Overcoming Engine Explosions

Northern Advocate, 14 January 1939, Page 6

Overcoming Engine Explosions

A demonstration was given recently in Sydney of a device invented by a Sydney motoi'ist for removing the danger of petrol tank explosions. The device, according to the Sydney Morning Herald motoring editor, appears to operate on the same principle as a miner’s safety lamp, and consists of a copper cone let into tho filler pipe, the cone having a myriad of tapered holes to allow the petrol to pass through. / I. war. demonstrated that if a little petrol was poured into this cone to wet it, and a lighted match was applied to this fuel, it would simply burn right away, and the flame could not pass through the holes to ignite and explode the fumes within the tank. ' Avoiding- Trouble. This is due to rather abstruse physical reasons which it is unnecessary to go into here, but the demonstration was convincing enough, and the device would appear to provide a sure safeguard. The filler cap, which forms -part of the device, incorporates another safety idea, consisting of a simple spring

loaded valve to allow any excessive pressure generated in the tank to escape. This pressure could be built upi if a car, for instance, were involved in a garage fire, and the heat boiled the petrol so that its expansion would burst the tank. The liquid within would then spread over the floor and add further fuel to