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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 1357.PDF
FLIGHT, DECEMBER 25, 1931 Irvdr A SENSIBLE VICE VERY Works Manager of an air-craft factory knows only too well the trouble and delaywhich is often caused by the inability to lit long and awkwardlyshaped jobs into the common or garden vice. Swindens Patents, Ltd., of 14,Queen Victoria Street, London, E.C.4, have recently produced a vice whichshould entirely overcome all difficulties on this score. This tool has a revolving head withdouble jaws. One of the pairs of jaws is fitted with the usual flat serratedliners, while the other has curved grooved liners which form a non-slip-ping grip for tubes or any other form of round or irregular work. The wholehead of this vice revolves quite freely about a horizontal axis and may in-stantly be locked in any particular position. A later model (not the oneillustrated) has the added refinement of free revolution about a vertical axisas well, also with a frictional lock, thereby allowing the vice to beadapted to any possible form of work. The three principal parts of this viceare machined from high tensile steel castings and have withstood extremetests by users in many and varied trades. The barrel of the front jawcasting traverses the entire length of the back jaw casting, providing a bear-ing surface which makes for great strength, while both are locked in rela-tion to one another by a slot in the front jaw barrel engaging with thecentre screw nut. This nut is a solid steel drop forging which is tapped witha robust square thread permitting of heavy leverage on the screw handlewithout .Sstortion. The screw itself is machineV from 40-ton steel and en-gages with the nut around its entire circumference, thereby enabling it tostand up to any amount of use without app- •"-.iable wear. The rotation of the jaws is con-trolled by the friction hold of the split base casting, and may be locked im-mediately by a lever on one side. It can readily be seen that for such work,where for instance a long article has to be held vertically, this vice is in-valuable. In the normal vice work like this can only be gripped with theextreme ends of the jaws, whereas with the Swinden vice the jaws mayhe revolved until they are vertical and thereby grip the work with the entirelength, while the work itself is, if necessary, resting on the ground. Forgripping light alloy work or soft materials, alternative jaw liners of redfibre may be supplied. , Evidence of the practicability of thisvice is given by the fact that one of the 2 in. size, that is with jaws of 2 in.width giving a 2 in. opening and weighing only 8 lb. was carried bySir Alan Cobham in the Short Valetta " (3 Jupiters) during hisrecent survey trip to Africa and back. REDWING DEVELOPMENTS DEDWING Aircraft will, afterA* January next, be built in a new factory at Colchester. This factoryadjoins the aerodrome and is at pre- sent in process of completion. Afterthe transfer is made the shops at Croydon will be closed down. Following on this comes the infor-mation of certain changes in the Board of the Redwing Company which shouldstill further establish it as one of the most go-ahead of our younger aircraftmanufacturing companies. Mr. R. R. Darling, who has up to the presentrepresented the interests of the American backer of the Company, willshortly be returning to his native land, and in his place Fit. Lt. N. M. S.Russell has been appointed General Manager. An addition to the Boardis Mr. H. R. Trost as Technical Direc- tor, and with him will be Mr. R. C.Bartlett, Governing Director, and Mr. A. L. Bostock, Director. His manyfriends will, we feel sure, regret that Mr. Darling is leaving this country, forhe was one of the pleasantest men one could wish to meet in business. Wesincerely hope we shall see him back here again from time to time. BERT BUYS BURBERRYS DERT HINKLER, filled with remorseD on reading our remarks anent his clothes on his arrival at Hanworthfrom Brazil, has taken the first oppor- tunity to make amends. He joined thethrong of Xmas shoppers in the West End the other day with the object ofimproving his wardrobe, and with characteristic Hinkler judgment of thebest, eventually found his way into Burberrys, Ltd., in Haymarket. Nowone can hardly recognise our Bert. We do not know if he induced Bur-berrys to introduce a few " Hinkleri- sations " into his greatcoat, but pos-sibly we shall soon see a new model, known as the " Bert Burberry," andpossessing several novel improvements. B.A.T. EXPAND DRITISH AIR TRANSPORT, who*-* operate their school and taxi ser- vice at Croydon, have now taken theCroydon agency for the Redwing air- craft. A machine of this type will infuture be kept there and ready at all times for demonstration and instruc-tion. A sales and service depot with a comprehensive stock of spares will alsobe in operation, for the B.A.T. Co. 1271 are determined to make the " Red-wing," in so far as they are able, one of the best serviced aircraft inEngland. They are also offering free tuition in flying to anyone who pur-chases a " Redwing." This tuition will not be skimped in any way, butwill ensure that the pupil becomes a certified and safe pilot. The sameCompany is also opening a London office at 5, Carlton Street, Lowe.rRegent Street, W.I, with a qualified man in charge, who will be able toanswer all questions concerning taxi work, instruction or " Redwingsales. The school itself, at Croydon, is now doing very well indeed, for it isfound that the deferred payment terms under which instruction may be takenis inducing a large number of pupils to come forward and qualify for their"A" licences. SPARKING PLUG SCREENING using a wireless set in anaircraft, it is necessary to screen various parts of the engine ignitioncircuit, such as the sparking plugs, magnetos, and high-tension cables.The sparking-plug screen must form a good conducting path from themetal screening braiding of the cable to the metal of the enginewithout reducing the insulation resist- ance of the ignition circuit, and mustbe arranged so that the cables can be laid in any radial direction. The fit-ting of the screen should also put no difficulty in the way of attending tothe sparking plugs. The illustration shows two views of a sparking-plugscreening cap made by Lodge Plugs, Ltd., of Rugby. This cap consists of a nickel-plated copper casing lined with bakelite. The bottom of the metal casing rests on the gland nut of the plug, is securely held by a spring strap and yet leaves the cap free to swivel. The right-angle arm carries a sleeve grip which clamps the metal braiding of the high-tension cable. Embedded in the bakelite is a con- tact block which connects the con- ducting wire of the high-tension cable to the terminal of the sparking plug. To remove the cap it is only necessary to lift off the spring strap, therefore, besides acting as a screen, it also forms a quickly detachable cable terminal.
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