THE SERVICE TEST.

Pahiatua Herald, Volume XLIII, Issue 13177, 8 February 1936, Page 3

THE SERVICE TEST.

HOW THE POST OFFICE BUYS. WHAT IS REAL CHEAPNESS? In a very large business such as the Post Office, the purchase ol stores has to be done by a specialised department capable of securing not only the best value in a monetary sense but the best value in service, for it is well recognised that a ‘"cheap’’ article is not always the cheapest in the long run. The object in buying /tor a large organisation giving public service, which must be continuous and .reliable, is to use articles giving the lowest cost in service by the hour, the day, or the year. Not only the first cost but many factors have to be taken into consideration.

Thus it follows that the stores business of the Post Office involving issues of goods valued last year at nearly £400,000 and carrying stocks totalling £487,000 must be conducted on well organised lines. The lowest tender is not necessarily the accepted one after the samples from all tenderers have been submitted to tests in the Department’s laboratory to ascertain how they comply with requirements clearly set out in the specification. Some of these tests atre lengthy and severe. Insulators are tested for weathering qualities and porosity; telegraph arms for " bending, warping, knots and shakes ; telegraph wires for breaking strain, conductivity and resistance to twisting; batteries for length of service ; and lead-covered cables (some or which carry 1,200 pairs of wires) are tested for conductivity and the efficiency of the light paper insulation around each wire.

Many Government Departments utilise the Post Office stores organisation for their large-scale purchases. The Mental Hospitals J)epartment; for example, buys all its bed-clothing in this way and the tests to which samples are submitted can be quoted as an easily understood example of the method of buying according to inherent quality and serviceability. The housewives •of the Dominion will be interested in the testing of fabrics. Before placing an order for these materials, the Post Office requi res quotations and samples large enough to be tested in three-inch strips in a special machine. The relative weights cif the samples are contrasted and their wearing qualities analysed by submitting them to breaking strain tests in the machine. It has been found that a three-inch strip ot sheeting tested on the warp will stand a breaking strain varying from 1031 b to 1661 b. Tested on the weft the breaking strain ranges irom 1001 b to 1951 b, the majority of

14 samples recently tested resisting a strain of over 1501 b. Tests of 36mch canvas made from flax showed that the three-inch s/trip would stand up to 76<>lb strain on the warp and 9801 b strain on the weft. Khaki c loth, largely used by - the Defence Department, was found to withsrtand on the average a breaking strain of 1631 b. Even thread is scientifically tested to ascertain its breaking strain. No. 40 linen thread of best quality is capable of withstanding a breaking-strain test of up to lllb.