FORD TO SPEND £20,000

New Zealand Listener, Volume 1, Issue 21, 17 November 1939, Page 23

FORD TO SPEND £20,000

HE largest industrial exhibit at the Centennial Exhibition is going to cost the Ford Motor Company about £20,000. Inside 10,000 square feet of enclosed floor space they have arranged what they call a "goodwill" advertisement, with ingenious mechanical novelties and open engines and chassis for the advertisement, and a permanent staff of 24 in shifts of twelve to boost the goodwill. Perspicacious as usual, the Ford publicity experts have barred super-salesmen from the exhibit and will offer visitors taste in design and novelty in presentation instead of warmed-up selling systems. Sited shrewdly clear of thoroughfares but close enough to a busy route to attract all the attention necessary, the stand is hidden except for an attractive glimpse through Auckland Architect Ronald Muston’s imposing entrance design. Once past the Tower of Light and the coloured fountain, visitors will be close enough to the metaphorical golden apple to stay and permit attendants to be polite to them. By hostesses and demonstrators dressed uniformly in attractive suits of a subdued greyish brown, and mechanics in white overalls, they will be shown: Two or three stock cars; A large size stripped chassis; A cut away small chassis rotating for inspection purposes; A device for testing and measuring drivers’ reactions (which they may try themselves); A gadget for making moving objects seem to stand still; Accessories seeming to float in yoseity SN = .

Machines for testing metals for hardness, ductility, etc; Mechanics who hope shortly to reach the best times of 6142 minutes and 412 minutes respectively for assembling or dismantling a V8 engine; A roomy lounge where they may rest in fan-cooled air; Panels of splendidly photographed factory-units; And, if they are lucky, the special guests’ private lounge, an executives’ office, a miniature kitchen, and a staff room. The Stroboscope is likely to pull in as much interest as anything in the Exhibition. A flickering light shines on, say, a fan revolving at high speed. The flickers can be co-ordinated to the fan’s revolutions per minute. When they are speeded equally the fan appears to stand still. Engineers can use this to observe the reactions of motor parts while they are actually in use and under strain. Demonstrators can make this and the other special exhibits doubly interesting by using microphones and loud speaker equipment built into each section of the stand. An extra free service will be the provision of cars for those who wish to travel from the Exhibition to inspect the Ford works at Lower Hutt. W. Gee Taylor, sales manager for the Company, tells The Listener that it is all intended as an expression of confidence in the future of their business in New Zealand. Already, since Ford dealers were brought from all over the country to see the exhibit, Ford business has improved.