1930-08-30 — Page 15

THE

THE HONGKONG TELEGRAPH. MOTORING SUPPLEMENT. SATURDAY, AUGUST 30, 1930.

DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNICATIONS.

Some Notes on Roads and Their Construction.

[By R. A. C.]

The Road Making Age. Historians of the future will have much to record concerning the rapid developments in almost all branches of engineering

und

NEW US. AIRSHIP.

ZRS-4 Assuming Shape.

WORLD-WIDE INTEREST.

Holsting of the master ring of the navy airship ZRS-4 into up- right position, like a huge hoop or cartwheel, at the Goodyear Zeppe- lin factory and dock at Akron. main axle enables it to work Ohio, U.S.A. was a feat of unusual to pre-determined or existing cam-interest in engineering and nero- pers. The oil-driven roller shown nautical circles the world over. is a highly eficient machine which used most economically

can be

Admiral W.-A. Moffelt of the

science that are taking place at where oil fuel offers greater ser- this first ring of the airship's [

the present time, and one progres-The running costs of this type vice convenience than coal or wood. sive phase which they will no doubt consider of the utmost importance range from only 1 d. to 3d. per is the worldwide impelus given to hour, according to the size of the road-building by the advent of the motor-car.

roller.

.

u.s. Navy drove a golden rivet in

last November, officially inaugu skeleton at impressive ceremonies rating its construction.

The task of raising the great duraluminum hoop into the post- tion it will occupy in the ship rivalled in engineering interest: the erection of the great arches of the factory and dock itself.

The dock in which the ship is being assembled has been complet- rd-the building being the most mammoth structure of its kind in existence.

The petrol engine which forms Although this question of road the power unit of the "Manumit" construction is perhaps more with the transmission gear on a motor roller, is suspended together ticeable in undeveloped countries, where roads fit for modern trans-casting inside the roll itself. By swinging over the handle, the port were previously non-existent, travel direction is. Instantly the amount of new highways and arterial roads that are being built changed without shock, and the in the old countries of Europe operation of the roller is so sim- should not be lost sight of. The ple that any labourer can be safe

ly placed in charge of it. Turkish Government, for instance, while undertaking to improve the Spreading Road Material. main roads throughout Turkey,

Heavy rond metal can be dis- has received with favour a pre-tributed by hand

with posal by the British Automobile amount of accuracy, and the un-completed.

a fair Association for the development of an arterial road across Europe to evenness smoothed out by the road

roller; but Jink Great Britain with Turkey and hand of surface gritting with small, even distribution by the East.

The King of Spain, when visit-stone chippings is almost impos- ting the headquarters of the A.A mechanical gritting machine pos- sible, and it is here that the in London recently, was particular- ly interested in its service for sesses advantages, not only in uni- touring in Spain, and declared that formity of distribution, but also in it was his country's intention fur-speed of work. ther to develop the excellent sys- tem of highways which have heen institutes during the past five

years.

The ZRS-4 is the world's largest airship, either under construction or contemplated. The Master ring and two intermediate rings are They were first laid out upon horizontal building workmen and then raised into the forms for the convenience of the perpendicular when completed.

America's air leviathan is gradual- The torpedo-shaped skeleton of ly lengthening out

ench additional ring segment is hoisted

into place.

1s

Gritting machines of various

Each day it becomes easier to types are manufactured by John Fowler & Co. of Leeds; with these visualize the enormity of this em machines the difficulty of main-bryo air liner. Contract does not. taining an even spread and pre-s

call. for delivery of the completed Civilisation Marches by Rond. venting choking with stones of airship until April of 1931, but so great a project is the construction The opening up of Africa by uneven shapes and sizes is over- means of motor transport supplica come by the Fowler-Wood patent of the ship that noticeable addi- a wonderful example of how civili-oscillating shutter. The opening tions to the framework are being sation and roads march hand in is spring-controlled to permit of made practically every day. hand. It is now actually possible the passage of oversize stones and to travel right through Africa is also adjustable in order to con- from Cape Town to Alexandria-trol the quantity spread. except for the stretch of Nile

+ marsh which extends for some 800 miles south of Khartouin--by mo- tor vehicles that are running on regular services.

"

Speedy Road Construction.

The time factor in road repair ing is of course highly important; more particularly so in large cities

for .3

In one end of the great dock is a peculiar superstructure, which supports what appears to be

a

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xreat firemen's net. This is one FIRE-FIGHTING AID. of the steel wire bulkheads which will be placed within each main ring. The purpose of these bulk- heads will be to keep 12 gas cells

these

as

Speedy Machines.

The first few hundred miles of where the flow of traffic is more or which contain the helium to sup When it is realised that. probably this interesting trans-continental less continuous. Modern cements journey are covered by the road have assisted to an enormous eply the static lift for the ship, over 75% of fires. can to-day be dealt with by first-aid machines and the effectiveness of such motor services of the South African tent to speed up road reconstruc-separated.

The wire, used in these bulk- Railways, whose fleet of over 400 tion work, for where, in the past, Thornycrofts operate regular ser-it was necessary to wait a matter heads is comparable in size to or- machines largely depends on their vices in conjunction with the rail- of four weeks

certain dinary piano wire but will stand capability of reaching the seat of ways from Cape Town to the boun-strength to develop in concrete tensions greatly in excess of 200 the fire quickly, it is not surprising.

fact, all of

that fire brigades now are generally daries of the Union. Vehicles of only two days are now required. pounds. In similar make rua through Tunnelite" rapid hardening ce

wires are tightened to 200 pounds concentrating on first-aid machines Rhodesia, Tanganyika, Kenya and ment, for instance, has

a com- pull to form the bulkhead and or fire engines with this equipment Uganda to Mongalla on the lower pressive strength of nearly a ton serve as additional bracing for the with the maximum acceleration and

speed. Nile. The whole journey of nearly to the square inch 24 hours after main rings.

A particularly interesting ma- 4,000 miles can. in fact, be made mixing. en Thornycroft vehicles for a large This brand of coment has been flect is employed by the Sudan employed to a large extent in the Government for the transport of streets of London and also on cotton from Khartoum and others many of the new by-pass roads that belonging to private owners operate have been constructed recently in through Egypt.

the vicinity of the Metropolis.

The 500-ton compression testing Earth Roads and the Grader.

machine, which has been supplied The principal implement to the British Board of Trude by quired for the rapid construction Greenwood Batley of Leeds, is There will be 10 tri-sided main and efficient maintenance of earth to be used to a large extent for try-rings and one single-sided main

The metal (duraluminum) frame-chine in this connexion has been work of the ship will consist of a built to the specification and order series of rings with their surfaces of the Birmingham Fire Brigade, parallel and connected together by who are known throughout the longitudinal girders. The rings, United Kingdom as a thoroughly in reality, are 36-sided polygons progressive brigade which leaves and the longitudinal girders will no stone unturned to get the best! he. connected to them at the type of machine for each particular angles.

type of work.

The chassis is very similar to the well-known "Lioness-Six" passenger

roads is the gruder. the machine ing out materials, such as concrete. ring in the completed ship. The chassis, but is of much shorter | which shapes the surface of the hat are employed in road construc- single-sided ring-will be in the Wheelbase. It is quite dissimilar to anything in the fire-fighting road. A notable feature of the tion. The question of road sur- curved profile of the nose of the equipment which has been built by new graders recently introduced by faces is one that is still receiving craft.

the Company previously. That Howards of Bedford is their light considerable attention, and it is The main rings will be spaced the vehicle is capable of a quick ness of draught. This is mainly only by constant research and approximately 74 feet apart and turnout will be gathered from the due to the accurate design of the vigorous tests that the ideal ma between each pair of them will be fact that it can attain speeds of up- blade, which cuts through the earth terial for this purpose can be dis-three intermediate, single-sided wards of 50 miles an hour and on and rolls it over with an action covered.

rings of girder construction. at test by the Brigade, it has shown similar to that of a plough and de- livers it to one side.

The Work of the Bridge Builder. cqual distant intervals. Gas cells that on top gear it will necelerate will be built to fit in the compart from 10 miles an hour to 30 miles ments partitioned off by this an hour in 9.2/5 seconds and to 40 method of assembly.

miles an hour in 19 seconds..

OWN MOST CARS.

A light scarifier can be fitted to The linking up of such important any of the new graders. It is regions as the Transvaal and South placed immediately in front of the Rhodesia by spanning the Limpopo blade and breaks up the hard sur-recalls the vital importance of the

Ten of the gas cells will be be face while the blade distributes the bridge builder's task in the open tween main rings, one cell will fit loose soil. A rooter scarified has ing up of communications. The between the front ring and the also been designed for the prelim-Limpopo bridge, completed last nose of the ship and other, a cone- Seven cities in the United inary cleaning of the track of roots year, was constructed by Dorman shaped cell, will fit in the taperink States which own the most automo- and stones. The other accessories Long & Co. and ranks among the tail.

biles are New York, Chicago, Los which complete the road making the largest river bridges in the To the eye of one unfamiliar Angeles, Detroit, Cleveland, Pitts- plant are a back-sloper, which is at- Union of South Africa. Its length with the surprising lightness of burgh, and Philadelphia tached to the grader and is used is 1,560 feet and it carries both a duraluminum, the great main combined total is 3,144,136. for smoothing the finished surface. roadway and a single line of rail-rings and the intermediate rings

traffic.

way.

mechanical device.

Their

The First Steam Roller.

look bulky and heavy. However, Slippery streats, caused by no- The five span bridge across the It is not much more than 60

a man of average strength can lift cumulations of off on the surface, an entire intermediate ring with- are blamed for many road accidents years since the invention of the Fungwe river in Portuguese East

other in Berlin. Steam has been used steam roller, and, previously the Africa as well as the crection of out the aid of lever or

eight viaducts across the notorious

to remove the oil from some thor- accepted method of road making in Pungwe Feats was also supplied force was to lay down, angular and erected by Dorman Long. Two

The bulk of the ship's hull will oughfares, while others are scrub

bed with brushes and powder. irregular stones and leave them to other important bridges now being be 36-sided, but near the tail to be lovelled down by passing constructed by this Middlesborough where the streamline of the craft

firm are the Sydney Harbour bridge will taper off, 34-sided polygons because of the curvature of the The first efficient steam road roll- and the new Lambeth bridge over will be used. Upon completion of roof sides of the building, many of er was produced by Aveling & the Thames.

the metal skeleton, an intricate them had to be supported at an Porter in 1857 and purchased by

The bridge at Lowicz in Poland, system of wires, similar to that angle of 45 degrees. One side of the City of Liverpool This was which carries the road from War used for the bulkheads, will be these travelling cranes is support- an enormous machine with the saw to Posen. over the river strung across the oblongs formed ed from a rail near the very top funnel between the back rollers, a Sludwin is noteworthy in that it by the crossing of the longitudinal of the structure and the second huge front roller, a platform at forms the first instance of a pub- and ring girders,

rail is on a level 30 feet lower. axle height on both sides, while the lic works structure constructed en- This network will brace the driver stood on one side steering tirely by arc welding..

Sturdy cables from these un-1 fabric which will be used for the usual lifts are attached to the

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the machine with a large wooden The calculations and designing outer covering of the ship and four corners of platforms approx!-

like ship. wheel the the helm of a sollers of the welded joints and the take up the upward pressure exert-mately 25 feet square. Men work- were exhibited by Messrs. Mar-welding itself were paced in the ed, by the gas cells. In addition ing upon the sides of the ship are shall 500s & Co., at the Royal Electrique Autogene of Brussels, rigidity of the entire framework, lifted to desired heights on these hands of Messrs. La Soudure they, will greatly strengthen the hoisted into the perpendicular, and Agricultural Show held at Man- the licences of Messrs. Alloy Weld-The dock in which the ZRSA la platforms, standing on them as chesta zin July. Their "Universal" ing Processes Ltd. of London,

City Monopoly. steam roller, is a machine that has As is customary with welded being constructed the biggest they work. been specially designed to be equal structures the joints were designed building of its kind in the world, Near the centre of the building

According to the National Com is equipped with numerous mecha-is an elevator for taking workmen My serviceable either for, ordinary to have the same factor of safesnical devices which approach the to the various cat-walk levels engines on the continent is cords for endurance, height and ference on Street and Highway |

consolidation work

for as the steel sections themselves; surfacing with asphalt

or and it is calculated that well over unique in design and are being which traverse the dock Unlike evidenced by a new list of world's speed dater still the Geret an Safety, the 2400,000

gine has set or new records for ger automobiles registered in the similar materials. It has a 20 per cent, was saved in tanterial used to facilitate assembly." any other elevator, however, this records which have been obtained endurance, distance in a closed United States in 1929, about 187 quick reverse action for asphaltic by making the bridge a welded ra-

Cranes run lengthwise through strange lifting device describes an by the Armstrong Siddeley 80 hp circuit, beight and speed for seawood were centred in and surfacing, and its articulated ther than a riveted structure. the dock at various elevations and are in-its-ascent and-descent. Genet and 100 hp. Genet Major planes.

around eities.

AM RECORDS.

ww

The popularity of British aera

engines. Fitted in Darmstadt andĮ Junkers Junior machines" these engines recently created new re

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