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Aviation History
1915
1915 - 0133.PDF
FEBRUARY 19, 1915. to woven belting. For safety belts and such purposes a light-weight waterproof belting of this type is manufac tured, and belts made from it, besides being lighter, are more flexible, and therefore more comfortable to the wearer. Two other productions of the Company are of par ticular interest to the pilot. One is a very ingenious safety belt clip, which, as can be gathered from the sketch, is not only simple in its construction, but is very strong and withal effective. It is but the work of an instant to close it, as the loop is simply pushed into the slot, and it automatically locks. It is then held fast, but however great the strain, it can be instantly released by a slight pull on the bar, which can be seen on the right- hand portion of the clip. This clip is being incorporated in a safety belt made of leather, or of the special webbing mentioned above, and finished in various styles. Apart from the advantages already described, this clip ® ® [/DHU has the merit that owing to its unobtrusiveness it can be placed in the front of the belt, where it is most con venient for the pilot to get at it in an emergency. The other sketch shows a little hand warmer, consisting of a neat little metal case, with perforated ends. Inside The A.A. hand warmer. the case is arranged a slow-burning cartridge, and the heat generated is sufficient to keep the hands comfort able, even in the bitterest weather. This is a little novelty which should make an acceptable present for the flying officers at the front. $ ® OLEO AVIATION PLUGS. ONE of the earliest ignition firms, to cater specially for aviation work was Messrs. Leo Ripault and Co., of 64A, Poland Street, W., who placed on the market a small " Oleo " plug, specially designed for use on Gnome and other rotary engines. It gave splendid results, and there of. JEO •* fore quickly became popular, a position which it still maintains. One of these plugs is seen in the central sketch, and as they are so well known it is not necessary to give more than a brief description. It is of simple construction, consisting of a steel body, a white porcelain one-piece insulator, a central electrode of nickel with a brass terminal-piece at one end, and a brass lock-nut holding the porcelain and electrode in the body. The " business " ® ® end of the electrode is bent toward the edge of the opening formed in the base of the body, which thus forms the negative electrode. It is quite easy to adjust ithe length of the spark gap by bending the end of the nickel electrode nearer to or farther away from the body. Another plug specially designed for Gnome engines is that shown on the right of our illustration. This is a somewhat larger plug, and its main feature consists in the provision for air-cooling by means of radiating fins formed on the body and head of the plug. The body is of brass, as is also the terminal-head, whilst the insulation is mica. The radiating fins are hexagon formed to serve the purpose of screwing the plug in or out of the engine. The other plug (No. 7), seen on the left, is for ordinary type engines, and has a deep brass body, two porcelain insulators and a nickel electrode. A clean space is left between the electrode and the porcelain for about half way up the plug, this preventing sooting and oiling up. Fitting over the inner porcelain is a dome made of the same material, which is held down on to the body by a brass lock-nut. Asbestos is interposed between this dome and the body, so however hot the body may become there is little chance of the porcelain cracking. There are three spark-points of different gaps in order that the plug may adapt itself to varying engine speeds. In spite of the fact that at the present time they are extremely busy, Messrs. Leo Ripault assure us that they are able to deal with urgent orders, as they have always a large stock of various plugs ready for immediate delivery. © ® AIRCRAFT AND THE WAR. A CORRESPONDENT at Heyst of the Maasbode reported on Tuesday week that aviators of the Allied forces dropped three bombs there, causing unimportant damage. According to travellers, who arrived in Amsterdam from Hamburg on the 9th, the Kaiser's visit to Wilhelmshaven was abruptly terminated by the receipt of a message from Cologne, to the effect that three enemy monoplanes were on their way to Wilhelmshaven. The inspection of the fleet was immediately cancelled, the Kaiser satisfying himself with merely inspecting the guard of honour on the pier. It is stated that he re turned to Berlin by special train twelve hours before he was expected. writing from A Daily Telegraph, correspondent, Rotterdam on the 10th inst, said:— " News reaches me of a very successful air raid by the Allies over Dusseldorf, resulting in the destruction by bombs and fire of a large quantity of war materials. The story illustrates both the failure of the Germans to preserve secrecy as to the whereabouts of their materials and the daring and skilfulness of the French aviators. " Having learned by experience that the Allies' aviators, though failures at the art of killing non-combatants, are experts in finding and damaging lawful targets, the Germans became very nervous as to the safety of their war stores in the very important arsenal at Dusseldorf. Accordingly they erected a numl>er of wooden buildings a considerable distance from the arsenal and giving no outward indication in position or construction of their real purpose. To these buildings they removed secretly from the 133
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