EUREKA Gear-Tooth Relieving Attachment - Ancient History....

The 'modern' history of the EUREKA Gear-Tooth Relieving Attachment began, I believe in the mid-late 1980's arising from an M.E. PostBag letter [someone confirm the date/Issue No.] from a New Zealand (my country!) reader including a copy of a page from a very old machinists' tools catalogue [does anyone have that copy?] and accompanied by that old chestnut; "What is it?"

The M.E. brains trust (Professor D.H.Chaddock & Ivan Law) got to work to crack the puzzle and eventually nutted out how the thing worked ..... and the rest, as they say, was history. now a widely disseminated and equally widely used device.

But insofar as I know, no-one ever did solve the actual mystery of ther true origin of this most ingenious attachment. As far as I know, no Patent has ever surfaced, no country of origin, no confirmed dates and of course, no inventor's name!

Or am I wrong? Can anyone fill-in these missing historical blanks as it seems to me to be rather odd to be using a device for which no-one seems to have bothered to dig-up the appropriate attributions to its rightful creator.

I confess to teasing you a little. It seems to have had its origins with the Balzer Rotary Milling Cutter Relieving Attachment:-

https://www.csparks.com/VanDervoort/index.xhtml

His corresponding Patent refers:-

https://patents.google.com/patent/US535127?oq=535127

.... but still, I'm not quite sure. It's certainly not identical. Can anyone zero-in on the true history. Answers please.........

Thanks for this one Andre

....a very interesting question

For the convenience of others, here is a: **LINK** to Hugh Sparks' page.

MichaelG

Progress already

It looks like Balzar might not be simply a typo for Balzer, but perhaps an homage

The device illustrated here: **LINK**

https://archive.org/details/modernshoppract00socigoog/page/n164

looks more like what we know as the Eureka than it does the original patented by Balzer

MichaelG.

Post #6 in this short discussion **LINK**

https://mb.nawcc.org/threads/levin-backing-off-attachment.819/

has now sent me off on a search for the Levin design ...

MichaelG.

Edited By Michael Gilligan on 07/08/2019 08:04:20

I too have taken a great interest in this device.

My research confirms the Balzar device as a geared piece of tooling and that it was granted a US patent in 1895.

Robert Taylor was granted a US patent for a ratchet operated device in 1906, but by this time the German tool company of Selig Sonnenthal had an almost identical piece of tooling on sale in 1904 at the price then of £8 a time [equivalent to about £900 today]

The illustration that Andre refers to is of the Sonnenthal equipment and this is what Eureka was based upon

In Ivan Law's book, Gears and Gearcutting #17 in the Workshop Practice Series, Chapter 12 there are drawings and text for making Eureka.

Regards

Brian

.

Thanks for the additional info. Brian

Not for the sake of gratuitous pedantry; but because I think it may be significant in helping us trace the evolution:

I must emphasise that the 'geared' patent is in the name of Balzer, not Balzar

MichaelG.

Thank you Michael, I stand corrected.

Brian

This is quite a good breakdown of how it works YouTube

Hi Andre,

It was one of the guys in my club that sent the article that the EUREKA tool came about from!

the guy passed away some years ago so i cant supply any more info. I do remember the club night it was discussed at when he got confirmation that an article would be written

Cheers Kerrin

John Stevenson made an oversize Eureka and use it for many years. He was always meaning to dig out its box and show me.

Neil

Hi Guys,

With a great deal of bemusement I have been watching the reply-posts richocheting back-and-forth, with the proverbial 'ping-pong' ball being a certain Stephen M. Balzer. Unless the respondants are keeping a straight face none have given any indication of 'twigging' to the considerable hiistorical significance of this man.

He was the other half of the Manly-Balzer combo to whom are attributed the creation of the Radial Internal Combustion aero-engine for aircraft. I resist saying "inventor" because Manly was not, albeit he subsequently was granted a number of engine-related Patents. The engine patent is assigned to Balzer [https://patents.google.com/patent/US573174?oq=ininventortephen+ininventor:Balzer] but he failed to resolve its considerable shortcomings when attempting to power LANGLEY's "AERODROME" aircraft so Langley's assistant, Charles Manly was drafted in to sort the problems out and forever after has shared equal billing with Balzer as the joint creator.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manly%E2%80%93Balzer_engine

The virtually unknown previous association with the ratcheting milling-cutter relieving attachment is yet another feather in his cap and attests to the capabilities of this uniquely talented and resourceful individual. A shame not more has been written about him.

All the information, attachments and links are greatly appreciated and have done much to 'lift the veil' on this piece of unique historical engineering obscurata. Keep it coming if you discover more. Thanks again.

Hi Guys, Errata: something weird happened with that U.S. Patent link in the body text when my message posted.

Try this: https://patents.google.com/patent/US573174

Enjoy!!

.

Thanks, Andre ...

**LINK**

https://patents.google.com/patent/US573174

MichaelG.

Hello Andre,

There was clearly more to Mr. Balzer than we know, thank you for digging this extra bit of history out for us to enjoy

Brian

If anyone is interested in scaling up the Eureka tool there is a solid model posted on GrabCad.

Ten seconds on Google >>> **LINK**

https://grabcad.com/library/eureka

MichaelG.

Thank you Michael, always a fount of knowledge and help and greatly appreciated

Best wishes Brian