A LOCAL INVENTION.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 1024, 1 August 1911, Page 2

A LOCAL INVENTION.

COLLAPSIBLE boxes AND CRATES.

We have been shown a collapsible crate and collapsible box hamper recently patented by Messrs A. D. Clemett (local postmaster) and William Broadbent (motor engineer of Foxton,) which promises to be a very profitable invention for the promoters. Such a convenience has been badly wanted by the postal authorities for many years, and an inspection of the hamper by the heads of the Postal Department recently has resulted in an order being despatched for four, so that an exhaustive trial may be made with a view to their adoption if suitable. The storage on empty post office hampers has become a serious problem at many railway centres and if these hampers can be collapsed into a quarter of their size when empty a great saving will be effected on the railways. As the patent applies to every kind of box including butter boxes, the importance of the invention will be readily recognised, as white pine, the best timber known for butter boxes, is disappearing rapidly, and if these boxes can be collapsed and returned at a very small cost a great saving will also be effected by the dairying industry. We learn that Messrs Clemett and Broadbent have just received a communication irom the postal authorities of the Commonwealth of Australia, asking for a sample hamper to be sent for an exhaustive trial with a view to its’adoption.

We understand a syndicate is being formed in Feilding to patent these hampers over the world and we wish the inventors every success in their venture.