Weather Tests Pack 50 Years Into 3 Months

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 83, Issue 54, 6 March 1939, Page 9

Weather Tests Pack 50 Years Into 3 Months

LONDON. English weather has never had a good reputation, but at the Government s Juilding Research Station at Watford, Hertfordshire, they have discovered how to crowd 50 years of it into three months! The Accelerated Weathering Machine solves the problem of the architect 01 builder who wants to know how his materials will stand up to atmospheric conditions, and what they will look like in several years’ time. At present the "machine is still in the experimental stage, and the specimen blocks which it subjects to artificial weathering are of concrete; but in due course it will be available for testing other materials. Thirty-two of these specimen blocks are automatically subjected to the intensified effect of “zones'’ of smoke, water, heat and cold at the rate of a “season” every few hours. It will be possible to reproduce the conditions of whatever part of the world the materials are to be used in by regulating the various ‘ 1 zones. ”