Odd Car Boot Finds?

Hi All,

Went to Yeovil Boot Sale yesterday to get rid of some of our unsold items and naturally had a good look round before the ravening hordes could get in!

Found some nice items including these two unusual things.:

I have no idea on either of these except possibly the first on is part of a school physics lab experiment?

The second is marked as shown so to do with a Stering engine perhaps? but Perspex?

All comments welcome.

Cheers, Martin

I suggest that you check continuity and resistance between the various terminals.

i suspect a hollow cylinder matching the one on the left hand post is missing.

But it should not be too difficult to make a replacement from brass.

It reminds me of “Post Office Boxes” - am I showing my age?

MC

The second one appears to be a “cutaway” teaching model to show how the displacer and linkage run inside a Stirling engine.
I expect the 2 alloy parts move in a sequence where one lags the other?

Dave

Have a read of this, Martin : **LINK**

https://ifisc.uib-csic.es/users/raul/CURSOS/TERMO/Stirling%20engine.pdf

MichaelG.

Gosh Michael!

A bit beyond me, most of that!

So is my thingy an illustrative model to demonstrate the principle or part of an actual motor/

It goes up and down when the top gear is rotated but seems pretty full of friction which I thought was the absolute enemy of a Sterling Engine?

There is a very faint diagram of some sort around the mechanism which I had not noticed before, I will try and get a photo later on.

Cheers,Martin.

Try this, Martin : **LINK**

https://www.pearl-hifi.com/06_Lit_Archive/02_PEARL_Arch/Vol_16/Sec_53/Philips_Tech_Review/PTechReview-20-1958_59-245.pdf

MichaelG.

I think Philips donated the generators to schools; I'd love to get my hands on one one day. That is obviously a visual tool to demonstrate the operation.

My grandfather made stirling engines intending to use them to power irrigation pumps in africa, but it never came to anything.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Philips_Stirling_engine.JPG

As I understand it the frame formed storage of some of the pressurised gases.

Edited By Jon Lawes on 28/03/2022 20:28:45

I think this item is a wire terminal to plug/socket adaptor from a school or university science lab. Same hook-up function as is done today with banana plugs and sockets.

Looks multi-purpose:

• Male plug into the centre hole, or
• Female socket on to the outer taper.

The fluted item is probably an adaptor to take a different type of male plug.

Maker someone like Becker, George, or Griffen and George. Bakelite and brass suggest pre-WW2, possibly decades earlier. If someone has access to old catalogues, listed as Pattern 5001.

I have a press-to-make tapper switch in similar brass and mahogany style somewhere.

Dave

I reluctantly disagree with Dave but I spent half of my life in university and School Physics labs.

Banana plugs were NOT at all common in labs (as against Radio workshops) before the mid-70s.

The Fluted Cylinder closed the contact between the two halves of the brass.

Has Mr. King been able to check resistance and/or continuity between terminals?

MC

Most likely a red herring but I did find this:

**LINK**

Visible on the small plate is PATT 5001. I wonder if it is a regulation, manufacturer or similar?

EDIT I've since read it most likely means pattern, as in the design something is made too, especially with regards to MoD equipment.

They are mentioned in passing here, specifically spark gap condensors, which could make sense..

https://worldradiohistory.com/hd2/IDX-AUSTRALIA/IDX/Amateur-Radio/70s/Amateur-Radio-AU-1970268.pdf

Edited By Jon Lawes on 29/03/2022 05:13:48

Edited By Jon Lawes on 29/03/2022 05:16:04

Hi Jon, Thanks for the info.

I have in the past bought lots of tool type items at auction that were all labelled up with detailed MOD PATT marks. These were, as you say, the master patterns to which all other items had to conform.

Somewhere there must have been a huge storage facility for all these thousand of different items.

I even had labelled items for a single nut & bolt carefully detailed with suppliers etc.

Dr MC, will check continuity etc when I have a moment.

Regards, Martin