AT WEMBLEY.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXV, Issue 4729, 25 July 1924, Page 3

AT WEMBLEY.

ARMSTRONG, WHITWORTH & CO. MANY INTERESTING EXHIBITS; As Messrs Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth and Co., Ltd., the great English engineering firm, have come before the New Zealand public lately on account of their succeesful tendering for considerable Government works in the Dominion, information concerning this firm’s extensive exhibits at the British Empire Exhibition may be of interest. Amcng the many important exhibits of Messrs Armstrong Whitworth and Co., Ltd., at Whembley, none is of greater interest than the heavy main line locomotive. This engine is one of a number to the order of the Buenos Aires Great Southern railway, and has eight wheels coupled with i loading four-.wheeled bogie. Superheaters of the Marine and Locomotive Superheater, Ltd., design and oil fuel burning apparatus are fitted .The weight of the engine in working order is 84% tons, and of the tender in working order 4'9 tons, making a total weigh’ h> working order of 133% tons. The total length is 64ft sin over. The buffers and the gauge s%ft. The tender has a carrying capacity of 1000 gallons of water and 8% tons of oil fuel. The boiler pressure is 2001 b to the tsciuare inch. SIMPLE EXPANSION TYPE. This engine has three simple expansion cylinders of 17%in diameter and 26in stroke. The inside and two outside cylinders are eaeh actuated by separate sets of valve motion all of the Walschaer type, and all governed by one reversing shaft. Reversing is effected by means of a hand operated screw reversing gear. The boiler barrel Is of 1116 in plate, the outside diameter at the firebox end being sft Bin. The inside firebox is of steel throughout, and the engine is fitted with steam and vacuum brakes The oil tank is situated on top of the tender, and has a small heating tank situated at the front end to heat the oil before it passes to the burner, and the tender is of the double bogie type. MODELS OF VESSELS. A wonderful range of models of \essels of all types manufactured by this firm is exhibited. One of these is of the ice-breaker Tarmo. Vessels possessing hulls strong enough to withstand heavy ice pressure when frozen in and to break away through it by the bow-on collisions, with propelling machinery sufficiently strong in all parts to stand this rough usage, are a necessity for northern ports liable to be frozen up during the greater part of the year. Messrs Arm- •. trong Whitworth and Co. have from lhe first devoted attention to the design and construction of such ships, of which the Tarmo is one of the earliest examplee. The model shows the peculiarities typical of this class of ship. The stem is cut away to enable the ship to mount on the ice and break it with her weight. The excessive tumble home protects her topworks from contract with masses of ice, and the for- ‘ ward propeller by its suction effect largely facilitates her work. The ship fe propelled by two sets of triple expansion engines, one forward and one aft, with.a maximum I owcr of 3400 i.h.p., giving the vessel a maximum speed of about 13 knots ■ n clear water. The ship was built to the order, of the Finnish Government in the year 1907, and after 17 years of strenuous work is still in good working condition and fulfilling her < riginal purpose. The s.s. Malines is a twin-screw geared turbine crose-Channel steamer built by the company at the Armstrong Yard, High Walker, Newcastle-en-Tyne, in 1922, for the Great East- < rn Railway Companys’ service on the Harwich-Antwerp route. The vessel is a first-class passenger and cargo steamer having sleeping accommodation for about 263 first-class and 112 second-class passengers. OTHER EXHIBITS. Another very interesting section is that which is devoted to the productions of the company’s hydro-electric department. There is a scale model of a Pelton wheel of the type which the company is installing at Dolgarrog, North Wales. The actual wheel is designed to develop 7500 b.h.p. at 128 revolutions a minute under a head of 850 to 1150 feet. The road-making machinery department is exhibiting a stead road rolled of 10 tons nominal size, a few of the leading features o£ which are as follows : The boiler is of the locomotive type, with a Belpaire firebox; the joint of the barrel to the firebox throat plate is double riveted, as are also the sides and top seams of the crown plate of firebox shell. The engine is of two-cylinder compound type, with piston valves. The gear wheels are of steel and all machine cut. Each roller wheel is built up of two solid dished isteei plates forming the centre, which are bolted to a heavy cast iron hub and rim. The steerage fork is of cast steel. A drying and mixing plant for the manufacture of tar macadam and asphalte is also shown. The example exhibited is the “A” type plant, which can be supplied as a portable or fixed installation, and gives a daily output of 30 to 40 tons of bituminous or tar macadam. Whjle the exhibits described in this article are some of the most interesting of those shown by Messrs Armstrong Whitworth, they do not by any means exhaust the scope of the company and its associated firme, and other exhibits include gas and oil engines, pneumatic tools of all kinds, swash plate engines, guns, brass and aluminium castings, stampings, and extruded sections, heavy isteel ingots and forgings, stainless steel, drop stampings, axle and wheel lathes, vertical boring machines, automatic screw machines, ammunition and blasting cartridges, coal and coal pig iron, road-making materials. bar sections, netting wire, nails, steel rope, galvanised sheets, gutters, aero engines, aeroplanes, small tools and gauges, and other productions.