by moving a lever the driver changed the contact point and the overall speed of the car. A very early variation on the constant velocity joint. Intriguing to me, as I don't think I'd heard of this being used before the recent front wheel drive cars.
Looking around on the internet shows it was used on 1912 Metz, Sears, Trumbull, and Orient Buckboard
Saginaw, Michigan, Cartercar distributor Edwin Densil Doan often performed a balancing act with Cartercars. Doan was a former Oldsmobile stunt driver and circus performer. When the circus came to town in 1908, Doan advertised the Cartercar in a parade by balancing atop a wire above the moving vehicle. He performed the same feat during a Glidden Tour parade, in which he maintained his balance over a distance of more than 10 miles.
I'll be damned, I have photographed one Cartercar, in 2008, in walking distance, in the Cooley museum
For another application of this transmission system, check out this previous entry:
ReplyDeletehttp://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2015/01/cannonball-baker-8-years-after-his.html
I'll be danged, I didn't realize the Ner A Car had one!
DeleteToday, you'll find friction transmissions used in almost all walk behind snow blowers. ;-)
ReplyDeleteand some riding lawn mowers
DeleteIn the 1950s my grandfather built us a side by side go kart using this friction drive system off a large drill press. It was awesome. You squeezed the farm equipment lever and pushed it forward to go faster. If you pulled it back far enough the driven wheel went over center and you had reverse! We even drove it on the country roads. No one bothered us.
ReplyDeleteyou had one terrific grandfather! Lucky! So much cooler than people today who buy something mass manufactured with no soul built in.
DeleteI had heard of the Cartercar but forgot about the drive. I had an Ariens riding mower with that drive system. It was nice and smooth, and though I don't know how durable it might have been, it certainly outlived the Briggs and Stratton motor. I have a tuckered-out old Ariens snowblower with a similar drive. I imagine it will outlast the motor too.
ReplyDeleteI don't know the whole history of constant velocity U-joints, but I believe the constant-velocity joint found in sheep shearing machines was first used some time around the 1880's. It's a beautiful bit of machinery. Though it has an open knuckle and the meshing gears have some backlash, making it an unlikely candidate for automotive use, a sheep shearing joint flexes about 140 degrees, pretty impressive. Unlike an automotive knuckle, this one is hinged on the side, allowing it to fold nearly double.
Oddly, this version of the CV joint gets no mention from Wikipedia, which concentrates only on automotive ones. Although Wolseley (an Australian inventor), along with his partner, a fellow named Austin, moved to England, and some cars did indeed follow. But Wolseley's ingenious CV joint, though you can still find it in sheep shearing machines, seems to be little known elsewhere, and probably never made it into any cars.
It's also nearly impossible to find any pictures of one. So I took one, which I hope will show up if you open the dropbox link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/mbc6i6tkf9hjh8o/sheep%20shear%20joint.jpg?dl=0
it does open up, thank you! It certainly is a good strong joint, but you're right, not suitable for automotive propulsion
DeleteI believe this is more like a continuously variable transmission (CVT) than a constant velocity joint. The friction transmission has a lever that moves the driven wheel across the face of the flywheel, changing the effective gear ratio as the contact position changes.
ReplyDeleteAs tooldenny says, if this system allows the driven wheel to go past the center of the flywheel, you could get reverse.
I realize the friction transmission is not a CV joint at all, but the CV joint was mentioned, and at first it looked as if the thing had big axle shaft boots suggesting CV joints before I realized - hey wait a second, since when did a CV joint have spark plugs in it?!? But I just thought the CV subject was interesting too, as those clipper joints are still in wide use, but seem to be little recognized.
ReplyDeleteIt's been a while since I had to delve into the transmission on my old snowblower, but I think it gets reverse by a second pulley rather than going past the center, though I'm not entirely sure why.
That CVT is probably not suitable for the kind of torque an automobile engine puts out and needs, but it seems like a pretty ingenious solution for smaller powered machines. I'm actually rather surprised that the ones I've seen in use show very little wear, scuffing, burned-rubber residue, etc.