interesting piece of old machinery, what is it?

I paid almost nothing for this at a thrift shop today, my guess is inertial starter? you crank the handle and it spins, the handle part unscrews from the rod, any ideas? i would think it spun a magneto or something, I love old mechanisms like this, and I couldn't pass it up, she also had a model a jack, but wanted way too much for it, any ideas on this? it says heineman motors quality on it. I thought this might be an intersting mystery for here.

 

first thought is a speed governor

 

I just googled heineman motors , they made old phonograph motors , could it be for something like that ? player piano maybe , here`s a link http://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/vintage-phonograph-motor-1915-heineman-flyer another , http://forum.talkingmachine.info/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=2186

 

I saw a handle like that on a 1947 Aeronca Chief and it was used to start the engine without prop starting it but I think that was called a McCaully starter?????

 

I was wondering the way its made if it was for a victrola myself. It sort of looks like it would be. I use to rebuild old radios but I never did get a chance to redo a victrola.

 

I was possibly thinking old aircraft inertial starter myself, you crank is so many times then it releases and spins briefly,like you were tripping a magneto, I know on the aircraft ones it would do that then you just had to briefly move the blades, it's way too heavy for a Victrola, i ,mean this thing is heavy and really built, it looks like it has an overrun governor ,guy thought it was a model a starter lol, someone else said a clock winder, but it doesn't act like a winding mechanism, very interesting piece. I know i'm going to find a shelf in my living room for it. it has a one way clutch, solid one way, turns the other way, the crank handle unscrews about halfway down.

 

there were several brands, I work for Maule aircraft and evev BD Maule even invented an inertial starter in those days, I think it may be one, looks a lot like this one, says model A but it's an aircraft part. maby that guy was half right.

 

here`s another one

 

thats it!! is it what i think it is?

 

ebay item # 180514174624

 

I think this one is broke, I can crank it, then it releases and you can hear it spin, but the big gear never rotates, the big gear is connected to the governor, which is connected to an output shaft,.

 

how about putting something we all recognize next to it so we can get an idea of it's size.
It looks quite a bit like the Girard motor in my old Victrola style record player

 

the post a couple of posts up is right, old phonograph motor, It's going on my shelf, very cool and very unusual item. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl...4624+&_sacat=See-All-Categories&_fvi=1&_rdc=1

I thought it was a car or an airplane starter. heineman talking machine motor,

 

if you open the second link in my first post , the guy is talking about that exact problem , it has a broken or missing cotter pin

 

I'm looking into that now, fascinating story behind the company and how it came to be, really good piece of vintage American machinery with German engineering. 1915 Heineman flyer photograph. No wonder it looks like an airplane inertial starter, that's probably where the idea of the crank to wind inertial starter came from lol.

 

i've seen some with a crank handle that unscrewed, you would pull the prop a couple of times with the mag off to get fuel in the cylinders, then wind this up and it would spin the mag to create a spark and fire one of the cylinders. same principle as not bumping the prop with the mags on, could possibly start up. idea probably came from old machinery like what i've found.

 

Yes, it looks like a crank starter (I should have added: but I really don't know...)

Just some trivia: That plane, a SAAB J22A (Saab is the airplane make that also is the mother of what became the car maker Saab...), is in the Swedish Airforce museums storage building in Ängelholm. In one of the very nearby buildings (it is a closed down military airport, I did military service there many years ago) the sports car compay Koeningsegg designs and builds their sports cars. About a year ago Koeningsegg was close to buy Saab (the car company) from GM, but it was instead sold to the Dutch sports car company Spyker. One of the former Koenigsegg employees is a world class Hot rod builder http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6BG83NwSFE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kGxfpuaAYo

You know, I just had to tie this together with Swedish Hot Rods!

 

It is grammaphone guts. has nothing to do with cars. Have a similar one somewhere in the basment. (And I am not guessing. That is what it is. )
Don

 

Let's see it!

 

BD Maule, quite a guy, I used to hunt with his brother Harry that lived in Ohio.

Michael

 

I know it's not a starter, we figured out it was a Heineman talking machine motor(record player) from 1915, I was noting how much the inertia starters were constructed like it, the early idea probably came from record player mechanical motors. It's still a very interesting piece of machinery, and seems to be quite rare. I'm glad I found it before it ended up in some trash pile.

 

My first thought too!

Doc.

 

Damn, too slow......

 

thats one of the first things i thought, i was thinking of the ones that would spin the magneto and hope one of the cylinders kicked over,where you pulled the prop a couple of times to get fuel in first, anyone remember the name of those,i keep thinking it was called an impulse starter not an inertia starter. Oh I checked with David Maule and BD's starter was based on a bungee cord that stored energy to turn over the engine, different concept

 

I cant re-call the real name, we just called them inertia starters. They look the same as that on a lot of pre-war Aussy aircraft such as the DH Rapide and almost everything C.A.C, built.

Doc.

 

I wonder if you hooked it to a magneto you could use it to start a hit or miss engine? instead of the rope on the flywheel

 

I cant believe you guys are still asking . A couple have told you what it is. What is the problem? We were not guessing. I took mine out of the gramaphone and put in a electric changer because that govenor assembly so visable in your picture had corroded and fell apart. Also one of the big springs in the round cases had slipped from its clip although I could have repaired that i guess. The grammaphone itself is sitting right behnd me about 5 feet away that i took it out of. Yes it is somewhere in the house and no i am not spending half the day looking for it so when i post a pic someone can say "I still think it is an inertia starter from a Tigermoth or some goofy thing." It Is a grammaphone motor. Period. Probably from a Brunswick grammaphone or similar make.
Don

 

I don't think that you really mean it..........................

 

Had one on my Chief, nothing like that, it was just a handle inside conected to a cable that wnet to a ratchet on the prop hub. You would kinda pull it till you reached the bottom of the compression stroke and yank it hard to start. Proping it was just easier that is why most Aeroncas don't have them anymore. McDowell Hand Starter.

 

yea there were several varities of starters before the electric starts became popular, i was just noting how much this mechanical motor looks like an inertial starter and how the design was probably copied into other similar machines. it's basically a giant music box mechanism is what it is, the tab on the governor is how you turn it on and off, it would have had a lever. you would have cranked the spring then the speed would have been controlled by the govenor.