KERB PUMP SALE.

North Otago Times, Volume CVII, Issue 17166, 24 March 1927, Page 7

KERB PUMP SALE.

i f The general impression is that | kerfiside petrol purnps are extreme- ! iy dgngerous, especially when fire i occurs. Severe practical tests in ; Australm and New Zealand have proved that this impression is entirely wrong. In view of continued controversy on this point, it is interesting to record an experience which fell to the lot of the Northcote City Motors whose premises were • completely gutted by fire. eailp in February. Fire usually rages furiously in such premises, and on this occasion the destruction was complete even to the exient of gutting adjoining properties sustained considerable damage. On the kerbside outside this garage stands a "Shell" Motor Spirit Pump. It is hard to credit the fact that in the midst of this blaze stood the apparently most inflammabl'e object, the Motor Spirit Pump, safe and sound except for discolouration through scorching, despite the fact

■ that on the same day the petrol . pump had received delivery of 100 ; gallons of petrol. The day after the fire. saies were made ex this pump ; as usual. Practically the same ex- ; perience was the lot of the "Shell" pump erected on the kerbside in fiont of the premises of Messrs Barber and Whetton, Garage and /Bus Proprietors, Petone, Wellington. Though the pump was on the kerb under the verandah, th'e storage tank was actually inside the premises. This pump was also on duty the following day after having been examined and passed as O.K by the Weights and Measures Autliorittes. These incidents and similar ones furnish conclusiveevidence in support of the claim that kerbside pumps are apparently safe, being leakproof, vapour tight j and without fumes. Indeed what ! greater test could the rnuch 1 maligned pump be put to, to prove j its snfety. | II m ma— — — n— . I