FLASHES

Evening Star, Issue 19787, 10 February 1928, Page 2

FLASHES

An electric stretching machine, suggesting the mediaeval torture rack except that it is “ painless,” has been devised to add inches to the user’s height. It pulls steadily on shoulders, head and feet. A continuous wire rod mill at Templeborough, standing idle as the result of the bursting of a huge flywheel, causing serious damage to the engine and plant, is to he operated electrically in place of the steam engine hitherto used (states an English paper). An extension of the conveniences of electricity in the home eliminates the periodic removal of carpets and rugs for washing or dry cleaning. This is a semi-automatic carpet washing machine which besides scrubbing the carpet or rug dries the nap as it is pushed about the floor. The apparatus is self-con-tained, excepting for the flexible electric cord which supplies operating current.

Mr J. T. H. Leggc, chief engineer to tlio Shropshire, Worcestershire, and Staffordshire Electric Power Co., in the course of a speech to members of the Worcestershire Chamber of Agriculture recently, stated that the cost of erecting overhead lines to supply rural districts ,in that country from £4OO to £430 a mile, compared with about £250 in France, the difference being due to, having to observe regulations which were not imposed in France. With is claimed to be the deepest electric furnace in the world has just been put into operation on a South African mine. This furnace, which is being worked at a depth of '6,300ft, has been designed by Mr V. C. Cutts, managing director of Verdon Cutts and Co., Ltd., of Sheffield, wfio recently returned from South Africa. This furnace has been installed for the heating of carbon drill steel, and is in furtherance of a growing movement to heat treat drills underground. An interesting feature of the new Ferrybridge power station of the Yorkshire Electric Power Company is tho provision of an all-electric canteen for the staff. This electrical cooking equipment comprises one grill, loading 3.5 kw.; one 18in by 18iu fish fryer, complete with illuminated typo switchboard, loading 5.75 kw.; tivo tengallon boiling pans, complete with illuminated type switchboard (these have Manchester plates lift-ont steamers —two per pan), 5 kw. each; ono hot cupboard, measuring over all 4ft by 2ft by 2ft 9in high, complete with illuminated typo switchboard, 34 kw.; one four-plate boiling table, complete with illuminated typo switchboard, » kw.; ono oven range, complete with illuminated typo switchboard, 9 kw. That tho brewing industry is rapidly becoming electrified was clearly evident from a, visit to tho recent Brewers’ Exhibition held in London at the Royal Agricultural Hall (states ‘Electrics’). While it was to be noted that there was no radical change in the design of brewery machinery, it was interesting to observe that in all cases the exhibits, demonstrated the application of the electric motor for driving the nude range of machinery used in the modern brewery. On one stand was to be seen the small fractional horse-power motor operating a labelling machine, while on others there were to bo found mammoth bottle washing or cask donning machines driven by electric power. In fact, the whole exhibition afforded an excellent example of the adaptability of the electric motor as a form of prime mover in the brewery. Facility of control, which is one of the unique features of electricity, makes the electric heating process especially suitable for those industries in which the maintenance of an equable temperature is essential. Thus in tobacco manufacture, in food stores, and in wine and spirit stores, electric heating offers a valuable means of exactly controlling the heat. And also in places where bread has to be stored in a moist atmosphere at an exact temperature to keep it fresh, there is no method for doing this at once so simple and so effective as by the use of electric -ovens with an electrically heated water tank fixed in the base. Thermostatic heat is in this way maintained under perfect control. A particularly interesting example of the recuperative powers of electric motors is mentioned in an English electrical journal. A British Thomson Houston 450 h.p., 4-pole slip ring induction protected type motor, was completely immersed in pit water in a coal mine for eleven days, dried out without being brought to tho surface, and ppt back into service. It drives a centrifugal pump, and is wound for 6,000 volts, 40 cycles, three-phase. During its immersion so much grease, coal dust, and mud were deposited that it was found necessary first to dismantle the motor in order to clear the coils, slots, and internal framework; drying out_ was done by reassembling, short circuiting the rotor, and passing a current _of 22 amperes through .the stator winding. This drying out occupied ten days, the current being passed for ,an eight-hour shift in every twenty-four hours, i.e., for a total time of eighty hours. Insulation tests were taken during each shift when a temperature of 160 deg E. was registered in the winding. The machine has thoroughly impregnated former wound coils in open slots, the insulation being ,of mica, put on by the Haefely process.