CLEANING THE ROADS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 242, 13 October 1931, Page 8

CLEANING THE ROADS

POTENTIAL PUNCTURES ELECTROMAGNETIC DEVICE. WELLINGTON, Oct. 12. fcvery motorist knows from experience the trouble that can be caused by tires picking up pieces of iron and steel —nails, large and small, tacks, etc.— off the roads, and in an attempt to lessen if not eliminate, this source ot annoyance and expense, the Public Works Department has been experimenting with a device for collecting rapidly and easily the scraps of metal that litter every road, particularly those near to the cities. While in America last year, Mr. A. Tyndall, the Main Highways Board’s engineer, had the opportunity of inspecting electromagnetic devices used there to clean up the roads, and realised that something of the sort could perform valuable service in New Zealand. Inquiries as to the cost of the American machines were made, and it was found that the landed price would be excessive. Designs were therefore prepared locally, and th required apparatus was constructed by a local engineering firm in accordance with the department’s ideas. Tests have been made in the department’s yards, and this morning a trial under working conditions was made on the Hutt road and the Hutt cycle track. The following watched the trial, in addition to Mr. Tyndall: Messrs. R. H. P. Ronayne, Public Works Department engineer for the Wellington J. J. Gibson, a member of the Main Highways Board, and F. M. Thompson, assistant city engineer. The principle of the machine is simply that of an electro-magnetic bar suspended about six inches from the ground at the rear of a motor-lorry. On the lorry is mounted a motor-car engine driving a dynamo, which generates electricity to energise the magnet. The machine was put into operation on the Petone side of Ngahauranga, working on the macadam surface alongside the bitumenised Hutt road. The magnet takes a 6-foot swath, and there was very little in its path that was not picked up, some pieces of wire and nails being collected even when partially buried in the road. Nails and other pieces of iron lying loose on the road shot up to meet the magnet which they hit with a sharp "ping.” A Car-Driver’s Nightmare. After a return journey, about threequarters of a mile each way, had been completed, leaving much of the surface untouched, a canvas sheet was placed under the bar, the power was cut off, and the * 'old iron o collected was deposited. From the ear-driver’s viewpoint it was a most vicious collection. A few cigarette tins and other fairly large pieces of tin and iron served to swell the size of the heap, but a closer examination revealed hundreds of potential puncture-makers in the form of tacks, broken nails, staples, and other sharp-pointed scraps that are picked up all too easily by tires and, once embedded in the rubber, work their way through to the inner tube. It was in point of numbers that these small pieces were the most impressive, but when the proceeds were weighed they turned the scale at 221 b., a figure which could probably at least be doubled if the whole of the road surface over the same distance was treated. From the road, the "vacuumcleaner” was transferred to the cycle track, and it was in the nature of a revelation to see the amount of small stuff collected—scraps that would escape the notice of any but the most diligent and sharp-eyed human collector. The success that attended the trial will probably result in the machine being put on to the work for which it was designed, with little further delay. By arrangement with the City Council, it will probably clean up the Hutt road and the cycle track immediately, and will later be transferred to the country roads controlled by the Main Highways Board.