Answers to Queries.
Page 19
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Seeking Agency for a New Make.
[2988.) (Metropolis).—The name and address for which you inquire are :—Mackay and Jardine, Ltd., West Cross, Wishaw, Lanarkshire.
Rollers of Chain Breaking Away.
[2989] (Dorset).—Is the machine in question a converted touring car' If so, it is quite possible that your chains are badly overloaded. The chains which you name are good ones. We suggest that you communicate with the makers, putting your case before them, and asking their advice. The address is: Brampton Bros., Oliver Street Works, Birmingham.
"Burning Down a Village."
[2990] (Users).—The C.M.U.A. co-operated with the Furniture Removal and Warehouseman's Association in successfully fighting this claim. It was estimated to amount to £6000. The report concerning which you inquire appeared on page 459 of our issue of the 18th February, 1915. It concerned a Foden wagon owned by Mr;' Henry Farr, of Chichester. The safe construction of the wagon was vindicated.
Solid-tired Commercial Vehicles. • [2991] (Statistics).—The estimates for which you ask, so far as we are able to compute them, and inclusive of all utility vehicles, both motorcars and heavy motorcars, are as under:—
At June, 1914... ... 28,250 At June, 1915... ... ... 33,500
These totals are exclusive of vehicles owned by the Admiralty. and the War Department. They are, however, inclusive of both steam-driven and petroldriven commercial vehicles.
Thread Stripped from Pull-on Rod of Side Brake After Leaving Depot.
[2992] (Contractons).—You are not liable, in our opinion, although your driver may be, seeing that you cannot properly be held to have had guilty knowledge of the failure of one 'of the brakes after it left your depot. We have mailed to you direct a copy of our issue of the 13th ult., and you might refer your defending solicitors to pages 131 and 132. A good plan might be to call and see the Superintendent of Police, and try to persuade him that it was an unforeseeable accident.
Charges for an Overhaul.
[2993] (Provisions).—We have looked carefully through the account which has been sent to you by
and Co., Ltd. We understand that this machine was new when, it started to do its 12,000 miles. You will find that the sum charged for this overhaul works out at something like lid. per mile. If a 25-cwt. machine of well-known make he properly used, and be not subjected to unusual conditions, we consider that the whole charge, on a mileage not in excess of 400 per week, for repairs (labour and materials), should come out at a rate something below id. per mile. For the first year's running this figure should even be lower. War conditions have affected examining the items in detail, although not very closely. 'We are unable to understand why many of the replacemen4 should have been necessary after only 12,000 mileSrof running. If you gave the makers a free hand, they would no doubt replace everything that they thought would be improved by such replacement. We presume the two pairs of wings were necessary on account of an accident with the previous ones ? The speedometer, of course, is not a replacement, but an addition. We think you should ask the works to tell you how they account for the machine's requiring so many replacements after the mileage which you mention. The Military View.
[2994] (Exemption).—The official view of the military authorities is that " No man is exempt by virtue of hie trade." Form R-78 states that the certifying of occupations by the Government Department concerned is "subject to the provisions as to individual certificates contained in the regulations and instructions." Those regulations and instructions give any man in a certified occupation the choice of : (a) seeing or writing to the recruiting officer, himself or through his employer, and claiming the issue forthwith of a card correspondingto a certificate of exemption, and his exemption in the Army register, without formal proceedings before the Local Tribunal; (b) waiting until he receives an individual notice calling him up, when he may, within seven days of the date of the notice, lodge an application, in duplicate, on the prescribed form, with the Clerk to the Local Tribunal, claiming exemption. We gather that the foregoing procedure will be confirmed under the new Military Service Act, as regards -unattested married men and any 'other men who are brought within its provisions.
One of the Military Service Queries.
[2995] (Near Manchester).—If the Local Tribunal and the Appeal Tribunal have both refused your applications, we fear that ne outside opinion is worth anything. Your procedure is now to persuade the Appeal Tribunal to give you leave to appeal to the Central Tribunal. Many statements got into the Press which weretinac,curate. Even if you are in a "Certified Occupation," the military representative may be able to persuade; the tribunals that " although the man is in a certified occupation, it is no longer necessary in the national interests that he continue in similar employment." Whatever you put on your registration card will, of course, be relied upon as a voluntary statement of fact, and it appears to us that you should act through a solicitor now that matters have gone so far. The war, of course, imposes hardships upon all of us, and the tribunals will undoubtedly be influenced by the relative amount of time spent on each of your several occupations, and jury, so are in fact very much in the position of a so that any appeal from their decisions is probably a difficult matter. Can you make any case as man " business?
Draught for Oil-fired Boiler.
[2996] (Experimenter).—There is no doubt that draught regulation -in an oil-fired boiler demands considerable care on the part of designers. It is usual in an oil-fired locomotive to rely on the draught which is obtained from the discharge of the exhaust steam into the chimney, and this necessarily involves fluctuations of draught velocity. This irregular draught cannot always coincide-with variations an the rate of combustion. We should prefer to see the draught for oil-firing under some precise control. It is known in a locomotive to vary between 18 per cent. and 22 per cent. of the draught necessary with coal firing, due to the absence of resistance to draught through the coal on the bars. Against this, however, a correctioe has to be made for the greater weight of air which is necessary to burn,1 lb. of oil, the excess being about 33 per cent.—say '24 lb. of air for 1 lb. of oil, compared with 18 lb. of air for! lb. of coal. The mean fire-box vacuum necessary with coal can undoubtedly be reduced by at least 60 per cent. when oil is the fuel. We refer in the foregoing remarks to oil which is sprayed on to the bed of the furnace, as in the Holden system for locomotives. Where oil is fed under pressure through a vaporizing coil, relative data are -lacking, and experience with each individual burner can. alone give the necessary records.