Document bj4JGQ1K0XGE0ODk90Zgq5kg

FILE NAME: Engineering (ENG) DATE: 1931 Jan DOC#: ENG018 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: Trade Journal Article 11193! E S T A B L I S H E D 1856. R E G IS T E R E D AS A NEW SPAPER. 39U ] 28, ESSEX ST., LONDON, W.C. 2. [JANUARY 16, 1931 J an. 16, 1931 THE ENGINEER 77 Railway and Road Matters. Notes and Memoranda. Miscellanea. It is announced th a t th e N ational W ages Board will sta rt its review of railway-men's pay and conditions of service on M onday, January 19th. W hen', as related in this column on January 2nd, Sir Herbert W alker w as speaking at a dinner of the staff of the Southern R ailw ay general m anager's and secretary's offices, he also said th a t the cost of the electrification to Brighton would be abou t 3,000,000, and, w ith luck, there would be an electrical service to B righton b y the summer of 1932. In view of the growth of road m otor traffic, it would seem that the lam ps on level crossing states should have their visibility im proved so as to guard against the gates being run into and dam aged by road vehicles, accom panied possibly by an obstruction on the railway. This remark is prompted by two recent accidents-- a fatal one at Retford and a remarkable escape at Coppull in Lancashire-- which was due to the road being slippery ow ing to frost. F rom tim e to tim e we mention the inquiries of the Assistant In sp ectin g Officers of R ailw ays into the more serious accidents to railw ay servants. Colonel M ount's annual report for 1929 shows that those officers and the sub-inspecting officers held 460 such inquiries during the year. In only 215 of th ese cases was it th ou gh t necessary to make any recom m endation ; in 167 instances the recom mendation was accepted and in 36 it was declined. The remaining 12 eases w ere still under consideration. As far as we can see, no name associated w ith British railways appears in the list of New Year H onours, and th e only officer o f n o te am ong those overseas is Mr. Percy' Rothera, the agent of th e South India Railway', who receives a K nighthood in th e In d ian list. Mr. H erbert Morrison, the Minister of Transport, becom es a P rivy Councillor, and Mr. Charles Cam pbell, one of th e Sub-inspecting officers o f the R a ilw a y D epartm ent of th e M inistry, is made a Member of th e Order of the British Empire. Ottb contem porary, th e R ailw ay Review-- the organ of the National U nion of R ailwaym en-- in its issue of January 9th, drew attention to the fact that during 1929 the four grouped companies paid more than 539,000 in connection with m erchandise carried by' goods train and over 66,500 for consignm ents b y passenger train which h ad been lost or dam aged in tran sit. It is then remarked tlia t " W e feel confident tliat it is only necessary' to once again draw attention of railwaymen to this important matter in order that the figures m entioned above m ay be substantially reduced during the coining year." ` The fatal accident to three trainmen at Northumberland Park Station, T ottenham , on January 7th, recorded, along w ith the Carlisle accident, in our Seven-day Journal on January' fit h, w as of a v e ry unusual character. W e m av say' th a t, besides the coroner's inquest, the circum stances will be inquired into by Colonel Anderson on liebalf of the Mmistrv of Transport. We bate reason t o b e l i e v e that, although there are s[teoml operating regulations for gun- T h e num ber of operatives em ployed in the cotton m ills T h e new free port at Piraeus, A thens, is to be opened in of B om b ay during la st year w as 23*2.087, which show s an April. increase of 13.000 over 1929. A n aerodrome is to be constructed in Andorra by a T h e average daily production of motor tires in France Barcelona firm. ' was 14,100 pieces during the past year. Tile annual con T he cost of ex ten d in g th e piers in N ew Y o rk H a rb o u r, sum ption was about 2,900,000 tires. to acc o m m o d a te 1000ft. liners, is e stim a te d a t 15,000.000. T h e Pacific Gas and E lectric Company is adopting a pressure of 1200 lb. per square inch for the boilers of its new station at San Francisco. The three boilers will have a total evaporative capacity of 500,000 lb. per hour. T h e annual carnival d$noe of the Im perial College is to be held at the Union, South Kensington, on February' 20th, a t ' 9.30 p.m . T ick ets m ay be obtained from Mr. D . M. Tombs. I t is said that the cost of hardening and tempering rock drills by means of the electrically heated salt bath is, on the Rand, less th an one farthing per drill. This amount includes power, m aintenance, depreciation, labour and supervision. I t is claimed that the tank which is being made b y B raithw aite and Co. for the Murree waterworks in the Punjab, will be the largest pressed steel tank m the world. It w ill be 204ft. b y 160ft. by' 16ft. deep and w ill h ave a capacity of some 3,250,000 gallons. I n- a lecture g iv en to th e R oyal S o ciety of A rts, Professor A cco rdin g to an a n a ly sis by' th e Engineering N e w s Record of America, the state of Vermont expends m ost on the m aintenance of roads, w ith an amount of 37-80 dollais per capita. T he Departm ent of Overseas Trade has just issued a booklet of " H ints for Commercial Visitors to T urkey." w h ich h as been prepared by' th e Com m ercial Secretary to H.M . E m bassy at Istanbul. I t appears, frem sta tistics recently' issued in America, that, on the average, each locom otive of the Pennsylvania Company consumes nearly 2500 tons of coal per annum. C. R . D arling said th a t theoretically.' 20,000 cubic feet The com p an y ow ns 6100 engines. of air, which represent the contents of a house of m oderate size, m ay be raised in temperature from freezing point-- 32 deg. Fah.-- to 64 deg. Fah. b y the heat produced from the com bustion of 1 lb. of coke, and when the air is once heated only losses due to cooling by conduction tlirougli exp osed walls' and w ind ow s a n d th e entry' Of fresh air from w ithout have to be made good by the furnace. He also pointed out that, at present prices in South London, the relative amounts of heat obtained from one penny w orth o f fu el are as follow s :-- G as coke, 60,000 u n its ; T h e recent extended fog in th e M anchester district is said to have resulted in a record in electricity generation. On January 6th the local power stations produced 2,113,000 units, which is at the rate of 770 m illions a year. I t is proposed to construct an em bankm ent 12 m iles long, w ith an average height of 20ft., at Sangywa, Rangoon, w ith the object of forming an artificial lake to provide p otab le w ater for th e city-. It is estim a ted th a t th e lake w ould give a supply of 47J m illion gallons of w ater a day'. household coal, 57,000 ; sem i-coke, 45,000 ; anthracite, 40,000; oil, 11,400; coal gas, 11,100; electricity, 3415 units. T h e C ity Council of Edm onton, Alberta, has decided to expend 450,000 dollars on the extension of the boilers in its power plant, and w ill probably order further plant W r it in g in the Canadian Engineer, M r. P. H . W ood, to the am ount of 1,445,000 dollars during 1932-33. This of th e Converse Bridge and S teel Company', su ggests second programme will include a 15,000-kilow att generator. the use of several colours in th e painting of bridges. " I w ill ad m it." he say-s, " th a t unless it was done under artistic supervision the effect m ight be terrible. Also, the span would have to be of graceful ontlino to start w ith. During the war the French painted a number of their railway bridges m a similar fashion to the w ay ships were camouflaged. A number of colours were used and the effect was certainly' startling. From even a short distance aw ay th ey looked like any'tliing but a bridge. The sam e ingenuity' by artists on steel highw ay bridges would achieve pleasing results, particularly' if the design of the span was aesthetically satisfactory. A variation in effect might be achieved by applying stainless steel, or possibly aluminium alloy sheets to some of the principal members." A t a relent m eeting of th e French Academic des Sciences m Paris, Mr. A. d 'A rsonval described a new R on tgen -iav tub-, i apable of vs.,-iking at 4uO,OUO t o lls It was m 1913 l l l . l t M l '. \ \ . I ) . C o i i M- d ' - f I n \ el 11e d rlii* t l ]u> n f Mi),., jrj T h e announcem ent is made that the N ew England Power Association, a subsidiary of the International H ydro electric System , has a construction programme involving an expenditure of upwards of 5* m illions sterling. On com pletion of the programme, which includes the con struction of the fourth largest hvdro-electric plant in the U .S .A ., th e A ssociation w ill h ave a to ta l li>rd ro -electin capacity of 467.300 H .P ., in addition to si cam -driven plant of approxim ately the same liorse-powcr. T he laboratory for carrying out large-scale experim ents on hydrogenation of coal established at Duisburg by the A.G. fur Steinkohleverflussigung und Ycredelung has, says the Iron and Coal Trades Review, been closed. This step has been found necessary, due to the fact that owing to the w ant of suitable m aterials for tlio parts of the plant exposed to very high pressures these were very' qun-kly wurn ou t. T he sam e trouble has pi um pted the l.th Fni her.'in in t to i -art ml eo:;r i.i1r,.l 1v :* a -T:vi; y a. ; ., will Ik- inquired into by Colonel A nderson on liolinlf of the Ministry of Transport. We have reason to believe that, although there are sjieeiol operating regulations for gun powder vans, there are none for petrol tanks. W e would h ave it rem em bered, too, th at on Septem ber 19th, 1927, a passenger train ran broadside into a train of thirty petrol tank wagons-- fortunately em pty-- at Plaistow. ' T he Underground authorities always have deserved credit for the attractive design of their posters, and four recent exam ples deserve special m ention, in that they bring home to the passenger some of the special features provided for the safety of the trains. These respectively sh ow the " d ead m an's h an d le," w hereby, should th e mot orman accidentally release his control w hilst running, current is cu t off autom atically and the brakes applied ; the tunnel telephone that enables a motorm an to " plug At a recent m eeting of the French Arndemie des Sciences in Paris, Mr. .V. d'A rsonval described a new R on tgen -ray tube capable of working at 400.000 volts. It was in 1913 th a t Mr. I \ . D . Cooledge invented the ty p e of tu b e in which the electronic current is produced by em ission from an incand escent cathode. U p to 1928 it w as considered, says the Electrical Een'eic, that 200,000 volts w as the m axi mum which such a tube could w ithstand, although Cooledge had already produced a tube working at up to 350.000 volts and two and three-stage tubes for from 600.000 to 900,000 volts, while later experim ental tubes for pressures up to 1 million volts in fifteen stages had been produced. Mr. d 'A rsonval poin ted ou t th a t a ll th ose advances had, however, been confined to research labora tories, and that so far there was no system atic produc tio n o f tu b es for 400.000 volts. The n ew d 'A rson val incandescent-cathode tube is a sealed single-stage bulb, th e want of suitable m aterials for tlie parts of th e plant, exposed to very high pressures these were very quieklyworn out. The sam e trouble has prom pted th e I.G . Farbenindustrie to curtail considerably its activity- in the field of hydrogenation of coal. T h e official returns rendered to the E lectricitv Com missioners show that 1150 million units of electricitv were generated by authorised undertakers in Great B ritain during the month of December, 1930, as com pared w ith 1049 million units in the corresponding m onth of 1929, or an increase of 9 -6 per cent. During the year ending December 31st, 1930, the total amount of electricity generated by authorised undertakers w as 10,869 m illion u n its, as com pared w ith 10,294 m illion u n its for th e y-ear ending December 31st, 1929, representing an increase of about 5*6 per cent. in at any point on the line and to com municate w ith the which, at a constant voltage of 400,000 volts, carries 2 T h e Commercial Secretary to the B ritish E m b assy at su b-station ; th e autom atic train stop, which " trips " m illiam pres, w hile w ith a pulsating voltage of 400,000 Istanbul, Turkey-, reports th at a revised draft B ill designed th e m otor should a signal be overrun ; the escalator safety volts it w ill carry an average of 2-5 m illiam pres. This to introduce the m etric sy-stem of w eights and m easures gear for stopping it in an emergency. An inset shows the has been achieved by m ounting the cathode filam ent has been subm itted to the B udget Commission of th e Grand particular apparatus in a larger scale. w ithin a round m etallic component, the air in w hich is, N ational Assembly-. The B ill prohibits the use o f other I t is w ell known that the M etropolitan R ailw ay is con siderably handicapped in its train service to and from the City lines by the bottle-neck of only two lines of wav between Baker-street and Finehley-road. In order to find som e relief, powers were obtained in 1926 to make a tube railway between Edgware-road and W illesden Green, but the line has not been proceeded with. A letter m The Times of January 10th makes what, if the com panies con cerned would agree to it, would, in our opinion, provide an excellent remedy against this congestion. The former Midland m ain line and the Metropolitan com e w ithin 100 yards of each other at West Ham pstead, and the pro posal is to lay m a junction at that point which would allow for M etropolitan trains from the City to run over its own w idened lin es up to K in g 's Cross and thence over th e old M idland R ailw ay ma St. P aul's-road J u n ction to "West H am pstead. W e would add, as corroboration of the near ness of the tw o lines at that point, that there used to be. and probably still are. sidings at W est H am pstead for exchanging traffic between the two companies. I iip. B oard of Trade* export tables for N ovem ber show th at th value* of the railw ay m aterial sent overseas during the first eleven m onths of the present year was as follow s; the corresponding figures for 1929 and 192S are added in brackets : -- Locom otives, 3,576,879 (2.971,833, 3,203,733): rails, 2,044,648 (2,534,812, 3,238 964)carriages, 1,725,535 (2.218,259, 2,357.S99) ; wagons. 3,004,890 (2,270,735, 2,947,243); wheels and axles, 362,573 (397,5S0, 696,215) ; tires and axles, 612,436 (569.086, 547,515) ; chairs and m etal sleepers, 597,737 (479,072, 827,089) ; miscellaneous permanent wav, 806,892 (952,S54, 1,227,4S5) ; total permanent wav, 4.524,813 (5,074,813, 0,658,944). The weight of the rails exported was 235,998 tons (301,138 tons, 371,S36 tons), and of the chairs and m etal sleepers, 62,003 tons (48,000 tons, 83,697 tons). During the m onth of Novem ber last locom otives of the value of 56.647 were shipped over- tncluded the Argentine, 240,264; India. 195,7;>4 ; S ou th Africa, 44,940. D uring th e sam e m onth tails of the value of 64,292 were exported, which included ' | u1 A rgentine, 21.173 ; Portuguese E ast A frica. 13,130 ; British South Africa, 3S10 : Straits Settlem ents 30S0 Australia, 2310; and India, 2075. b y extending the exhausting action, entirely withdrawn. The new tube is being manufactured by theG aiffe-G allot and P ilon Company, of Paris, and is m ade in lengths up to 43*5in., w ith bulb diameters of from 190 m m . to 200 m m . The distance between the anode and cathode is 40 m m ., and the diameter of the m etallic sleeve 25 m m. T h e temperature of solids may b e estim ated b y the eye or accurately measured by means of a therm om eter, therm o-couple, or optical pyrom eter. F lam es, particularly non-lum inous flames, present a more difficult problem. A flam e m ay. according to the American Bureau of Mines, be hot enough to m elt platinum and yet look fairly cool to th e eye. Conversely, there are certain lum inous cool flames which will not burn the hand. This is because the radiation from flames does not follow the laws which apply to solids ; for example, much of the radiation from the ordinary- Bunsen type of flame is m th e invisible infra-red region of the spectrum. In a m ethod for m easur ing flame temperature being employed at the Pittsburgh Experim ent Station of the Bureau, the flame is coloured yellow w ith sodium vapour and the intensity of this ligh t com pared in a spectroscope w ith th e ligh t from a heated solid at known temperature. The work is being carried out as one phase of a study of the physics and ehem isuy- of gaseous combustion and explosion. Values have been obtained for statutory fimes of different/ m ixtures of air w ith m ethane, ethane, propane, butane,/ iso-butane, ethylene, propy-lene and butylene. M axim um flame tem peratures vary from 1880 deg. Cent, for m etlian to 1975 deg. Cent, for ethylene. The m ixture of gas and air which gives m axim um temperature does not correspond to th a t w hich gives m axim um flame speed, exeept fdr m ethane-and Pittsburgh natural gas. For all other hydrin carbons tested , the m ixtures which produced th e liighefit flame, le m p e ia lu ie con tain less com bustible gas th a n thofce which give the highest speed of flame. The percentage of com b u stib le gas in air w hich gives m axim um flam e teifnperature is slightly- on th e rich side of th a t required flor exact com bustion to carbon dioxide and water. M aximum c alcu lated tem peratures are 40 deg. to 70 d eg. Certt. higher for the saturated hydrocarbons and about 100 deg. Cent, higher for the unsaturated hydrocarbons than the experim ental values. Radiation losses account for the lower m easured temperatures. measures in all contracts, agreements, invoices, com m ercial books, notices, docum ents, &c. A translation o f th e B ill m ay be seen at th e D epartm ent of Overseas Trade, 35, Old Queen-street, London, S.W . 1 (reference 22583/26). It w ill be recalled th at a similar B ill w as introduced in 1926, and again in 1928, w ithout becoming law. A t a recent m eeting of the 1820 Settlers' A ssociation at Cape Town, the organising secretary, Captain Edw ards, explained the circum stances in which 29 Scottish riveters who were brought out from the Clyde to work on the Northern Rhodesia copper mines returned to Scotland after ten weeks. He said, according to the S .A . M inin g and Engineering Journal, these men had come out on a con tract of 25s. a day. and had refused to carry it out because certain casual workmen were getting 28s. 6d. a day. They com plained th at on their arrival at the m ines th ey found that though their earnings with overtim e am ounted to 55 a m onth, casual workers from Johannesburg engaged on the spot earned, w ith overtime, as much as 60 a m onth. The men, who had not come out under the auspices of th e A ssociation, w h ich had merely- been asked to befriend them , said they- preferred the dole in E ngland to 55 a m on th in R h odesia as long as there w ere m en w orth less earning more. ' T he H om e Secretary- gives notice that in pursuance of ^ his pow ers under Sec. 47 of the W orkm en's C om pensation A ct. 1925, as exten d ed b y the W orkm en's C om pensation (Silicosis and Asbestosis) Act, 1930, he proposes to m ake a scheme to provide for the appointment of a m edical board to give the necessary- certificates in all cases where com pensation is claim ed for silicosis or asbestosis, and to carry out periodic medical exam inations of workers em ployed in certain specified processes involving exposure to silica or asbestos dust. H e further gives notice th at he proposes at the same tim e to amend the Metal Grinding Industries (Silicosis) Scheme, 1927, and the Various Industries (Silicosis) Scheme, 1928. with a view (1) to provide for the certification by- th e m edical board of cases arising under these schem es, and (2) to exten d the right to com pensation to workmen. He further proposes to make a schem e-- to be cited as the Asbestos Industry (Asbestosis) Scheme, 1931-- to provide for the pay-ment of com pensation by em ployers of workmen em ployed in certain processes involving exposure to asbestos dust.