[SEL] Wolseley Type "R"

[Orrin Iseminger]

-----Original Message-----
From: sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com
[mailto:sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com] On Behalf Of Jerry Evans
Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2006 10:20 AM
To: sel at lists.stationary-engine.com
Subject: [SEL] Wolseley Type "R"

Snip

         One question - the gear on the maggy is breaking up pretty badly 
(unuseable again) - was this made from leather? It is "flaking" apart like 
a really old phenolic gear but I do not think that phenolic was around in 
1928. Could it have been made from leather? Whatever it was made from was 
obviously as a safety feature (as in "shear bolt") to prevent damage to 
anything else, but why on the magneto which is a free running unit at the 
end of the "power train" ? I will study it more carefully on Wednesday ( 
and probably post some pics).

Snip

Keep the revs up (or down)
Jerry Evans
Near Johannesburg in Sunny South Africa.
Tel. (016) 365-5787 or 083 283 7191
Visit our website for old engines in South Africa.
www.oldengine.org/members/evans  

~~~~~~~~~

Interestingly, today I came across a passage in Air Commodore F.R. Banks'
book, "I Kept No Diary," that mentions the use of composite gears, circa
1914:   "In those days, a number of marine engines had exposed timing gears,
among them the Brooke engines which had the half speed (camshaft) wheel of
compressed and impregnated fabric sandwiched between bronze side pieces.
They were quite silent and reliable in operation."

Quite off topic, but very interesting is the first half of the paragraph:

"It was at this meeting that I saw a large bearded mechanic, who was with
one of the French entrants, take a stripped timing wheel, mark out the teeth
on a steel disc or blank he had got from Nice and then, filing throughout
the night, he formed all the teeth for a new camshaft gear which he fitted
to his engine in time for a race the next day."  

Anyone with a familiarity of machine shop work will say that is a remarkable
achievement!

Orrin

Orrin Iseminger
Colton, Washington, USA
http://users.moscow.com/oiseming/lc_ant_p/index.htm
So many projects.  So little time.