FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1954
1954 - 0596.PDF
274 FLIGHT, 5 March 1954 THE INDUSTRY Prizes for Belfast Apprentices MORE than 130 apprentices of Short Bros, and Harland, Ltd., received scholarships, certificates or awards at the annual apprentice prize day held recently at the company's main factory at Queen's Island, Belfast. The event was attended by over 1,200 apprentices, parents and friends and die prizes were presented by Lady MacDermott, wife of the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland. Presenting his annual report, the Apprentice Supervisor, Mr. F. C. Kirkpatrick, said diere had been 1,500 applications for the 200 vacancies at the school last year. Aircraft built by the company were on display outside the main workshops and the Seamew was flown in an impressive demon stration by S/L. W. J. Runciman. During the year 120 pupils took courses of not less than thirteen weeks at the apprentice training school. The facilities are now being extended to accommodate 60 apprentices at a time, thereby malting it possible to send boys back for refresher courses. Precision Speed Indicator IN the wide range of equipment produced by the British Thom son-Houston Co., Ltd., of Coventry, is the Maxwell precision speed indicator. This is an instrument originally developed to provide accurate rotation speed measurements for the early The B.T-H. Maxwell indicator. Whittle gas turbines, which were made by B.T-H. Whereas, it is stated, existing mechanical indicators were unable to deal with the high r.p.m. involved, the Maxwell instrument proved to be BELFAST APPRENTICE T. J. Black receives his award—the Whitworth Prize—from Lady MacDermott, wife of the Lord Chief Justice of Northern Ireland. (See "Prizes for Belfast Apprentices," this page.) capable of measurements accurate to 0.1 per cent. The indicators are now produced for 12 speed ranges, between zero and 1,000 r.p.m., and zero and 48,000 r.p.m. The instrument is essentially a frequency meter working on the basic principle of the Wheatstone bridge. One arm of the bridge circuit is replaced by a special high-accuracy mica capa citor having a nominal value of 0.15 microfarads. This is charged and discharged through a quick-acting relay, the number of charges per second being dependent on the frequency trans mitted from a generator coupled to the machine whose speed is to be measured. The generator frequency may be as high as 250 c.p.s, and the circuit components are so arranged that the capacitor becomes fully charged; thus, the mean strength of the signal passed on to the measuring circuit in any given small period of time is proportional to the frequency of the generator, or to the speed of the machine driving the generator. Instruments are normally supplied with four sensitive ranges for speed measurements, arranged to divide equally the total speed range covered. To allow for voltage variations in the small battery required for operation, and also to facilitate accurate speed measurements, the instrument can be zeroed simply and quickly either during or before operation. Thus, the accuracy of the readings can be frequently checked. The instrument itself measures 14iin by 8in by 12jin. Two radio-type grid-bias batteries of 9 volts each are used. The transmitting generator to be fitted to the machine under test is supplied fitted either with a coupling or with a splined shaft as required. It is stated that the instrument is easy to service and that its accuracy can be maintained indefinitely. IN BRIEF English Electric group profit for 1953 (to December 26th) was £4,779,920 (1952, £4,359,034). After deduction of all charges, in cluding taxation, these figures are £1,553,897 and £1,449,518. * * * D. Napier and Son, Ltd., report a 1953 profit (to December 26th) of £265,012. After deduction of charges and taxation the figure becomes £111,012, as against £98,436 in 1952. * • * Mr. B. H. Dulanty has been appointed chairman of Silentbloc, Ltd., in succession to Mr. H. Vezey Strong. * * * Mr. Robert Appleby, who joined Black and Decker, Ltd., of Harmondsworth, Middlesex, a year ago, has been appointed a director and general manager of the company. * * * Mr. A. E. Griffin, formerly of Specialloid, Ltd., has joined the staff of Exactor, Ltd., London, as general sales manager. He suc ceeds Mr. H. I. Arnold, who has been appointed sales director. * * * Mr. John E. Markes has been appointed managing director of Bowden (Engineers), Ltd., in succession to Lt. Col. H. G. Gilchrist, who has retired from active business. Mr. Markes and Mr. W. A. Melsom have been elected to the Board of Bowden (Holdings), Ltd., the parent company. * * * Recent issues of technical publications by Henry Wiggin and Co., Ltd., Birmingham 16—always a model of what such litera ture should be—include Notes on the Annealing and Pickling of Nimonic 75 and Nimonic F; Spheroidal Graphite Cast Iron (Pro perties and Applications); and Nickel Alloy Spring Materials. Also published is a brochure entitled Nimonic Alloys in Gas Tur bines; it includes a four-colour gas-flow diagram illustrating tem peratures through a Derwent 5. * * * Northern Aluminium Co., Ltd., announce that the telephone number of their Leeds area sales office is now Leeds 33621. * * * From A. E. Cawkell, electronic engineers, of 6-7 Victory Arcade, The Broadway, Southall, Middlesex, comes a brochure illustrating their latest special-purpose pulse equipment and oscilloscopes. * * * Following the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants' Fellowship examination, held last December, Mr. J. F. D. Cornish, works accountant with the Bristol Aeroplane Co., Ltd., has been awarded the Lewton Coronation Prize for management accountancy. * * * The Owen Organization has recently published a film cata logue which fists the large number of films that have been produced for member-companies of the group—which, with its parent company of Rubery, Owen and Co., Ltd., at Darlaston, South Staffs—is composed of nearly forty engineering firms. * * * From Smiths Aircraft Instruments, Ltd.. who are sole sale con cessionaires for Kelvin Hughes aviation instruments, we have received a copy of the current catalogue of this equipment. Very strongly bound, in loose-leaf form, it runs to no fewer than 190 pages giving complete performance and installation data on the company's range of flight, engine and miscellaneous instruments.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
