NEW INVENTIONS

Evening Post, Volume CVII, Issue 15, 18 January 1924, Page 7

NEW INVENTIONS

BUTTER TRANSPORT

OVERCOMING PINE SHORTAGE.

(FROM OUE OWN CORRESPONDENT.)

_ . SYDNEY, 3rd January. Two inventions of interest to primary producers are attracting considerable attention. One aims at conserving the pine supplies needed for making butter boxes by enabling the boxes to be repeatedly used, and by utilising less wood in their manufacture. It is pointed out that white pine is the only timber suitable for the carriage of butter, and the increasing demand places the future supply in jeopardy, it is estimated that 25,000.000 feet of pine is required yearly in Australia for butter boxes alone, and apart from the small but diminishing quantity of pine used in the South, all" the States have to depend almost entirely upon Queensland pine. The situation has stimulated the inventive capacities of a well-known Brisbane solicitor, Mr. W. T. Atthow, who has just exhibited several types of boxes which he has devised which, it is claimed, will not only greatly economise the pine consumption, but will ensure better preservation of the butter in transport. The first box exhibited was one made with the same sized panels and assembled exactly as the present common butter box, but with two patented improvements^one allowing free circulation of air round every side of each box when boxes are stacked- together without having to use extraneous mean's; the second enabling the contents of the box to be turned out intact after the lid is .take* off without disturbing a nail in the box. Mr. Atthow makes the following claims for this box: (1) It is exactly the same size as the present common box. (2) It is assembled exactly as. the present box. (3) When stacked in rows every box will have complete circulation of air all round it. (4) After the lid is taken off the ends separate slightly from the top, and the contents' slip out, intact, and can be replaced as easily. (5) The nails in the side panels are driven into the ends of sides against, not with, the grain of the wood, thereby avoiding any drawing of these nails through atmospheric conditions. (6)' Actual space on ships' cold storage is less than at present, no extraneous splines being needed. 1(7) Boxes are just .as strong if not stronger than present box, and- will cost no more. (8) The side panels can be, made much thinner than in the present box, thus saving timber. Mr. Atthow exhibited another class of' box for butter packing, in.which neither screw nor nail is used. It is bound by two wires only. The side panels are half locked at the edges. The lid and bottom are tongued all. round and let into grooves placed round the inside of the four side panels near the top and bottom. The contents in the box are thus practically hermetically sealed, whilst they are safe from pilferage unless a wire be cut. To get out the contents intact only one wire need be cut. If the other is^cut the box falls tp pieces, and can be assembled as easily^ and the box used over and over again/ The other invention, by Mr. Donald Elder, a New,. Zealander, is an automatic system of aeHal irrigation. It was demonstrated before a representative gathering in Adelaide last week, those-pre-sent including the Lord Mayor and Director of Agriculture, Sir /Lancelot Stirling, and others prominent in agricultural interests in South Australia and New South Wales and Queensland. The "Adelaide Advertiser," commenting on the demonstration, says: "The system might aptly be described as the latest invention for watering lawns, racecourses, gardens, orchards, parks, golf links, market gardens, farms^ roads, and so on, and there can be no doubt that it is specially applicable in all avenues of primary production so far as irrigation is concerned. Already successful trials of the system at work have been given in the other States, and most favourable opinions have been expressed concerning it. It Was an interesting sight on Tuesday to see the revolving wonder sprayers, about a chain apart, each in operation automatically watering at set intervals one after ani*7ier a circular patch of lawn 140 feet in diameter. In addition, the sprayer was at work with a flexible^ nozzle attachment, by means of which any irregular shaped piece of ground can be watered, whether it be a triangle a moon, or a right angle shaped bed."-