ATTINGHAM, 1968-M. C. LEAL

Attingham

1968

An appreciation of the Residential School held at Attingham Park near Shrewsbury by M. C. LEAL

F.R.S.H., M.A.P.H.I., C.P.H.1.B. Public Health Inspector Petworth, R.D.C.

far from the madding crowd

Just off t.he main A.5 road from London to Holyhead, stands Attmgham Park, which is a few miles outside Shrewsbury, and the Shropshire Adult College. The wounds and as the house is a Georgian !1Jans10n, standmg JUst in front of a large row of trees, its from the Tern bridge across the lawns is very 1mpress1ve.

The house was built in 1785 for the first Lord Berwick and amongst the people who were concerned with it was the Architect John Nash, who built a fine picture gallery.

In 1947 was bequeathed, together with the estate, to the Nat10nal Trust and so as a National Trust houses its many treasures to show the public. . ' Governors of Adult College were wise in choosmg such a fine for use as a residential college for conferences, and mdeed the Association for Petroleum Acts Administration. have visited this house for many years. !he surrol!nd1?gs are congenial and although the is one which. is very intensive, it is nevertheless enjoyed even better m such surroundings.

S!r George Trevelyan is the Warden and his enthusiasm radiates to those who attend such a course as ours. After a welcome to college by Sir George the Residential compnsmg 70 students, got under way immediately. -•

Four films. on petroleum were shown <end there was a syllabus of six talks. discussions to be followed, each taken by an expert m his own particular field.

The firs! :-vas by Mr. J. R. Hughes, Chief Safety Engineer of the Bnt1sh Petroleum Group on the subject of "The Nature of Petroleum Spirit aod 'its Hazards".

"Petroleum Law" was the second subject, taken by Mr. C. S. McDonald, Assistant Town Clerk of Solihull County Borough, in which various facets of the. law we:e dealt with, and discussed such things as keepmg, stormg and use in relation to petroleum spirit, and als<;i the to which legislation could be applied to As always with Petroleum Law this was a hvely d1scuss10n which Mr. McDonald dealt with in a very able manner. "Planning and the Petroleum Officer" was the subject of Mr. W .. C. R. Dale of the Greater London C<?uncil,. in which detailed attention was paid to the way m which petroleum storage should be planned. The of the site deals with such things as the prevent10n of the outbreak of fire with adequate ventilation, exclusion on icrnition sources and the dealing with areas immediately ;'utside the hazard zone and the attention that should be be given to petroleum spirit stores and above ground garages.

Mr. J. Beer, Chief Inspector of Weights and to the City of Worcester, gave an _extremely pract1ca.I <l:nd helpful demonstration on the testmg of new and ex1stmg petroleum spirit underground sto!·age t'.'lnks and gave many useful tips and words of advice which were greatly appreciated by members on the course. He made members think more about the aspects of atmospheric pressure variations and other effects upon the testing of the tanks and this talk was also followed by a lively discussion which had to be short circuited owing to the fact that supper was ready to be served.

With the new Model Code of Principles of Construction and Licensing Conditions which are to be issued very shortly by the Home Office, Mr. J. A. Sharp, Senior

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Assistant Engineer to the Midlands Electricity Board, gave a very helpful lecture on the electrical requirements at petroleum filling stations. The fact that there will be alterations to the areas of hazard known at present, show that there will have to be a complete reappraisal of the situation which exists in some filling stations.

Mr. Sharp also dealt with the practical problems which will include the use of cash registers and telephones and heating appliances in kiosks which could be within either division one or division two areas.

The last lecture was given by Mr. W. K. Wicks and Mr. J. G. French of the Shell-Mex and B.P. Group with the _title of "Self Service". With many Authorities now allowing self service within their district this talk was a great help and perhaps more especially to those people who were considering whether or not to allow this type of vending of petroleum spirit to be carried out_ within their district. A set of coloured slides were shown by the speakers, giving the course a very good idea as to how Oil Companies attempt to serve the motorist in a manner which would allow the safe dispensing of petroleum spirit, and at the same time providing the customer with the he requires. Interest was shown in this type of vendmg and 1t was most useful to have provided by the Wayne Tank and Pump Company an exhibition of technic'.11 equipment regardingthenoteacceptorunit and pump which members could use themselves and ask the liaison Engineer, Mr. F. G. Ashley, any questions. This was most useful as members had the opportunity of opening up the note acceptor unit and going into many details, which is not often very practical on site.

Personally, as one who attended the course for the first time, I found that there was a great deal to be learned and that the people who took the lectures were the people who should obviously do the teaching.

It was an excellent c.ourse in every way and many thanks go to the orgamsers, who tried to remain anonymous to .thos': of us who were at the course; it was, however, quite evident who they were.

THROUGH THE PIPELINE

by Otto

WHAT'S THE HOLD-UP ?

When the tail pipe of a tank. wagon compartment is first connected to the filling pipe of an unde!ground st.orage tank, there is a considerable amount of atr trapped m the connecting hose as well as in the vehicle _Pipe and tank filled pipe. Air interposed surfaces m this way tends to produce the classic cond1t10n known to all plumbers as "air lock".

The weight of air in the pipe is negligible and so the effective "head" of liquid to establish flow depends largely only on the depth of liquid in the carrying tank. Not infrequently this is insufficient to overcome the head of liquid above the bottom of the fill pipe in the storage tank. In such cases, equilibrium is established and no flow takes place.

Before flow can start, additional pressure is necessary. The simplest way of getting this is to replace the trapped air in the tank wagon tail pipe and hose by liquid, thereby achieving a sufficiently greater head of liquid.

So far as a plumber is concerned, the classic case he encounters is of an air lock in a pipe connecting to a bathroom tap, fed from the water tank in the roof. To overcome the problem, he has available mains water pressure. Using a hose, he will connect the mains water tap in the kitchen to the affected bathroom tap and open them both. Then mains water pressure will push water and trapped air out of the pipe and up into the tank in the .roof and, hey presto, the household system is working agam ! . The tank wagon driver has no such simple cure open to him, but with the ingenuity one has grown accustomed to expect, he has devised another remedy. He leaves the hose the tank fill pipe loose, in theory only until s1;1ffic1ent air. escaped and been replaced by liquid to give add1t10nal. head he requires to establish flow. In h<;>wever, it not infrequently occurs that the signal for the connection is the appearance of liquid runnmg down the outside of the fill pipe. are tank and pump fitters who have been known to tank wagon driver's need. They drill a mch in the wall of the fill pipe just below its pomt penetra.tton through the tank skin. Without a!lyone be1.ng the wiser, air can then be displaced without hmdrance the vapour space and never again will words. atr lock. pass a tank wagon driver's lips as he tightens his connections once and for all.

The question which petroleum officers must answer is they should to the one-sixteenth inch hole m the wall of the fill pipe. It is apparent that this hole will connect the t'.1nk v.apour space to atmosphere at low level, when the. filhng cap is removed. It is unlikely that one-sixteenth mch hole would prevent flame penetrat10n to the tank space under the right conditions. !:fowever, four 1/32 mch holes or, at most, sixteen 1/64 mch .holes would probably be satisfactory on all counts that the were not more than 23 inches from the fill pipe cap. This would meet the case of most directly tanks but would still leave a problem when a tank is filled through an off-set filling pipe. are provided the only truly safe way of atr locks appears to be to fit the off-sets with vent separate from but treated in the same way as the pipes of the storage tanks. It could well be argued that will add to the cost of installations . If this IS so, !11-ore fruitful approach might be to consider the. prov1s10n of a suitable permanent device to remove atr on tank wagon hose connections.

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