Passing Comments
Page 38

If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
THERE seems to be something unsatisfactory in the methods adopted by some municipal-transport committees in making their selection for posts in the department concerned. Vacant appointments are advertised and applicants put to trouble, and, sometimes, expense, whilst names even appear in short lists, presumably for the purpose of arranging interviews, but the persons mentioned hear nothing more about the matter until they learn that someone else has been appointed. Such treatment is unfair and is likely to place applicants in an invidious position. APUZZLING occurrence occasionally experienced on the road is the sudden slipping of the clutch which renders further progress temporarily impracticable but, after a short halt, disappears, the clutch• gripping as well as ever. The explanation is found in a little-known property of some friction materials, namely that the value of the coefficient of friction drops as the material reaches a high temperature, usually in the neighbourhood of 200 degrees C. Brakes are also liable to the trouble, but can of course dissipate heat more readily than clutches, especially the enclosed type employed with unit construction.