Life washed me on land on September 26th, 1964, and confronted me with a most important question 16 years later: ‚What are you going to do?'. My answer was: ‚watchmaker'.V_30_45_01_A_engl.pdf (application/pdf Object)
Self-winding Wrist Watch Clocks up 80 Year AnniversaryBritish watch repairer, John Harwood patented the self-winding wrist watch 7 July 1923.
Although other self-winding watches had been made prior to Harwood‘s invention they were fob watches, which were bulky and expensive. Conversely, most wrist watches of the day used an exterior winding crown to wind-up the watch. These were often inaccurate because dirt got into the movement and damaged the watch. John Harwood wanted to design a watch that had its winding mechanism inside which would be impervious to grit and safe from the human error of overwinding.
In 1923, Harwood from the Isle of Man, developed a wrist watch that had enough power to wind itself. It was based on a ‘hammer winding system‘, where the mechanism had a semi-circular weight that pivoted at the centre of the movement through a 300 degree arc. The swinging weight was actuated by the movement of the wearer. A friction plate was fixed in the mechanism, which prevented overwinding. Having no crown, the hands of the watch could be reset by rotating the bezel round the clock.
Harwood and his backer Harry Cutts from Cheshire were the first to mass produce the self-winding wrist watch when they formed the Harwood Self-Winding Watch Company which commissioned the Swiss firms, Fortis and A. Schild to make the watches. The watches went on sale in 1928 and 30,000 were made before the company went under due to the depression in 1931.
The Rolex Watch Company in 1930 developed a variation on Harwood‘s patented invention where the central rotor swung in a full 360 degree circle. Sold as the ‘Rolex Oyster Perpetual‘ it continued to accurately keep the time 35 hours after the wearer removed the watch. The Rolex watch was a significant improvement on Harwood‘s wrist watch which kept ticking accurately for only 12 hours after the wearer removed the watch.
Harwood‘s patent for the self-winding wrist watch (GB218487) drawing
"A brief history of clocks" 'CLOCK GRID'Mystical-WWW : Clocks and History
An automatic transmission for a bicycle includes a rotatably supported wheel, an endless drive chain which is manually driven and held against axial movement relative to the wheel, a shift member which is rotationally and axially movable relative to the wheel and has thereon two axially spaced sprockets of different size which can each be engaged and driven by the chain, an arrangement responsive to the speed of the wheel for urging the shift member to move in respective axial directions as the wheel speed increases and decreases, and an arrangement responsive to the amount of force being applied by the cyclist for offering increased resistance to axial movement of the shift member in a direction which would upshift the transmission to a higher gear in response to an increase in bicycle speed. The arrangement responsive to the magnitude of the force applied by the cyclist also forces the transmission to downshift when the cyclist is applying a relatively large force to the pedals.Patent 4713042:
Springs are unlike other machine/structure components in that they undergo significant deformation when loaded - their compliance enables them to store readily recoverable mechanical energy.DANotes: Springs: Introduction
A governor is a device used to measure and regulate the speed of a machine, such as an engine. A classic example is the centrifugal governor, also known as the Watt or fly-ball governor, which uses weights mounted on spring-loaded arms to determine how fast a shaft is spinning, and then uses proportional control to regulate the shaft speed. Automobiles are a common application, and modern automobiles are equipped with such a mechanism for various reasons.Governor (device) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
There are two types of automobile governors, one limiting the rotational speed of the engine, the other limiting the speed of the vehicle. In small, low power applications, governors are used to protect the engine from damage due to excessive rotational speed, or pushing the engine past its peak abilities. In larger, higher performance engines governors are used to limit the vehicle speed. Many performance cars are limited to a speed of 250 km/h (155 mph) to limit insurance costs and/or to reduce pollution. Also, many urban public buses have speed governors, which are typically set at 40 to 55 miles per hour.
Regulating the speed of an acoustic phonograph or gramophone is most important, and as for the reproducer and sound box (Back to Basics, part 1), the same basic principle applies on each machine. A centrifugal governor is used. They come in two, three and four weighted arrangements, which are driven with either pinion gear or worm drive. On some rare and obscure machines a wind propeller is used, but we will not go into that today. My sketch for simplicity is a two-weight governor with a gear pinion drive.Speed regulating
The Edison "Spring Motor" was the predecessor to the Edison Triumph. This 1896 phonograph cost a whopping $100 when it was released. For reference, a monthly salary of $40 was considered good at the time.TheEdison Spring Motor
A spring is a flexible elastic object used to store mechanical energy. Springs are usually made out of hardened steel. Small springs can be wound from pre-hardened stock, while larger ones are made from annealed steel and hardened after fabrication. Some non-ferrous metals are also used including phosphor bronze for parts requiring corrosion resistance and beryllium copper for springs carrying electrical current (because of its low electrical resistance).Spring (device) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The litter is a class of wheelless vehicles for transport of persons.Litter (vehicle) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Rickshaws (or rickshas) are a mode of human-powered transport: a runner draws a two-wheeled cart which seats one or two persons. Rickshaws were mainly used in Asia, but nowadays they are outlawed in many places and have been replaced by cycle rickshaws and auto rickshaws. The term "rickshaw" is today commonly used for those vehicles as well, but this article deals exclusively with runner-pulled rickshaws.Rickshaw - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A cycle rickshaw, also known as a pedicab, velotaxi, or trishaw, is a human-powered vehicle for hire, usually with one or two seats for carrying passengers in addition to the driver.Cycle rickshaw - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Unusual Human Powered Vehicles This site is for homebuilders, inventers and those who are just plain entertained by "outside-the-box" thinking. It contains pictures of some unusual HPVUnusual Human Powered Vehicles .
The Man Powered Aircraft Group of the Royal Aeronautical Society originated in 1959 when the members of the Man Powered Group of the College of Aeronautics at Cranfield were invited to become a group of the society. Its title was changed from 'Man' to 'Human" in 1988 in recognition of the many successful flights by woman pilots. Without the generosity and enthusiastic support of the late Mr Henry Kremer human powered flight would have probably still be only a dream. By offering prizes for the various competitions which have been set, he has provided a focus for research and made possible the building of extraordinary aircraft. Over the years he has donated over £275,000 of his own money to encourage greater achievement in human powered flight.hpag home page
This home page is produced for preparation of the official page of the human powered ornithopter project team 'Silver Shooting Stars' and copyrighted by Kazuho KAWAI.Human Powered Ornithopter
The International Human Powered Vehicle Association is an association of national associations and organizations, dedicated to promoting improvement, innovation and creativity in the use of human power, especially in the design and development of human-powered vehicles.International Human Powered Vehicle Association (IHPVA)Website
A British scientist said yesterday he is on the threshold of inventing an antigravity motor that could fly a manned spaceship to the stars using nuclear fuel the size of a pea.laithw1
Should a time come when just about all fuel reserves dry up, drivers may find some solace in the works of Leonardo da Vinci. Among the celebrated genius' ground-breaking inventions was a drawing of what would have been the world's first self-propelled vehicle - a "clockwork car". Da Vinci's wooden cart would have been powered by springs wound in the opposite direction to the one in which the driver planned to travel. A rudimentary braking system was also incorporated. Had Leonardo also invented the first assembly line and car showroom in the 15th Century, the history of travel may have been quite different. Professor Paolo Galluzzi, who headed a team which recently built the vehicle from da Vinci's blueprint, said: "It is a very powerful machine. It could run into something and do serious damage."BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | What will we drive when the oil runs out?
lecture is split into 19 partsGyroscopes - Everything you needed to know