The Man In The Iron Mask tested electrical equipment by overload and a hundred other insidious methods so as to prevent all possibility of fire through electrical connections.
The safe-burner was merely applying an anti-burglary test following the rather harrowing experiences of the safe that went through fire and attempted mayhem.
Incubators for chickens, permanent wave machines, tear-gas devices, electrically-heated blankets, insecticides, refrigerators, just to mention only a few, are "put through the mill," and even when the samples supply "The use of timber for ordinary civilian consumption must be considered practically a luxury. The building and furniture trades must to a large extent be faced with having to go without."
"Timber," he added, "is being released for housing where additional accommodation is required for the nem munition towns. The Government does not wish the Control to release timber for ordinary house building except for the completion of housing already started.
"It is not possible to supply the furnishing trade with other than limited quantities of hardwoods which are normally used, but there are still fairly large stocks of expensive hardwoods which we are releasing freely."
The demands of the Services, said Major Harris, must be met Arat. During the coming year, the Army and other departments would require 40,000,000ft. of timber for lorries, 1,000,000 chairs, 5000,00 beds, 400,000 tables and 1,000,000 packing cases for bacon alone for the BEF.
The Control is nevertheless exercise ing economy wherever possible in the supply of war stores and equipment, according to Major Harris. It expects to save 250,000 tons of softwood and £2,000,000 on original specifications in a year. have proved satisfactory, the laboratories' work does not end there.
Articles, when approved, are listed and the manufacturers are then entitled to attach the approved tag to the article. These lists are made available, in Canada, through "Board" Insurance companies and their asso-dations, such as the Canadian Underwriters' Association, and through municipal inspectors, architects and professional engineers. In Canada, the "Board" companies' organizations keep close records of the number of tags sold to those entitled to use them....and woe betide the individual or firm which misuses them because those tags are the. guarantee of safety to the public.
Today, 47 years after the birth of the idea, the laboratories have worldwide ramifications, Their work extends into Canada; they have branches, plants and representatives scattered all over the North American continent, They maintain travelling electrical laboratories... automobiles equipped with all sorts of testing apparatus to visit manufacturers' plants and spread the gospel of increasing safety for the public. In Canada and the United States, there are 175 places where representatives of the laboratories can be consulted while they also maintain close contact with the research departments of the Canadian, British and American governments.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.