GLASS-LINED LORRIES.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 19695, 23 January 1926, Page 22

GLASS-LINED LORRIES.

INSULATED TANKERS. NEW METHOD OF MILK TRANSPORT. (Frok Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, December 11. It may not be long before the metal milk churn transported by'the railway companies and often handled by the porters with a deafening clanging and banging disappears from the termini. For which relief much thanks Milk, instead of being brought by rail to the town in churns, will be pumped into glass-lined tank lorries and brought up by road. In appearance the tanks are' similar to ■■ those at present used for the conveyance of petrol. The service which has oeen instituted by United Dairies (Limited) is for the most port restricted to picking up milk at receiving stations, although in the case of large producers the load can be pumped into tanks on the farm. Their use is an important step in the direction of a safe and clean milk supply, and was demonstrated this week at Danbury under the direction of Captain Amor (manager of the United Dairies London Transport Service) and Mr Evan Rees (managing director of the Banbury depot). It was shown that from the moment the milk was produced its successful distribution and sale depended on efficient and prompt transport at every stage. Drastic tests with glass-lined lorries had established the practicability of this new method of bulk transport. The demonstration proved its suitability for the haulage of milk from country depots to London. It is not practicable to collect small quantities of milk at farms along the road, principally because the pooling in one tank of the milk of various producers precludes proper sampling and inspection. EASILY CLEANED. The tanka are easily cleaned by means of the large manhole 1+ the top. One man can wash and sterilise the 1250-gallon tank in a few minutes, compared with the much longer time required to cleanse 125 churns of a similar total capacity. It has been estimated, also, that, on the basis of handling 1000 gallons a day, 30 gallons of spilt milk is saved. Transport by "tankers” instead of by railway reduces the number of handlings from six or more to only two, and whereas in warm weather milk in churns, which is brought to London by railway, increased in temperature by as much as 15deg. F., by insulated tanker the increase is only Ideg. in eight hours. The difficulty experienced during the experimental stages in loading and unloading ha£ been overcome by the invention of a new pump which can be used for either suction or pressure purposes. The pump is greaseless. It operates with distilled water and a vacuum, and the milk is therefore proof against contamination. The 1250-gallon tank can be loaded in from 15 to 20 minutes by this means. PASTEURISED AND BOTTLED. The company now run a regular daily service to London from a number of milk-pro-viding districts. The total quantity carried each day by six vehicles is 8400 gallons or 87,200 pints. They travel a distance of 5789 miles every week. The company handles 100,000,000 gallons of milk every year. It uses special railway trains, and employs a fleet of over 490 road vehicles (of which 300 are motor-propelled), and 1000 horses. It has 100 factories and receiving depots. It collects milk from thousands of farms, spread over an area of approximately 30,000 square miles. Its lorries travel over 3J million miles every year—a distance equivalent to oyer 140 times round the globe. An undertaking of this magnitude requires a system of transport in which nothing can be left to chance. At Banbury the milk is cooled to 40deg. and loaded direct from the coolers into the tanker. The journey to London takes approximately eight hours, and the milk is unloaded at Finsbury Park, where it is pasteurised and bottled. The natural outcome of this new method of milk transport is the introduction into this country of glasslined tank cars on the railways. This will eventually be done, but it is necessary, first of all, to arrange for railway sidings at the country factories and at the London depots. When experiments in this method of transport were first instituted, the main difficulty was that the loading and unloading where gravitation was of no assistance. This occurrocj when the “tanker” stood on higher ground than the place where the milk was deposited for loading, and, again when milk had to be taken from a “tanker” to a height of 20 or 30 feet. The necessary pumping arrangements have solved this difficulty. Since the solution of this difficulty it would seem that the present ‘tanker’’ used by the ffijrm ia almost perfeqjt. It has ibeen throughly, “tested, and has ben in general Use for some weeks, and it is probable that within a few months the old railway transport of milk in the none too hygienic metal churns will have been largely eliminated.