Parsons engine

May 27, 2004 6 Replies

Reading about Kim's Parsons engine again in SEM reminded me of the puzzling anomaly between the information regarding it's original purchaser received by the previous owner from Parsons and that which Kim received from the successor company. It strikes me that if the engine was definitely used to pump water for fire protection equipment in a factory, then that purchaser is far more likely to have been Mather and Platt than the Admiralty.



BTW. The 'crinkled foil' thingies attached to the carbs are probably flame traps rather than filters.


The air filters are crinkly copper foil and are probably flame traps too - but I understand their principal purpose is to keep water out of the engine as the size is too small for wind driven spray to get through.

They also feature on my CV flat twin, the Vincent lifeboat engine and the ABC auxiliary engine, all of which were aircraft/sea borne devices.

Regards,

Kim Siddorn,

Not something I have come across but you live and learn. I was thinking of those traps with a sort of spiral of corrugated foil giving a honeycomb appearance.

Is the rope factory story verifiable?

Good description of the crinkly filters!

Dunno about Mather & Platt - I'll have a poke about when I get back . Off to Norwich now for our BH show.

Come and see us at Cow Tower if anyone is in the area on Sunday or Monday. I'm the one on the PA.

Regards,

Kim Siddorn,

The orginal owner had a couple of pictures and description of the engine in the September 1998 SEM.

Original purchaser was given as Mather & Platt who purchased it on the

23/01/1943, that information is quoted as being supplied by Parsons themselves.

Peter

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

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But...the world is full of Petter owners with incorrect information supplied by Lister-Petter and the published dating list is riddled with inaccuracies. I have also come across several instances of the manufacturers own records containing human error. ttfn Roland

Quite so, and Lister-Petter or the original, separate, companies had no excuse for incorrect records, although Lister did lose theirs in the big fire IIRC.

Some information is better than none at all, but it would be nice to have some certainty about the origins or one's engines....

Peter

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

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