Wolseley Chemical Fire Motor.

Progress, Volume I, Issue 7, 1 May 1906, Page 176

Wolseley Chemical Fire Motor.

The accompanying illustration depicts the Wolseley chemical fire engine, which is really built with modifications to suit the requirements of a New Zealand fire brigade. Particulars of this interesting machine are here given, through the courtesy of Messrs. Turnbull & Jones, Ltd., New Zealand agents for the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Co., Ltd. The frame is stoutly built of channel steel of sufficiently heavj r section, and is reinforced with stiff gusset plates and transverse members. The wheel base is 9' 6" and the track 4' 9". The motor lies completely below the frame and allows the bonnet to be made extremely short. The wheels are artillery pattern, the rear ones 40" diameter, and the front 46" diameter. The rear wheels are fitted with heavy-section, solid-rubber tyres, while the front wheels are fitted with heavy pneumatics. The machine has a standard 24-h.p. horizontal petrol motor, having four cylinders of 4\" bore by 5" stroke. The engine casing is of aluminium. The carburetter is of the float-feed spray type, having one jet for the four cylinders, while the ignition is electric high tension by means of accumulators and induction coils with tremblers. The cooling is on the standard Wolseley system, the hot water being taken from the engine directly to a battery of radiators arranged in the place of the usual bonnet, these radiators being reduced by a high-speed fan driven from the motor. The water is afterwards drawn from the radiators into the tank, and from there to the engine. The change-speed gear is enclosed in an aluminium box,

and is of the usual sliding- gear type, a new pair of gears being brought into mesh when it is desirable to alter the speed of the car relatively to the motor. The friction clutch is of the leather-faced, cone type, mounted on crank shaft and it carries a Renold silent chain driving the gear-box countershaft. Four speeds forward and one reverse are provided. The forward gears give a speed up to twenty-five miles per hour on the level. All changes of speed are made by means of one lever. The chassis is fitted with the following first aid alliances manufactured by a leading firm of fire-appliance makers : one 3 5 -gallon chemical cylinder, one 3-gallon hand chemical cylinder, two 10' o" ladders, 3J" sides, also one hose reel with 160' o" of hose.