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Show ROADS RENDERED PUNCTURE PROOF Three Large Magnets Patrol Missouri Highways. Missouri motorists are being saved fihout S500 n dnv In exnense and irrief from punctures. That Is the state highway department's depart-ment's estimate of the value of three 960-pound magnets attached to a two-ton two-ton truck which patrols gravel roads of the state. Remove Cause of Puncture. Potential causes of punctures thus are cleared off Missouri roads In wholesale amounts. Usually a day's run, with the truck covering about 56 miles of road surface, brings an average aver-age of 112 pounds of miscellaneous metal nails, bolts, springs, staples, tin cans and scrap Iron. On the assumption that the magnets' mag-nets' werk prevents 1,000 punctures a day, C. P. Owens, maintenance engineer engi-neer of the highway department, says the outfit means a saving of at least $500 a day to motorists, figuring each puncture's cost at 50 cents. With one manget hanging from the rear of the truck, and two others at the sides, the truck can clean a strip of road surface from Beven to eight feet wide. Operating Apparatus. The operating apparatus consists of a 110-volt compound wound generator equipped with panel, voltmeter, ammeter, am-meter, automatic discharge switch and powered by a five horse power gasoline gaso-line engine, all mounted on the truck. Experiments have shown the magnets mag-nets operate efficiently when adjusted to a height of four Inches above the road surface, with f,'e truck moving at ten or twelve miles an hour. It Is necessary to "demagnetize" every ev-ery four r five miles to clear off the magnets' collection. |