Ferguson Propellor
I was bored at work today and watch a machine inspect beer bottles. The heart of this inspection device is a gearbox that is either made or originally made by Ferguson. The gearbox has one input shaft and four output shafts. Three shafts run continuously. The fourth shafts moves to 8 positions and stops. In five of the eight positions the bottle goes through some inspections. In the six and seven positions the bottle enters and exits and the eight position is blank. Yes, it's a gearbox where the output shaft starts and stops while the input shaft runs continuously.
Some mechanics say the heritage of this gearbox comes from the Ferguson Propeller and such a gearbox was used to fire a machine gun through the blades of an airplane propeller. This makes me wonder how such a gearbox was used between a propeller and a machine gun. would is momentarily start and stop the propeller to allow the machine gun to fire. Sure it sound absurd to start and stop a propellor, but consider the speeds a propellor is spinning and the speed of a bullet.
To put is another way, would a gearbox time the propellor or time the machine gun. My guess is the gearbox is timing the machine gun off the RPM of the propellor. Based off the speed of the propellor, the gearboxes starts and stops when the gun can fire through the blades.
I still wonder how such a system really works. Anyone know?
Some mechanics say the heritage of this gearbox comes from the Ferguson Propeller and such a gearbox was used to fire a machine gun through the blades of an airplane propeller. This makes me wonder how such a gearbox was used between a propeller and a machine gun. would is momentarily start and stop the propeller to allow the machine gun to fire. Sure it sound absurd to start and stop a propellor, but consider the speeds a propellor is spinning and the speed of a bullet.
To put is another way, would a gearbox time the propellor or time the machine gun. My guess is the gearbox is timing the machine gun off the RPM of the propellor. Based off the speed of the propellor, the gearboxes starts and stops when the gun can fire through the blades.
I still wonder how such a system really works. Anyone know?
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i watched exactly that on the history channel, i cant remember exactly but i think it was sort of camshaft that blocked the gun from firing when the blade was in the way. 0 -
They used to use them alot in vcr's it is kind-of a gear-cam thing that slides and grabs, etc... 0 -
it's gotta be the gun being timed off of the propeller, because it has to be too hard to mess with the motion of the propeller. way easier to select when to fire the gun. 0 -
The original system was an armored wrap around the prop blade- with about one in 500 bullets ricocheting off....well, SOMEWHERE! A German designer (I think Fokker, but you can Google it) came up with an interrupter that prevented the gun from firing when the prop was in the path of the bullet. Try stopping a prop running at full speed- the torque would turn a light aircraft over. 0 -
quote:Originally posted by 11b6r
The original system was an armored wrap around the prop blade- with about one in 500 bullets ricocheting off....well, SOMEWHERE! A German designer (I think Fokker, but you can Google it) came up with an interrupter that prevented the gun from firing when the prop was in the path of the bullet. Try stopping a prop running at full speed- the torque would turn a light aircraft over.
He said "Fokker".0
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