Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.
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peter scott
Joined: 18 Dec 2007 Posts: 7113 Location: Edinburgh
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Scotty
Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 883
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Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 8:03 am Post subject: |
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Odd Facts -
I particularly like this one - George Johnston, before becoming involved with motor vehicles designed and built a steam-powered tramcar for use on the streets of Glasgow. However on its demonstration run for City of Glasgow Bailies to see how impressive it was it caught fire and was seriously damaged - the Bailies weren't impressed!
The Antarctic Arrol Johnston had an air-cooled engine because it was considered too cold for a normal water-jacket engine - the air-cooled engine regularly over-heated.
Arrol Johnston engines were adapted to be used as "starter motors" in airship engines.
One of the joys of my research work is discovering little known facts or "dead-ends" of development. It appears that the history of the motor industry is littered with ideas that were just too "out there" to survive, but thank heavens we had the men and women that at least tried to make them work - wouldn't life be incredibly boring without these people? |
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peter scott
Joined: 18 Dec 2007 Posts: 7113 Location: Edinburgh
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Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 9:14 am Post subject: |
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Scotty wrote: | Odd Facts -
Arrol Johnston engines were adapted to be used as "starter motors" in airship engines.
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Scottish engineering companies do seem to have been involved with quite a few "out there" developments. It was Beardmore who "developed" the giant (=overweight) diesel engines for the ill fated R101 and if you have ever seen the one in the Science Museum then the starter motor reference falls nicely into place. Unfortunately Beardmore also learnt the hard way in building the motor sledges for Scott's Antarctic expedition.
Peter |
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