H.—44a,

Mechanical Engineering Divisional Committee. (Four meetings.) Fire-extinguishers Sub-committee .. ■ ■ • • .. 6 meetings. Mild Steel Dustbins Sub-committee . . . . • ■ .. 1 meeting. Parent Committee— This committee has completed the formulation of a New Zealand Standard Specification for Road Grader Blades and Tynes (N.Z.S.S. 307) which has been adopted by the Standards Council as a New Zealand Standard. By specifying standard designs and qualities this New Zealand Standard will do much to ensure better and more economic service from this type of equipment. In particular it will be instrumental in reducing to a reasonable range the existing unnecessary and confusing variation of sizes and shapes of blades and tynes and the spacings of the bolt-holes for the attachment of blades. Thirty-three draft and forty-six standard specifications from overseas have been referred to the committee during the year for examination. The following twenty-nine British Standard Specifications have been recommended for adoption as New Zealand Standards : 13 S S 796-1938 Long Length Moulded Rubber Hose with Braided Cotton Reinforcement. 210-1939 Lubricating Oils, Classification of. 799-1938 Fully Automatic Oil Burning Equipment for Central Heating and Hot Water Supply, Code for. (Amended to suit New Zealand conditions.) 382-1940 88/10/2 Bronze (Gun-metal) Ingots. 383-1940 88/10/2 Bronze (Gun-metal) Sand and Chill Castings. 218 1940 Brass Bars and Sections (suitable for Forgings) and Drop Forgings. 821 1938 Iron Castings for Gears and Gear Blanks (Ordinary, Medium, and High Grades). 852-1939 Toolmakers' Straightedges. 856-1939 Wing Nuts. 857 1939 Safety Glass for Land Transport. 859-1939 Fuel Fired Furnaces for Heating and Heat Treatment Purposes. 860 1939 Approximate Comparison of Hardness Scales, Table of. 863-1939 Steel Straightedges of Rectangular Section. 864-1939 Capillary Joints for Copper Tubes —not for mechanical work. (Internal Dimensions of Sockets.) (Amended to suit New Zealand conditions.) 869-1939 Toolmakers' Flats and High Precision Surface Plates. 871-1939 Abrasive Papers and Cloths for General Purposes. 872-1939 Abrasive Papers and Cloths, (Technical Products). 870-1939 Micrometers (External). 876-1939 Hand Hammers. 879-1940 Steel Tubes for Water Well Casing. 885-1940 Hard Drawn Seamless Brass Tubes (Ultimate Tensile Stress 25 to 30 tons per sq. in.). 886-1940 Annealed Seamless Brass, Tubes. 887-1940 Vernier Callipers. 906-1940 Engineers' Parallels (Steel). 858-1939 " Best Yorkshire " Wrought Iron. 897-1940 85/5/5/5 Leaded Gun-metal Ingots. 898-1940 85/5/5/5 Leaded Gun-metal Castings. 329-1939 Round Strand Steel Wire Ropes for Lifts and Hoists. 275-1937 Dimensions of Rivets (| in. to If in. diameter), (excluding Boiler Rivets). In addition, the following revisions of British Standard Specifications have been recommended for adoption as revisions of the existing New Zealand Standards of the same scope : B.S.S. 21-1938 Pipe Threads, Part 1, Basic Sizes and Tolerances. 84-1940 Screw Threads of Whitworth Form (combining original B.S.S. 84-1918 and B.S.S. 92-1919). 250-1940 High Tensile Brass Bars and Sections (Grades A and B). 251-1940 Naval Brass (Admiralty Mixture) Bars and Sections (suitable for Machining and Forging) and Forgings. 252-1940 Naval Brass (Special Mixture) Bars and. Sections (suitable for Machining and Forging) and Forgings. 249-1940 Brass Bars (High Speed Screwing and Turning). Fire-extinguishers Sub-committee.—This sub-committee has completed the preparation of the following original New Zealand Standard Specifications : Portable Chemical Fire-extinguishers of the Foam Type. Portable Chemical Fire-extinguishers of the CarbonHetrachloride Type. These two standard specifications supplement N.Z.S.S. 246—Portable Fire-extinguishers of the Soda-acid Type, to form a series of national standards for the three types of fire-extinguishers most widely used in the Dominion. When this work is completed the sub-committee will have performed a valuable service to the community, by making available authoritative and generally accepted provisions designed to ensure the economic manufacture of efficient and safe fire-extinguishers. The sub-committee has now turned its attention to a revision of N.Z.S.S. 246 Portable Fire-extinguishers of the Soda-acid Type, with a view to bringing its provisions into line with those of the two new standards mentioned above.

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