Cardiff Engineering Exhibition

Abstract

THE thirteenth annual exhibition at Cardiff, held under the auspices of the South Wales Institute of Engineers, opened on November 21 and closes on December 1. The main object of these exhibitions is educational and also to encourage industry by bringing the manufacturers of machinery and plant into touch with the users. Whilst mining appliances were well represented, almost every branch of engineering activity has received attention. An outstanding feature of this year's display was an exhibition coal mine, equipped by the Coal Face Machinery Exhibitor's Associationan association which comprises nearly all the manufacturers of coal face machinery in Great Britain. It was installed not as an advertisement of any particular plant, but to show the possibilities of mechanisation at the coal face, and to keep mining engineers and others interested and informed of the most recent developments in this respect. The mine consists of a main roadway, a machine-mined heading and a longwall face, in which are placed examples of coal face machinerylongwall coal cutters and shearing machines, jigger and belt conveyors, dust filters and pneumatic drills. In the roadways and face, modern methods of supporting roof and sides are shown. The Department of Scientific and Industrial Research had a valuable exhibit illustrating some of the research activities of the National Physical Laboratory, the Fuel Research Station, the Chemical Research Laboratory and other scientific bodies. Thus, fatigue of metals, lubrication research, electric welding, alignment of machine tools, steel casting, micro-structure of metals, corrosion of metals, hydrogenation of coal, smokeless fuel and industrial applications of X-ray analysis, were among the topics illustrated. An interesting exhibit consisted of turned objects made of some of the latest plastic materials derived from coal, and intended to display the artistic possibilities of such materials.