1935-03-16 — Page 2

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MAIL NEWS FROM CHINA

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Railways, Mining, And Road

RAILWAYS

Building

NANKING-WUHU RAILWAY

PROGRESS"

SIAN-LANCHOW HIGHWAY NEARING COMPLETION-With the enthusiastle support of the people and the military authorit les, the trunk highway besweeti Slan and Lanchow, provincial and Kansu, capitals of Shensi projected by the NEC., will be September. The

Train service on the section of Nanking-Wuha the projected

anking-Shaoan) Railway be- tween Wuhu and Tangtu (Talp-completed in ingfu), in eastern Anhui, was opened to traffic on January 21. Special efforts are being made by the Railway authorities to com- plete the steel bridge across the Tangtu River. It is expected that train service to the Capital from Wuhu will be in operation by the end of March.

CANTON-HANKOW RAILWAY PROGRESS Train service on the section of the Canton-Hankow Railway between Lohchang and Chumen, along the Kuangtung- Hunan border, was opened to traf- fe on January 18. The section between Chumen to Lochlatu is nearing completion and will be operated in February. The entire section between Chuchow (Kuang- tung) and Chuchow (Hunan) will be completed next spring.

AERIAL SURVEYS FOR PRO- !JECTED LUNG-HAI RAILWAY EXTENSIONS.-With regard to she project for extension of the Lung-Hai Raliway to Lanchow," provincial capital of Kansu, from Slam, Shenst, it is learnt that the Ministry of Railways has allotted a sum of $250,000 for the purchase of an airplane to make aerial sur-

veys,

Surveys on the section be-

tween Slan, the present western terminus of the ne, and Sten- yang; and between Sfenyang, and Paochi will be simultaneously started shortly.

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road is 750 Kilometers long: con- struction expenses total $1,500,000. omnibus When it is completed, service will be operated by a mo- tor-bus company to be organised by the North-western branch of N.E.C. Surveys on the Sian-Han- southern chung Highway, in Shens, have also been completed and Construction work will be started in February with solider- labour. When the two roads are ready for traffic, through trans- portation will be instituted with the Lung-Hal Railway,

YUGSIN-LIENHUA

HIGHWAY

IN KIANGSI COMPLETED. Con- struction work on the Yungsin- Lienhua Highway, along the west- ern border of Klangsi, has been completed and omnibus service will be operated shortly. As the farmers are idle at this time of the year, the Highway Bureau has decided to employ them for pay- ing the various highways in the province with stone.

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COMMUNICATIONS

CHINA-ITALY DIRECT RADIO SERVICE INAUGURATED. — Marking à further step in the de- Velopment of international com- munications, direct radio..service between China and Italy was offi- cially inaugurated on January 21 under the direction of the Bureau of International Telegraphs, accordance with the plans of the Ministry of Communications. Ra-

مله

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FURTHER EXTENSION LUNG-HAI RAILWAY PLANNED. -A sum of $1,000,000 has been al- located by the Ministry of Rail- ways for the further extension of the Lung-Hai Railway westward from Slan, the present western terminus, to Hslenyang 19 kilo-hat, and the Italian Government

meters north-west of Sian. The Ministry has instructed the Rail- way Administration in charge of the Tungkaun-Sian Section to be- gin surveys immediately.

TRAFFIC "THROUGH

AR RANGEMENTS FOR CHEKIANG- KIANGSI RAILWAY.-The Che- kiang-Kianga Railway will parti- cipate from February. 1 with other Government railways in through traffic arrangements. Sixteen stations along the line including Hsiaoshan and Kiangstian, in Western. Cheklang, will come un- der the scheme."

HIGHWAYS

messages between the two countries will now be directly 'transmitted by the international Radio Station at Chengju, Shang-

-Radlo Station in Rome. 'Dispat-

ches for and from cities other - than Shanghai and Rome in the wo countries will be relayed by the two radio stations. Apart :rom offelal-messages, which are still under negotiation between the two Governments, the rate for ordinary traffic on the new direct service will be the same as the in- direct service heretofore „mäin- tained between the countries, that 1s $3.45 per word.

TO INSTAL NANKING-HAN- KOW TELEPHONE LINE-Instal- lation work on the Nanking-Hàn- kow long-distance telephone line, which is included in the nine province telephone network, will be started in February, it is an- nounced by the Ministry of Com munications. Starting from the Capital, the line will proceed" along the southern bank of the Yangtse River to Klukiang and from Kluklang along the northern bank of the river to Hankow. The work is to be completed in six months.

HIGHWAY, CONSTRUCTION IN SHENSI--The Shenst Provincial Government is arranging for the opening of a number of highways in the suburbs of Sian city, in- cluding one "leading to Huching- chi, a scenic spot near the tomb of the First Emperor of the Chin Dynasty (A.D. 255-205). The total cost of construction is estimated

NEW at $281,200. In view of the fan- " cial stringency of the Shens Pro- BROADCASTING STATION-COM- vincial Government, General PLETED.—Installation work Chlang has promised to contri- bute $20,000 monthly for a period of

one year,

HIGH-

HANKOW..

RADIO

tto

the new Hankow Radio Broad- casting Station has been com- pleted, and successful testa were conducted. In order to extend the service, the Provincial Authorities are also arranging for the erec- tion of a branch station in Wu chang:

HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, SATURDAY, MARCH 16, 1935.

ENGINEERING AND BUILDING

COMMON SENSE IN ENGINEERING

Absence Can Render Expert

Knowledge Valueless

There is probably no walk in life in which common sense

is not of the highest value. The greatest expert knowledge can be rendered vaquelesa by a failure of common sense

This is particularly so in engineering-a profession in which a man's sin always finds him out, and probably finds him out more rapidly than in most other professions (says Col. F. C. Tem-

ple, in "Indian Engineering.”)

One of the most important at- tributes of common sense is that of maintaining a sense of propor tion, which is intimately connect- ed with the power of seeing the obvious.

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The platitudinous person who invariably says the obvious thing Is no doubt a terrible bore and the matter of fact person who sees practical realities may be a wet blanket; but either may be of inestimable value in saving the imaginative and visionary person from embarking on an im- possible enterprise, or the one- Idea-at-a-time person from hav- ing his attention riveted on some incidental detail and thereby los- -ing sight of his real object.

Faure To See Obvious Fallures to see the obvious are common enough in all walks of, life. The following is an extreme instance.

A priest had charge of two places of worship. The people complained that they never knew at, which, place his ministrations would next be given, He said in reply to the complaint, I do not know what they have to complain about. I always ring the bell five minutes before the service is to begin"

As the two places were two miles apart, the ringing of the bell at one would not appear to be of much use to those who Uved Dear the other; When asked if he could not announce his intentions beforehand, he said, "Yes, I never thought of that.".

A second

connected with engineering. One of the Ord- nance Factories, now closed. at Dum-Dum, bought a new fire. engine. They took its rated dis- charge of water and measured

• the tank in the compound.

From its length, breadth, and depth, they calculated that it did not contain enough water to put out a good sized fire, and decided that the tank must be enlarged.

Applied For Assistance

They applied to the Garrison Engineer for his assistance. He told them to pump out the tank. "They asked

We "What with? have no pump." He suggested their using the fire engine, and they said that might be done.

It was then arranged that they would start pumping with the fire engine on Monday morning and he would keep a gang of coolies ready to start work as SOON 28 they let him know that the water was low enough.

He heard nothing until a man "arrived on a bicycle (it was be- -fore the days of telephones). on Wednesday morning to say that that they had been pumping since Monday morning, without stop

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ping day or night, and had only succeeded in lowering the water What level" about six inches. were they to do next? He simply said. "Well, what more do you want?"

Pracical Technicalities

A third involves one point of practical technical knowledge, An officer of some imagniation and much initiative worked out. proposals for bringing heavy timber from isolated forests on to the open market by floating it down one "river, then through a length of canal which was to be constructed for the purpose, into another "bigger river and so to the market.

Before the canal was construct- ed, however, one stolid individuäl pointed out that the timber in question was too heavy to float!

SOME FINE NEW CONTRACTS

Messrs. Sturtevant Engineering Company Limited, London, have, received an order from the 'City of Leicester Electricity Depart ment for an electrostatic precipit- ator to clean the flue gases from their new pulverised-fuel fred boller.

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Messrs. The General Electric Company, Limited. Landon, have supplied to Messrs. Iraq Fetroleum Company, Limited, in connection with the new Iraq pipe line, 500 ceiling fans for the administra- tive offices, 50 flood-lights för ill- "uminating the pumping stations

Fat various points, and quantities,

of other electrical equipment:

Common sense in its form OX maintaining a sense of proportion is sometimes camouflaged under the name "The Law of Diminish- ing Returns." It is always 'econo- mical to do anything well up to a certain point; but there is a point in many things at which over" elaboration of method, or increas- ed expense of equipment, may be merely waste.

An instance of the former is en Assistant Engineer who, among other things was In charge of the pitching with rough stone blocks of the side slopes of a large reservoir. The work was done by hand derrick cranes

These built themselves out every three or four days and had to move on. As they were placed on the slope (14 to 1) on which they were working, one leg could Le along the slope, and a small pillar had to be built to support the end of the other.

Fixing the site of the pillar necessitated the taking of two levels and measuring two horizon- tal distances. The levels were taken with a level and" staff to two places of decimals of a foot, In accordance with the usual custom which everyone follows, almost automatically, of record- ing levels to two places.

The distances were measured with a cloth tape which may easily have been 1 per cent in- 2ccurate. But the figures taken were quite suficient with a very simple calculation to site the pil- lar accurately enough.

The Assistant Engineer, how- ever, was one of those who are earily intoxicated by figures and apparently incapable of stopping decimals from running on to many

always places, and he worked out the position of a pillar at least to three places of de- cimals of a foot

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And then he would set it out with the tape not horizontal but sloping, with one end five or six feet above the other, producing an error of possibly two or three irches.

The error did not matter; but he had wasted energy. He was,

as a matter of fact, equally in- accurate in practice in places where it did matter.

"

Messrs. Tecalemit, Limited, Brentford, Middlesex, have re- ceived an order for electrically- driven "mechanical grease pumps to used for lubricating the large dock pumps which will operate at the new King George V Dock at Southamption.

Messrs. Metropolitan-Cammell Carriage, Wagon and Finance Company. Limited, Saltley. Bir- mingham. have received an order from the London Midland and Scottish Railway Company for 100 hopper wagons.01.20-tons capacity for the conveyance of coke,

Messrs. Morris Motors, Limited, Cowley, Oxford have just received repeat orders of Morris Industrial engines from Messrs. J. H. Holmes" and Sons, Hebburn-on-Tynė.

Messrs. Marconl's Wireless Tele- graph Company, Limited, London, have been awarded an important contract by the police authorities of the State of Sao Paulo, Brazil. for the supply of wireless equip- ment to be used for the establish- ment of a network of police wire- less services throughout the State.

CONTRACT FOR A BRIDGE

IN CHINA.

Dorman, Long and Co.. Limited, Middlesbrough, have secured a contract to build a large bridge in China. The total weight of the steel to be used in the 18-span structure will be 4,518 tons, which will be supplied from the com- pany's Teesside works.-

The greater part of the con- struction will be carried out at Dorman, Long's constructional department at Middlesbrough. Each of the spans of the bridge will be 216ft. long. The structure will carry a 20ft. road and two footpaths on the upper deck and a single-gauge railway track on the lower deck. The order, in face of world.competitions will help to reduce unemployment on Teesside, and is a tribute to the bridge-building reputation of the Middesbrough firm, whose out- standing achievment was the construction of the huge Sydney Bridge. Austràlia,

QUEEN MARY RECORD

London, Feb. Another record was made on the new Cunard-White Star liner Queen. Mary, now fitting out at Messrs. John Brown's Clydebank shipyard, yesterday, when the last of the vessel's twenty-seven boilers was hipped into position, one month ahead of schedule.

Forged from solid steel ingots to resist the terrific steam pressure necessary to propel the 73,000 tons liner, twenty-four of the boilers are rivetless, the other three, being heavily riveted double-ended Scotch boilers.

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The whole curve in fact is part- of a twisted cone. It is possible to calculate the curves, but the calculation is complicated.

This man was a mathematician and calculated his curves to many places of decimals and then set en-them out on the ground. He saw

at once that they looked wrong.

Process Repeated **

Another Instance Another instance was an sneer building a masonry weir dam over which the water was to fall. On the downstream side there was to be a spill water channel Iceding down both banks of the ravine to meet in the main channel at the bottom.

CONSTRUCTION PLAN FOR NANCHANG ELECTRIC PLANT 'NINGĦSIA-PAOTOW WAY TO BE COMPLETED—"Un-

AND WATERWORKS COMPLET ED-Detalled plans for the con- der the direction of the Nighsta Provincial Government, construc-

struction of the electric power plant and water works in Nan tion work on the Ninghsia-Pac- tow (Suiyuan) Highway project

RADIO STATION AT LEASSA change have been completed. The has now proceeded as far as the READY FOR OPERATION-ID- estimates, which have been ap- territory of the Ordos (Yeghe Jo)

stallation of the radio station at proved by the Kiangsi Provincial League in Mongolia from Ninghsia Lhassa, Capial of Tibet, having Government, call for an qutlay of city, a distance of over 200 11

been completed, direct wireless no less than $3,185,000, of which (about 70 miles).

With the co-communication between Lhasss $1,785,000 will be expended on the operation of the authorities of the and the interior parts of China electric power plant and $1,400,- Ordos League, work will be push-

la expected to be inaugurated in 000 on the water works including ed forward to the Sulyuan border,

the near future, according to in the installation of pipes and other This section is expected to be

formation from the Ministry of equipment. The power plant is completed rapidly as most of the

Communications. The station, waa expected to be completed in two way is level land.

first erected for the purpose of years and the waterworks in one facilitating the communication of year. The planning of the con- The junction between the back slope of the dam and the floor of General Huang Mu-sung, Special struction has been carried out un-

der the auspices of the China De-the channel looks best, and actu- Envoy of the National Govern- ment to Tibet, with Nanking velopment Finance Corporation, ally alightly best, when it is Now, as General Huang has com-The total capital for the two pub pleted his mission there the Min- lic utilities is fixed at $3,200,000. istry has ordered the transfer of The Klanga Provincial Govern a number of radio operators from ment will subscribe $500,000, and the nearest radio station to Ti-the balance will be provided by bet to proceed to Lhassa to take the China Development Finance

Corporation: charge of the station there.. ~

TO BUILD NEW HIGHWAY IN NORTHERN ANHUI The Tien- tsin-Fułow Railway Adrainistration has decided to co-operate with the Special Commissioner's Office for the 5th Area, in north-eastern Anhul to build a highway lead ing from Chuchow station to Lan- ya Shin, a scenic spot for the convenience of

made in the form of a curve Best The curves have the radius where the channel is smal- lest at the two extremities up on the sides of the ravine and in- crease as they come down to ap proach the

Trichanne

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERS.

·

He repeated the process and they looked wrong again.” He then made a model and still they looked wrong on the ground. At last he Cd what he should have/ done at the beginning-put in few, fixed points and aligned the rest by eye

All the time spent was really wasted, for the advantage of a curved over a sharp janction in such a place is so small that very little expense is justified in put ting in at all the only thing that really matters is that they should look right,

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The Institution's History

The Institution of Structural icy which, though undoubtedly.·' Engineers, which was founded the right one, has reduced the twenty-six years ago, has recently, rase of admission. Nevertheless. been granted a Royal Charter. the value of the Institution has The occasion has been celebrated hot decreased. This is shown by by a special issue of "The Struct the fact that the London County ural Engineer," in which the his- Council has accepied it" as one of tory of the body is set out and the four bodies to be consulted. its relationship to the progress of when any changes to the regula- specially contributed articles. tions under its Building Acts are proposed, and by the increasing. part it is playing in the proceed- ings of various International Con- gresses. In 1930 the conditions of admission were again revised, and examinations were made practic- ally compulsory. Closer contact. was also established with the branches.

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Actually, the Institution was founded as the Concrete Institute in July, 1908, with the object of advancing knowledge, on the sub- jects of concrete and reinforced concrete, and of directing atten- tion to the uses to which these materials could be best applied. The Earl of Plymouth was the first president, and by 1913 when

The Charter Issue. contains a it was found desirable to widen number of historical articles by- the scope of the body by embrac- Professor Sir T. H. Beare. Dr. Os- ing all structural engineering car. Faber. Professor J. Husband, (which was defined 25 that Mr. E. J. Deane, and Major E. C. branch of engineering which P. Monson, and should thus form deals with the scientific design,

work of valuable

reference. the construction and erection of Other articles deal with the work structures of all kinds in any ma-

of the branches and with the terial), the membership had position of structural engineering reach 1,000. After a period of su- overseas, while, in a communica- spended animation during the tion entitled "Looking Forward," War, the Institute settled down in

the President, Mr. E. S. Andrews, 1920 to a round of regular meet- prophesies with confidence a com- ings and visits. Its influence also plete change in the method of increased so that by 1922, when it attack on calculations for struct- was decided to change its de-ural design, the increased use of signation to its present title, the membership, was 1,237. There after progress became even more rapid. Branches were formed in a number of provincial cities.. while in 1923 "the first Interna- tional Cement Congress was or ganised. At the end of 1925 the membership was 1,700, and two years later it had reached nearly 3,200, 80 increase which Was, however, partly due to the ease with which candidates were then admitted. It was therefore de- cided to take the conditions of membership mere stringent, a po-

steel of higher tensile strengths, and a fuller recognition of, the professional standing of the char- tered structural engineer. He is, however, doubtful about the fu- ture of the official control of the

work of the Institution, whether it will tend towards complete li- berty as in France or towards complete control by structural policemen" as in Germany.

The issue is excellently got up. the only matter for criticism be- ing the insertion of advertise- ments" between the pages of technical reading matter.-

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