INSPECTION OF ELECTRIC MOTORS.

Shannon News, 12 March 1929, Page 3

INSPECTION OF ELECTRIC MOTORS.

MARINE DEPARTMENT’S ACTION DEEMED SUPERFLUOUS. What he described as a farce in the inspection of electrical motors was mentioned by Mr J, Harvey ah the monthly meeting of the Levin Chamber of Commerce on Thursday. He explained that this inspection was undertaken annually by the Marine Department-, which for years past had been responsible for boiler inspection throughout the Dominion. It was readily understandable that steam boilers, with their attendant risks, should provide! the cause for a periodical examination, for which the .owners were quite prepared to pay; but the Department made an annual inspection of every electrical motor in the Dominion and charged from 5s upwards according to the power of the motor. ( The inspection was -a farce inasmuch as the official simply took the number, name and power of the motor, which was not inspected ih any technical sense. Indeed, it was questionable whether some of the inspectors knew anything about the motors. These appliances had all been put under the inspection of the Power Boards; yet the Marine Department’s inspectors came round every year, and in many cases they did not even see the motors. Amongst all the machinery made there wa? hardly anything more “foolproof” than an electric motor. Mr A. W. Hutchings stated that the same question had been taken up by the Farmers’ Union, in relation to milking motors. Mr 11. G,. Kerslake remarked that this class of inspection was ..separate from that carried out by the officers of the Machinery Inspection branch of the Labour Department, who examined shafting and belting and pointed out the places where guards should be erected.

Mr Harvey: They charge nc- fee for that. If there was -any service rendered in the other case, one would not object ta the fee; but when there is nothing done except to find out whether you still have the motor, and it is not looked at, one does not like to be charged for it. Mr K. Aitken: That could be done on a halfpenny postcard. Mr Harvey:-It is all tested by the Power Board before it is put in, and it is almost impossible to do anytin.g wrong with it. A boy of 14 is al.* iwed t - driv-; a car through a town, wilh a hundred, times more risk than is involved in the starting and stopping of an electric motor. It. must mean more revenue for the Marino Department. '

It was decided ,to make representations on the matter to the Government,, through the member for the district. ■ The chairman (Mr C. S, Keedwell) remarked that the practice had apparently crept in with the growth of the electric motor.