Old sodbury

Didnt know it was on :-((

Mart> Have just returned from there. Lovely weather if a little cold.

Kim posted here on the 4th, three replies on the newsgroup....

Peter

throw out the hook with the bait, sit back and wait :-))

Mart> >

An interesting and enjoyable few hours of rummaging, even though nothing actually called "take me home". There was some good stuff there; a pair of Stuart 1.5kw lighting sets complete with control boards and original wall mounted fuel tanks, a nice military Alco/Norman T300 outfit looking very complete and original and an apparently unused Wisconsin V4. A couple of hot air engines also caught my eye; the first probably a Heinrici with small pump attached and the other a modern model of uncertain parentage - prices, put me off though. My choice for something to cart round the shows though would have been a Bradford enclosed crank powered Chalmers sludge pump - don't know why but those things never fail to impress me at rallies.

Twas a good day indeed. These day it seems more of a social gathering although a fair weight of junk did follow me home. That, a pick up at Sod plus driving on to Hants for another pick-up, meant it was a rather knackered Roland who got home at 2145 hrs. Strange how easy it is to miss people. I suppose its because all eyes are facing down :-) regards Roland

An enjoyable day, pleasantly warm once the sun shone and you could get out of the wind. I bought home one or two small bits of plunder, the best find was a small electrolytic electricity meter, for 220 volt DCsupplies, and dating back between 80 and 100 years. What's even nicer is that the glasswork inside is unbroken, and still contains the mercury and other liquid. As I paid my 7 quid for it the vendor said 'I suppose you're going to tell me what it is now'!! I might even take some picture and put them up on my webshots page if anyone's interested On the next stall I found a nice cast aluminium pouring spout for two gallon fuel cans, which I also snapped up. With the price of fuel now I can't afford to pour it over my feet when filling an engine.

Regards

Philip T-E

====== I'd like to see a pic of that meter, Philip. When I was an apprentice in a power house in the late 1940s, I found a very old DC (kWh type) meter which might be similar to yours. It was in a cast iron case, had glass u-tube affair with a bulb containing mercury. Kept it for years - wonder what happened to it?

It was the only one I'd seen like that - most of the DC meters then were Swiss "Landis & Gyr" (I think). They were actually current dependent (Amp.hour)devices, meaning that if the supply voltage was low (and it usually was), the meter went faster for a given kW load!

They were really DC motors, the armature windings inside a flat aluminium disk running in jewelled bearings between the poles of permanent magnets which provided both the field system and eddy-braking to prevent coasting. They had tiny little commutators and wire brushes, gold-plated, I think. We cleaned them with thin strips of chamois leather.

JW² ======

I'll see what I can do Jack. I suspect this is a domestic type as it can only read up to 200 Board of Trade Units before it has to be reset. Its about 6 inches high in total.

Regards

Philip T-E

Strange we were all there and walking past each other, I've no doubt! A trip in the wrong place could drop one onto some very unpleasant sharply pointed - and anciently rusty - agricultural implements. No EHO's in sight, we assume!

I found and passed on a couple of rather tatty Norman twins, an OHV Douglas flat twin and salivated quietly over the Levis WW1 trench generator engine at its fourth Sort Out to my certain knowledge at £400. I'm concerned to find that my perception of this figure is changing ..... There were some well presented ST small engines, one pf which look suspiciously like a engine I've had for thirty odd years and always wondered what it was.

I was severely tempted by a White & Poppe twin cylinder marine engine, a very nice lump from the early years of the last century. I'd guess it was the oldest thing there by ten years. At a tad over two hundred quid it was hardly expensive and if I'd not just irritated Hazel with the Bofors Gun genny, I might have risked it. Not that I could have hauled it away, BMW equipped as I was, but he only lived in Malmsbury thirty miles away. The wrath of the wife and a certain creeping realism that it would take considerable physical effort just to get it under cover stopped me - but I did take its picture so I can share my "What if".

I found a dear little American Forces four stroke fan cooled engine. It is so light I could almost wear it on a thong round me neck or attach it to a belt buckle. He wanted £25 and went down to £18. Made by the aero engine company "Continental", it appears to be unused and apart from silencer and fuel tank is complete.

For me, the find of the day was a 1955 Triumph Tiger 100 engine. It has no internals and has been mounted for display. At the moment I'm just happy to have it and will decide what to do with it later!

- and that was it. I saw few people I know and was away again in a bit over two hours. The BM took me smoothly to Shrewsbury for the society's Spring Training Weekend and so home with food poisoning yesterday afternoon ;o(( All cleared up now ;o))

Photos at

Kim Siddorn

In spring, a man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of getting his motorcycle on the road!

That is odd, I saw no one from NG - in fact, when the Wisconsin V4 was still unsold after a couple of hours, I convinced myself that Kim at least hadn't made it!

Was that White and Poppe really only a couple of hundred quid? Looks like something of a bargain for anyone who actually 'needed' its like. W&P were quite a prolific maker of proprietary engines pre WW1 - Singer used them as did the first 'Bullnose' Morris.

That 7 hp W & P hadn't appreciated much over the years, they were

Tom

I did stare closely at the Wisconsin vee4, but it is a lumpy old thing & not flat! THEN I might have needed to examine my conscience.

Regards,

Kim Siddorn

In spring, a man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of getting his motorcycle on the road!

W & P yes, Wisconsin V4? Never ever in a month of Sundays! They are less than desirable, let alone reliable.

Tom

"Tom" wrote (snip):-

Perhaps not a desirable engine in the classic 'lamp start open crank' sense, but sufficiently unusual to European eyes to attract attention. As for reliability, I thought they were supposed to be the very essence of American tough?

Sound lovely but rather thirsty. They also have a well-deserved reputation for vapour-locking and thus being abysmal hot-starters. Something to do with all the carbery being in the middle of the V I believe. hth Roland

"American tough"? I don't think so, Nick, the windbreaks of local orchards were littered with Wisconsin discards off orchards sprayers. Dirty word around here. Service ratings were ever so optimistic.

Tom