the ,«aine minute care as is expended ou the best British machine tools.