LIBYAN SAND STORM

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 5, Issue 59, 29 May 1942, Page 5

LIBYAN SAND STORM

MADE m ENGLAND TO TEST MIDDLE EAST RAILWAY ENGINES Sand from the Libyan desert has been specially sent to the Research Laboratory of the London, Midland and Scottish' Railway for tests the air filters of the: diesel shunting locomotijves to be used in. the des-j erts of the Middle East. The filters : | were placed in a wind! tunnel and the sand blown past them in order to imitate actual desert conditions. A related problem was to give a better supply of cooling air to the engine gear-boxes of tanks operating in hot climates. The; model of the after prta of a tank Avas erected in the laboratory, and by making various alterations in the: circulating fan and the air ducts, an; improvement of 90 per cent 1 was achieved. The results of these, experiments may be used in futuie tank designs. The research department has* recently devised another novelty rather like a pistol, with which pins that have been recovered from old correspondence are picked up magnetically in exact paeket'luls by a pull on the trigger. Seven cwts of pins, clips and fasteners, were re.covered in the first yeiar.

Most of the work of tiro company's scienlilie staff is directly concerned with the war effort, either on the railway's own war problems or f (M - Government Depatmeents, Substitutes have to be continuously sought for as regular supplies become unobtainable, and a good example has been the discovery that the wool grease retrieved from the sewers at Bradford can be used n; "lubricating oils in the place., of fatty (tils previously !° ,r this purpose. The researclY department's instrument -shop lias also been carrying out investigations', on barbed wire entanglements, steel heim-vs ar:» armoii" plate. The introduction of s;)ray painting has 'been accelerate:!, enabling a wagon to be piantedi in six minutes as against• thee 40. minutes required by brushing. T'hei work has been iso "simplified that- it has; been qui-kly mastered by women who 'have' taken ' fhb ' pl.'.te <.il\ painter, called, up to the, Forces.