Reminiceses (maybe a bit long)

Donald I'm sure I'm not alone in saying bore away :-) regards

Here Here or Hear Hear :-))

Mart> Donald

It was only 17 lines, when do we get the full installment?

AJH

Donald, welcome. I don't bore that easily, so please carry on!

Regards, Arthur G

Yes, please do carry on, it's this sort of "real life engines" that we love to hear about.

Regards,

Kim Siddorn.

On Mon, 28 Nov 2005 18:19:44 -0000, Kim Siddorn wrote:

This may be even longer . . . A mate of mine arrived back from down under in 1975 with an idea he'd seen there needing a conical-wound spring and, on asking around, we were directed to "Paraffin Castle" where a spring maker carried on his business. The name was given by locals who got their paraffin delivered by bicycle from there. Our man took over after demob in '45 when no one would give him a job. The building seemed to have been started by driving a row of railway sleepers vertically into the ground which carried a lineshaft. The rest was wood framed and clad with pitch coated corrugated iron. Originally this would have been a mile or more from any electricity supply, so the lineshaft was powered when we saw it by a 7hp Lister diesel. The proprietor was as old as the century and had recently had heart problems and couldn't start the engine in the mornings. His part-time assistant some 8 years his junior managed for a while, but he was feeling the strain. The answer was to install a one and half horse petrol Lister which either of them could start and once up and running this started the diesel. Leading us through tunnels in the stack of "returns" (many tons of stuff-that-will-come-in-useful-one-day) to the 12ft long flat bed lathe he was going to use to make the winding mandrel for our 2" spring. This beast was several yards away from the lineshaft and there were too many joiners in the belt to count. You could have done I suppose, there was no guard of any merit. We discovered all this history when he offered us the business as a going concern. Our little project got shelved and, no, we didn't take up the offer to become self-sufficient springmakers. The site is now derelict. The last remnant I saw in this empty field was a little bit of corrugated iron. I haven't got an engine, yet. When SWMBO has moved us from Kent to Shropshire . . .

Ray

My goodness, what have I let myself in for. Thankyou all for the kind messages of support.

I am little older than camping stoveman's 40 to 60 group so if you want the whole story you will have to be patient. It will come out in dribs and drabs like the old fashioned oilers.

For now I will go back a bit to when the Foundry was beside the house:- There came, from I know not where, a single cylinder vertical engine with a very very large diameter flywheel with no spokes but one or maybe two holes in the web. A concrete base was made with a sort of dish at the side to accommodate the flywheel.

As I remember, I was a very small boy at the time, the engine was tall and black in colour.

The time came to start the engine and after many attempts of swinging the flywheel they wrapped a rope around the flywheel and attached the end to a

The car drove forward and the stationary engine started but then proceeded to go faster and faster. My father went up to it to get it under control but as he approached it fractured between the crank end and the cylinder. The cylinder rose up on the piston and father was lucky enough to escape with a broken nose.

I have no idea what make or type of engine this was but still have a vague vision of it in my memory. I suspect it was some sort of very early diesel. I do remember that the men working at the foundry were unable to break up the flywheel with a sledge hammer and resorted to dropping heavy weights on it from the top of the cupola staging.

Enough for now.

Donald

I was hoping for some ideas about the vertical engine with the large flywheel. It might well have come from somewhere in Lincolnshie .

Donald

Is it possible to give a wee bit more to go on? regards Roland

All that I can remember about this engine was that it was tall compared with anything I had seen at the time (age 6 or 7, that would be 65 years ago} Tall and black. Single cylinder vertical. Not much to go on other that what my father went forward to adjust was high up on the front of the cylinder. I presume you saw my earlier posting regarding starting it with a rope over the flywheel towed by a Ford model A.

I might explain that I am not a stationary engine collector. The last one I had in my possession, a single cylinder Turner (Wolverhampton) Diesel I gave to a man who works under the Tay Bridge. If he reads this group, I still have a dipstick belonging to the marine gearbox.

I enjoy reading the groups contributions, small Listers, Wolesleys, Petters, Enfields, Bamfords. Larger Blackstones, Ruston Hornsbeys. Meadows generators Coventry Climax. I could go on, most forgotten.

Donald

Hmmm. I'll essay a random thought but I doubt we'll tie this one down. If I read it right the engine was one-man hand-start. This feels at odds with the suggested size of the engine and flywheel but I know myself that a 6 year old view after 50+ years can be way-off. Apart from the flywheel the general description and unreliability would fit a Blackstone Fuelol. A disastrous engine introduced in 1936 and speedily replaced by the excellent DB. I believe that amongst the Fuelol's many undesirable characteristics were poor starting and a habit of breaking the crankshaft. The pics I have show two smaller flywheels but perhaps in view of the Blackstone connection your father had a prototype?

ttfn Roland