eBay - small "vacuum rotor" engine - flame licker ?

Any of you guys put in a bid on this, do you know who 'enginesyouwant' is. Reply off list if you want. I bid as 'jysh'

In message , Andy Dingley writes

Its a lovely little thing, George. I bet you cursed Andy for making available to all of those who are too idle to search eBay systematically. Good luck with it.

I don't know who "enginesyouwant" is, but I've seen the name before. Clearly not a big trader.

Not me - nice, but I'll stay out of it - best of luck George.

Regards,

Kim Siddorn,

OK, that's the last eBay posting from me. 8-(

Maybe I wanted those who contribute to a newsgroup to be aware of what's around on eBay. If you want to be exclusivist about things (which I certainly don't), then think about it as being those "in the club" saving it from the great unwashed of eBay.

I only bumped into this thing by accident, because my fridge (which searches eBay for me automatically and gives me a regular newsfeed of my stock searches) didn't happen to tell me about it.

If I wanted to hear elitist eBay bashing from those who are still happy to use it when no-one is looking, I'd have gone to rec.antiques.

-- Do whales have krillfiles ?

No, no, no - don't stop Andy! Far more use than not, as they say. Makes life interesting.

I agree with your comments about exclusivity, too.

Regards,

Kim Siddorn,

Do tell us more - do you really have an internet enabled fridge ?

Joon

He's only showing off, Netlinked fridges are new. I can only afford a Talkie Toaster link and - well - they are so bread product orientated--

Regards,

Kim Siddorn, Regia Anglorum

Please don't stop Andy, I would never have found it myself at present, just havn't got the time looking after a sick wife. I would love to buy it but I fear that it will go out of my reach. Cant even sell the wife till she has recovered.

In message , Andy Dingley writes

In Egypt, a Arab offered me 100 camels for Hazel. I held out for white racing camels and he refused to deal with me because I "knew the market!"

Regards,

Kim Siddorn, Regia Anglorum

I have an old laptop and gaffer tape. 8-)

But it does have a server (in the geek room) that feeds it an RSS newsfeed aggregated from all sorts of stuff, including eBay searches.

-- When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything looks like a hard disk.

Now it can be told!

I didn't say anything earlier not wanting to fan the flames of ebay fever, but this is indeed a 'flame licker' or vacuum engine made by the grandly titled Rotor Corporation of America, in Dayton, Ohio. It is based on a 1934 patent by William Leary which features a snap action valve mechanism and heavily desaxe cylinder, giving faster piston movement in one direction. It's other claim to fame is that the atmospheric valve through which any residual gasses are expelled is "designed in the form of a whistle to emphasise the exhaust sounds to thereby simulate a large engine"

No Idea who 'enginesyouwant' might have been, but it looks like George has bought himself a nice little toy. Drop me a line on my hotmail address and I'll email you some info if you are interested George. Perhaps you could tell us all how successful it is at 'simulating a large engine'!

In message , Nick Highfield writes

Have to investigate the 'flame' side of it first Nick. I don't know much about these engines so I will be looking for as much information as I can get at the moment. The wait now begins for the little begger to arrive.

There are some other engine pictures on

George, I don't know if Dave Croft's got his ears on, but he's someone who knows flamelickers!

Flame liquor is more my thing, glad you were successful.

Regards, Arthur G

Thanks Arthur,

Am in touch with Dave via email, he lives quite close to me. Will get together with him when the little beast arrives and the wife is more cheerful.

Glad it didn't go much higher though. Just a little bit suspicious that has never traded before on Ebay. May have been a deliberate attempt to push the price up. This is happening too much on Ebay at the moment. Too many virgin bidders about to feel completely comfortable.

In message , Arthur Griffin & Jeni Stanton writes

I would agree with that, have taken to warning a few of them that I would report them to ebay if I thought they were just bidding to raise the price.

I email them through the ebay system so there is no question that I am serious about the matter and the mail is traceable back to ebay.

One common factor here, both his recent bids were for engines that were discussed by members of the newsgroup.

Peter

-- Peter & Rita Forbes snipped-for-privacy@easynet.co.uk Engine pages for preservation info:

I guess the other one you are referring to was the little Carette flame ignition job? I'm not that surprised at the price of either as they are just not items one sees everyday, just look at the prices people like The Engineers Emporium or Preston Steam Svcs. ask for this sort of thing. I do hope you are wrong about 'off the wall' bids though.