IMPORTANT DISCOVERY FOR PROTECTION FROM RUST USED IN AFRICA

Manawatu Times, Volume LIV, Issue 6868, 25 March 1929, Page 10

IMPORTANT DISCOVERY FOR PROTECTION FROM RUST USED IN AFRICA

GREAT SAVING EFFECTED ON RAILWAYS. CAPETOWN, Jan. 25. A saving to the South African railways of £30,000 is said to have been effected as the result of a discovery made by two Durban metal workers, Messrs. Dickenson and Thompson. Trains passing over the thousands of miles of railroad in the Union cocst the country £70.000 yearly through friction alone. Metalwork rubbed and scored in the day’s work rusts unless the surface is renewed. This is usually carried out by plunging the metal in electric baths that give a coating of nickel, gunmctal or some other rustless finish. This process is costly and slow. The now process was made as a result of Dickenson breaking one of the railway regulations. A friend _ gave him a candlestick and asked him to nickel it for him. The idea came to him to to sec how a paint gun like those used in tho Duco process would do the work. He made a metal finish witli a lacquer basis that dried ns hard as rock, and sprayed the candlestick with it. To liis amazement the result was far superior to that achieved under the old svstein.

Departmental heads became profoundly interested in the discovery, and it has now been shown that one man can do in two and a-half hours what seven men took 36 hours to do. Messrs. • Dickenson and Thompson ore now making a tour of tho Tailway workshops, ' and the process is being used throughout the workshops. It is expected the Government will award these two Durban men some adequate compensation for their discovery.