This one has me stumped, what is it?

I believe Thomas Edison was at Ford's new assembly plant. He mentioned to Mr. Ford, very interesting but, what if the men stay on station, and the cars move by? (something to that affect)
What the heck were they thinking at the LeRhone engine plant? Bolt the crankshaft to the firewall?
Thanks Bob, I'm going to spend the afternoon researching the engine. Curios as I am.
Just watched a video, can you imagine the imbalance?
I can forgive LeRhone for the oddball stuff because there was nothing before to learn from or copy.

Sorry, but my whole miserable career as car mechanic was filled with "what hell were they thinking?" or smoking? Like having to pull the engine to get to some spark plugs?( AMC 6cyl Pacer) Some bolts on the top of transmissions that were obviously put on before the body was plopped on?(Toyota Tercel 4wd) Crazy silly rubber doughnuts for driveline universal joints that there is no way to tighten the packing nut on the front joint that locates it to the transmission(BMW '69 2002). Mounting the pressure plate to the crankshaft and the throw out brg pushes on the flywheel('75 VW Rabbit). There are a million others but don't get me started .........
 
Rotary engines are limited to just over 1000 - 1300 rpm, as the forces on the parts is pretty large. For the time, they were high power to weight engines. To see a few running engines in actually flying machines, go to https://oldrhinebeck.org/
 
Just watched a video, can you imagine the imbalance?
They actually run quite smoothly, with all the mass, and remember that the pistons and rods are not reciprocating. The offset crankshaft makes it all happen.
 
I can forgive LeRhone for the oddball stuff because there was nothing before to learn from or copy.

Sorry, but my whole miserable career as car mechanic was filled with "what hell were they thinking?" or smoking? Like having to pull the engine to get to some spark plugs?( AMC 6cyl Pacer) Some bolts on the top of transmissions that were obviously put on before the body was plopped on?(Toyota Tercel 4wd) Crazy silly rubber doughnuts for driveline universal joints that there is no way to tighten the packing nut on the front joint that locates it to the transmission(BMW '69 2002). Mounting the pressure plate to the crankshaft and the throw out brg pushes on the flywheel('75 VW Rabbit). There are a million others but don't get me started .........
Fiat X-19. Pull the engine to set the timing....and just to add to the fun it was common for the distributor hold down to come loose....
Robert
 
Most ceiling fans work similar to the old radial engines. The rotor is connected to the rod from the ceiling, and does not rotate. The housing, and fan blades do the rotation. The light kit, or controller box mounts to the bottom of the rotor, which is how they stand still.
 
I see a distinct similarity between the adjustable chrome feet and shutoff handles from radiator globe valves. Notwithstanding the distinct possibility of a lava processor, I wonder if we're looking at a movie prop? And is there a coincidence that part of a label featuring .."Theater..." appears in one of of the other photos?
-frank
IMHO, It looks too elaborately detailed to be a prop. However, it could be some sort of device for a special effects purpose?
 
At that price you should snap it up in a heartbeat. It's less than 1/10 the cost of the first soap wrapping machine model we used to test the skills of potential production line mechanics. The "wrapping" machine was a model of one originally used at Procter & Gamble to wrap bars of soap in a paper package for retail sales. It had all sorts of cams, gears, and levers that had to be perfectly timed for it to cycle a plastic block through the process. The machine flipped the block over several times and reoriented it so the paper could be folded around it. The original model cost in the $3,500.00 range with later models costing nearly $10,000.00. It seemed like a lot of money for testing mechanical skills, but those who passed the test didn't have any problems diagnosing and repairing production machine problems.

Here's a link to a newer version of the machine we used. I'll bet the cost has risen since the 1990's when we bought our latest one.

I was the last mechanic hired at Unilever to have to go thru the test on the do nothing machine ! We packed bars by the millions . :grin:
 
Back
Top