Vintage Singer Sewing Machine

I like machines, especially machines from the mid-nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries. It’s fun to find out how they work learn about their history. This project depicts a Singer treadle powered sewing machine made from the 1890s to the 1920s. Many of these Singer machines were extravagantly decorated filigree, floral designs. (I’ve been deliberately more modest with this model.) The Singer Manufacturing Company was founded in New York City by Isaac Singer and Edward Clark in 1851. Both domestic and international demand for the machines was so great that the company opened a factory in Glasgow, Scotland in 1867 that grew eventually to become the largest sewing machine producer in the world.

#Singer #sewing_machine #antique #Blender #Cycles

 

 

Wimshurst Machine

 Developed by English inventor James Wimshurst (1832 - 1903) in the early 1880s, the device is an electrostatic generator.  It consists of two counter-rotating glass disks with metal sectors pasted around the circumference driven by a crank, two Leyden jars and connecting circuitry. As the disks rotate, an electrical charge (voltage) builds up in the two Leyden jars (capacitors) until there is sufficient force to throw a spark across the gap between the metal balls at the top.

This model was inspired by the YouTube video series “Building a Wimshurst Machine” by Winky’s Workshop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLVlV0N7Y1Y&list=PLz2A001hMBoTW59vbJtitbinLMcaYpn4T

#Wimshurst_Machine #electrostatic #generator Blender #cycles

Autoped Self Propelled Scooter

 Invented by Arthur Gibson, the Autoped self-propelled scooter was granted a US patent in 1916 which was assigned to the Autoped Company of America, New York, NY. It was powered by a 155 cc, single cylinder, air cooled, gasoline engine. The company manufactured the scooters from 1915 to 1922 and a licence was issued to Krupp for manufacture in Germany. The Autoped had a top speed of 20 mph (32 kph.) It weighed 110 pounds (50 Kg) and sold for $110.

 The inspiration for this model came from a photo posted on Facebook by Dimitri Borodine.

 #AutoPed #scooter #self-propelled #Blender #Cycles

 

Egyptian War Chariot

 

The chariot was not invented by the Egyptians, but they probably discovered it in their wars with the Hyksos in the Nile Delta region around 1,500 BCE. These chariots were heavy and cumbersome to manoeuvre, so the Egyptian engineers and military planners set out to perfect them. They made them much lighter (two soldiers could easily carry one), stronger, faster and more stable. The combat chariots carried a crew of two; a driver and an archer/spear carrier.

Once refined this design stayed in service for three hundred years and proved to be the decisive weapon system in the expansion of the Egyptian empire from northern Sudan to the southern part of Turkey, including present day Syria, Lebanon and Israel in between. The great military leader, Pharaoh Thutmose III used thousands of them in 17 campaigns in the Middle East.

This model is based on chariots found in the in the tomb of King Tutankhamen and described in detail in the PBS NOVA video “Building Pharaoh’s Chariot” on YouTube.

 #Egyptian_Chariot # Tutankhamen # Thutmose_ III #Blender #Cycles

 

 Penny-farthing

The Penny-farthing bicycle, sometimes called the high wheel or the ordinary, was first designed by the Frenchman, Eugène Meyer, in 1869. In England James Starley and others began producing them in volume and they remained popular through the 1870s and ‘80s until largely replaced by the safety bicycle.

These bikes were notoriously dangerous to ride, especially over bumpy surfaces where they had a tendency to throw the rider over the front wheel. There’s a good YouTube video describing how to mount and ride the Penny-farthing here.

This model is an amalgam of several different high wheels. The front wheel has a diameter of 1.33 meters (52.4 “). I imagined finding one after 140 years in an old barn, dirty, moldy and with some rust. After a bit of surface cleaning, it was placed on display in a museum and photographed.

 #Penny-farthing #high_wheel #ordinary #bicycle #Blender #Cycles

 

Curtiss Model D III

Glen Curtiss,1878-1930, was an inventor and motorcycle enthusiast who held the speed record of over 100 mph.

When he became interest in airplanes his experience was useful. The result was the Curtiss Model D, introduced in 1911. The model D was a pusher biplane with the single propeller and Curtiss-built engine mounted behind the pilot. Its wood frame had tricycle wheels. After losing a patent fight with the Write brothers over roll control by wing warping, Curtiss designed ailerons as winglets between the main wings.  Early versions of the plane used front mounted elevators to control pitch. At the rear the Model D had a rudder and horizontal stabilizer supported by a bamboo framework. After a landing accident in race where the elevators were damaged, they were moved to the horizontal stabilizer at the tail; a new configuration commonly known as the Curtiss Headless Pusher.

The pilot used three flight controls and a foot brake that activated a claw to dig into the e sod of a landing strip to slow the plane. Yaw (turning right and left) was controlled by the rudder connected to the pilot’s wheel. Pitch (nose up or down) was controlled by the elevators connected to the vertical column. Roll (turning horizontally around the nose-tail axes) was managed, as on a motorcycle, by the pilot leaning right or left against a shoulder rail connected to the ailerons.

A note on modelling: There are many different images on the internet of various reproduction and restorations of the Curtiss Headless Pusher. With as little ”artistic license” as possible, I based the model on the Curtiss D III powered by a Curtiss Model K four cylinder, water cooled engine.

 #Curtiss #Model_D #airplane #biplane #Blender #Cycles

The First Modern Bicycle

In a phone conversation with my granddaughter, Anya, in Brussels a few days ago, I mentioned that I didn’t know what my next modelling project would be. She suggested that an old bicycle might be interesting. I didn’t know much about bikes, so the research began. What I learned was, indeed, interesting.

In the 1870s and 1880s the popular bicycle was the penny-farthing with its huge front wheel. The rider sat above the big wheel and peddled directly on the axle. Unfortunately, while this arrangement provided speed due to the ratio of the rotation of the peddles to the circumference of the wheel, it proved to be quite dangerous. With the center of mass being so far above the ground, it tended to tip over causing, sometimes, serious, injuries to the rider.

 In 1885 Henry Starley of Coventry, England, designed the Safety Bicycle, which he called the Rover. With smaller, similar sized wheels the center of mass was much lower and the rider’s feet were close enough to the ground to easily prevent tipping. Speed was achieved through a chain drive to the rear wheel with a sprocket ratio of about two-to-one. With his new design, Starley essentially created the first modern bike and it was a huge commercial success.

#bicycle #history #Starley #Rover #safety #Blender #Cycles