Patent Pending Blog - Patents and the History of Technology

Belt Drive Bike from 1890

2008-11-24T10:07:00-07:00

Here is an interesting belt drive bike from 1890.

Arizona Whip Lighted Flagpole

2008-11-02T20:49:06-07:00

I have been looking for a way to light up the flagpole on my recumbent trike, and found a product that looked like it would work, the Arizona Whip. Jerry at arizonzawhips.com was very nice to work with, and I got it hooked up this past weekend. The whip is 5" tall, and is of clear lexan. Inside the clear tube are 24 LED lights, 12 facing forward and 12 facing backward. Each side has a red group, and a yellow group, and on one side the red and yellow groups of LEDs flash on alternately. Jerry has other color configurations, including a red, white and blue one. The whip screws into a clamp that grips the 1.25 inch tube of the rear wheel fork. The clamp is for 1.5 in. tubes, but with some rubber and duct tape shimming, it grips the 1.25 inch tubing nicely with one Allen bolt for tightening. It extends up through the frame and clears the panniers, rack, seat, and headrest nicely. These pictures show the whip in daylight, and the clamp attached to the frame.

I ran a switch forward to the left hand grip, so I can turn it on and off from the seat. It runs off a 9 v battery. I have not ridden it to work yet, so I don't know how long the 9 v battery will last.

The picture below is how it looks at night, from the rear. The bike is facing not quite straight, and the bag on the rack is blocking one of the LED lights. The headlight is shining across the street at an angle, and provides lots of illumination.

This sucker is not cheap at $150, but if I can get noticed by a car either ahead of or behind me, it will be worth it.

Super Bright Flashlight for Bike Light

2008-10-23T10:01:11-06:00

I've been experimenting with a lighting setup that is as bright as a Dinotte, but way cheaper. It is based on a replacement LED bulb that an inventor I work with has just come out with. With this insert, a 60 lumen Surefire flashlight becomes a 240 lumen monster. The batteries also last longer, due to a heat sink that improves efficiency.

This light is brighter than a car light, because I've driven at night in a car, shined the flashlight ahead onto the road, and you can see the spot in the pavement illuminated by the car headlights. It is unbelievably bright. I was camping next to a huge rock outcropping and I lit up the whole rock with this little tiny flashlight. When I drive down the street on my bike in the morning, all the reflective signs bounce light back at me. I took it into an REI store and compared it side by side to a Dinotte, and they were about equal.

Here is the setup on my bike, the Catrike recumbent shown in posts below:

The parts are shown in the picture below, with where to get them listed below the picture. The picture below shows two Surefire flashlight setups. One has a converter, available on ebay for about $8, which allows it to take longer batteries which last longer. The regular batteries last about 1.5 hours, the larger ones about 2-2.5 hours.

The parts of this system are as follows:

Flashlight Setup 1 : Surefire 6P flashlight (about $60) (or SureFire 6Z, C2, M2 and G2 or Cabela's 6 v flashlight ($32); from Surefire, Amazon, ebay or Cabela's.

Malkoff M60 insert: about $50: (replaces the fragile bulb that comes with the flashlight), from Tactical Design Labs (http://www.tdlabs.com/ if link doesn't work, under the "New" menu tab.) They are selling the Malkoff device as an upgrade for police, who use Surefire flashlights extensively. They say "It will easily illuminate objects at 350+ feet and will blind opponents within a 100 foot radius." I believe a Malkoff flashlight will easily to that.

2 CR123 Batteries, AW Brand protected rechargables from Lighthound.com, $7 each

Flashlight Setup 2: same flashlight and Malkoff insert as above, with

Surefire converter, ebay for $8, allows use of the longer 17500 batteries.

2 Batteries, AW Brand-17500-Protected-Rechargeable-Lithium-Battery from Lighthound.com, $11 each.

Fenix 360 Bike Mount, light holder, $15, this is high quality in fit and finish, but rattles. A small rubber band between the top half and bottom half stops the rattle. A no-name brand is also pretty decent, on ebay for $4 shipping, titled: New Bike/Bicycle LED Flash Light Mount Clamp Holder. These are a little loose on the Surefire, so I put a section of inner tube around the flashlight body, for a tighter fit.

Charger: Ultrafire WF-139 Charger for 3.7 volt Lithium Battery Charger, from Lighthound.com, $18.00 (charges several sizes of batteries)

I hope someone tries this setup and tells me how it works for you.

Restored Motobecane

2008-09-28T21:01:26-06:00

I am declaring the 1973 Motobecane restoration done! I have not been riding it lately because the Catrike Speed is so much fun. I got a Motobecane headbadge, decals, a Cinelli stem, and Campy seatpost. The saddle is the original Brooks Professional, and was always pretty comfortable. The aero brake hoods are an upgrade from the original centerpulls.

Catrike Speed

2008-09-21T22:39:45-06:00

I have been enjoying my newest ride, a Catrike recumbent trike, the Speed model, since the spring of '08. I have been riding it to work about everyday, and building up my trike muscles. Pedaling a recumbent trike uses different muscles from riding a DF (diamond frame), and it takes several months to build them up. My ride from home starts with a fun little hill that gets the heart racing. I have hit 38 on this hill, then on flat sections of my route I have hit 26 mph for short bursts. This video was shot after I had the trike for a week, and shows the fun part of my ride to work.

I have found that riding a trike is a lot of fun, but no way is it as fast as a road bike. However, it is fun and comfortable. There is back support, no need for padded crotch pants, nor padded gloves. You also can't fall over, and can crank up a steep hill as slow as you want.

To the stock trike I have added a chain guard, locking handgrips for the brakes, a rack, an air horn, and a speedometer. The speedometer mount is a triangle of foam that is strapped to the telescoping boom.

I am using a powerful tactical flashlight for a headlight, and it puts out 240 lumens. Its a Surefire flashlight with a replacement lamp that really boosts the light output from the stock output of 80 lumens. A special rechargeable battery lasts for 8 hours on a charge. I have no idea who the old guy on my trike is in the picture below.

The First Internal Frame Backpack - Kelty's Tour Pack by John Robinson

2008-06-29T17:21:23-06:00

In the early 1970s the outdoor equipment industry was changing rapidly. Kelty backpacks were the premier backpack, with others made by Jansport and Alpenlite being quality brands. REI made a Cruiser which was a cheap imitation of the Kelty. The packs of that era were not called external frame backpacks, because there was no internal frame backpack to require the distinction.

John Robinson and Jim Lawrence were working for Kelty designing new products, and the project headed by John Robinson was the Tour Pack, the world's first internal frame backpack, first sold in 1973.

The Tour was blue, and appeared small and simple compared to today's internal frame packs, but you can definitely see it is the genesis of all those that followed. Alp Sport, Gerry and North Face had pack swith some sort of bendable aluminum stay, but they were primarily ruck-sacks with no viable hip-waist suspension system. Shortly after the Tour Pack came out Choiunard made an Ultima Thule, and Gregory and or Rivendell soon followed with similar packs.

Kelty sent models of the Tour Pack to myself and Ned Gillett, who both gave it high marks. John Robinson and his climbing buddy Steve McCarthy did a nine day winter transit from Mammoth Mountain to Yosemite Valley on skis using the Tour Pack. That was with winter bags, tent and lots of food, on x-country skis over interesting terrain. The packs worked perfectly. The side pockets of the Tour served as ski holders, and you could slip your skis behind the pockets. The bottom compartment was a zippered sleeping bag compartment. The pack had leather patches for securing skis, crampons, and ice axe. The top flap and rear panel had zippered pockets.

The First Tadpole Tricycle

2008-04-17T21:53:06-06:00

The first tricycle that I have found with the two wheels in front and the larger wheel in back (the tadpole configuration) was patented in England before 1876, and sold as by the Rudge company. The seat was like a carriage seat, with coil springs to absorb shocks. The large rear wheel was the drive wheel, and the front wheels were for steering. This model is propelled by levers and cranks, but this mode was later replaced by the chain and crank. Between 1880 and 1890, this form of bike was one of the most popular cycles in England, being even more popular than two wheelers.

Ancient Ceramic Archimedes Screw Found

2008-03-30T21:09:21-06:00

Below is a picture of a strange technology, that maybe some smart person can identify. This is what appears to be a clay or ceramic Archimedes Screw. This is one of several pieces of the devices, which were bound together. They were found on a bluff overlooking the Savannah river, about 10 miles upstream. There was a settlement of people from Austria in the area who immigrated to the region in starting in about 1730. They made a settlement about 100 yards from the river.

By the shape of it I am guessing it is an Archimedes screw, presumably made to lift water. How would something this heavy be supported for turning? I wonder if anyone has heard of ceramic screws of this type being made in Austria or anywhere else?

1907 Screw Drive Vehicle

2008-03-12T18:42:34-06:00

Thanks to Terry Harper, who informs that "one of the earliest such vehicles was patented by Ira Peavey of Maine in 1907. At least two were built and tested succesfully. One was stream poweredm the other used a gasoline engine.

Peavey's machine was designed to haul trains of sleds loaded with logs. However, he had to compete with Alvin Lombards steam Log hauler which had appeared earlier in 1902. While Peavey's machine worked great on hard packed snow it was near useless in soft powder. In addition its relatively rigid construction meant that it tended to rear and plunge over the hills and humocks associated with a rough winter haul road and was quite hard on the drawbars of the sleds. In this respect the Lombard proved to be a much better machine and dominated the market here in the north east."

Babylon

2007-11-22T12:43:01-07:00

The Greek historian Herodotus visited the city of Babylon in 460 BC, after it had been conquered by the Persian Cyrus, and stripped or treasures, but when its walls and temples were still standing, and he described the largest city of the ancient world. The entire city was enclosed within a wall from 14 to 10.5 miles on each side (depending on which ancient historian is referenced). The river Euphrates passed through the city walls, and the brick lined channel was lined by waterfront, wharves, and docks along its length inside the city. Each of the four walls were pierced by 25 fortified gates, each guarded by massive bronze gates, through which the 50 thoroughfares of the city passed, forming 625 regular city blocks, each of at least 100 acres. The famous Ishtar Gate was a gated entrance to an inner wall in the city.

The area inside the walls included gardens and farms, as well as buildings and a full size pyramid, all made of bricks and palm wood. The walls enclosed up to 196 square miles! The step pyramid was the temple of Belus. It was 600 feet on each side at the base, and rose to a height of 480 feet, which compares to the 481 feet of the Egyptian pyramid at Giza. Stairs around the pyramid allowed worshipers to travel to the top, to place offerings at the temple there. The view from the top of the city laid out below, with the river, parks, walls, the hanging gardens, and the surrounding agricultural areas would have been in incredible sight to visitors and residents of the great city.

The most impressive structure of the city might have been the outer walls. Herodotus stated the walls were 85 feet wide, and 335 feet tall, topped by 250 defensive towers. The top of the walls included a road wide enough that a four horse chariot could turn around on the road. The top of the walls were the site of the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which were watered by a "huge hydraulic machine, working after the manner of the screw of Archimedes", which drew water tot he gardens. The Hanging Gardens of Babylon were one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, which are described in the following links.

The Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The Temple of Artemis at Ephesis
The Colossus of Rhodes
The Pyramids of Egypt
The Statue of Zeus at Olympia
The Mausoleum of Halicarnassus
The Lighthouse at Alexandria

The Lybe Spring Motor Carriage

2007-11-17T16:39:32-07:00

In 1891 a Daniel I. Lybe filed a patent application on a vehicle powered by a wound up spring. The spring of the vechicle was given an initial winding, then would recoup winding on the downhill runs, and expend the spring energy on the level and uphill. Both arm and foot power assisted the winding, and 30 mph was claimed. The inventor believed his machine would "afford a mild and pleasing form of exercise, in addition to its speed advantages." The Lybe vehicle was entered in the first motor race in the U.S., held in 1895, but it is not known if it finished.

Much Ado About 'Almost' Nothing

2007-10-14T14:42:07-06:00

Hans Camenzind has written a great little book about the history of man's understanding and use of the electron, titled "Much Ado About 'Almost' Nothing". The book is about this tiny little atomic particle, with a weight of almost nothing, and a speed near the speed of light, which has become the workhorse of our culture, in tools large and small. The book traces the earliest observation of the actions of electrons, from pre-history to modern applications in electricity and electronics.

The existence of electrons was theorized by the ancient Greeks, such as Democritus in 400 BC. They were actually used for productive work by about 200 BC, with batteries used for electroplating jewelry in Iraq. Electron's take their name from the Greek word for amber, the dried and hardened sap of trees. People found that when amber was rubbed with fur, it would attract certain small objects, such as threads, feathers, and straw. This observation was the first notice taken of the action of electrons. The Greek scientist Thales observed the properties of amber and of lodestone, and formulated a theory for their actions. Thales was the perhaps the first known scientist, and worked on many different areas of science in about 600 BC.

"Much Ado About 'Almost' Nothing" has many stories about man's very slow understanding of electrons, and focuses on the stories of the individual inventors making each tiny step of progress. At $14.95, its a great read for anyone, including scientists and non-scientists, and believe it or not, will be a book you will have a hard time putting down. available from the publisher, Booklocker.com.

The Douglas B-23 Dragon Bomber

2007-10-08T20:56:43-06:00

In the late 1930s the Douglas Aircraft Company found a superior design for a sturdy long range aircraft in the civilian DC-2 and DC-3. These were the finest passenger planes yet created, and also served as the basic form of military transport as the C-46 and C-47.

The Army also wanted a better bomber than the then current bomber, and requested a bomber with twice the range and load as the current Army bomber, which was based on the DC-2 design. Douglas responded with a redesigned airplane with a tail gun, the first for the U.S., and more power. In addition, the stronger wings of the DC-3 were added. The B-23s were also fitted with the new top secret Nordon bomb sight, said to be able to place a bomb in a pickle barrel from 25,000 feet. That particular claim proved to be hogwash.

On January 29, 1943, pilot Robert Orr and a crew of 8 were returning from bombing practice in Nevada to their base in Washington. Low on fuel and with the wings icing up in a winter storm, Lt. Orr crashed landed his B-23 on Loon Lake in the mountains near McCall, Idaho. The lake was frozen and the plane skidded across the frozen lake and into the trees close to the lake. The trees sheared off the wings of the plane, and the fuselage came to rest in waist deep snow, with more snow falling and one crew member injured in the landing.

Loon Lake, (after the 2007 fire) looking across toward the bomber site

After 4 days, three of the crew decided to hike out, though they had no idea of where they were. After six days of hiking through waist deep snow, they found a cabin with a forest service map on the wall, which told them where they were and the route to the nearest town, McCall. At day 13 they found a CCC building, where they left an injured airman and continued toward McCall. On day 15 they had gone another 5 miles and found a Forest Service building with a phone, and called town for help .

Meanwhile, on day 16 a local pilot spotted the wreckage of the B-23, and the next day landed at the lake and made two trips to haul the remaining 5 airmen out. The town of McCall closed schools and stores, and greeted the rescued airmen, all of whom survived.

In the summer of 2007, the whole area around Loon Lake for many miles was devastated with a huge forest fire. It was with great wonder that we approached the wreckage of the B-23 near Loon lake to see if it had survived the fire. We found that it had survived, and our crew of 3 boy scouts from Troop 100 explored the wreck.

The perfect way to end a hike to Loon Lake and the bomber, is to visit Burgdorf Hot Springs!! Oh yeah, Baby!

Jim's first year in Scouts, summer of 2007

2007-09-16T10:56:13-06:00

Our Scout activities in 2007 basically amounted to an experiment in whether young scouts of age 11 could carry off a schedule of adventurous activities, such as snow camping and backpacking. These pictures shows the backpacks and hikes that Jim and I were on. The scout troop we joined also had some other trips, which are not shown, and included campouts to Craters of the Moon, Scout Camp at Lake Forks in Wyoming, and a Redfish lake boating camp.

Our first activity of the year was actually with the Cub Scouts, led by Charlie Honsinger. This was our last activity before we joined Troop 100 of Boise, and we stayed at yurts near McCall, in February. Jim and I built a snow shelter called a Quinzee, and slept comfortably in it as the temperature reached about 15 below during the night.

In the Spring we went on two day hikes, which were designed to be conditioners for backpacking trips to come.

Our first backpack of the year was to a hot springs near Crouch, and was attended by mostly the younger boys of the troop, with one older youth who was senior patrol leader for the trip. The hike was about 2 miles, and had very little elevation gain.

Our next backpack was to a desert camp overlooking a waterfall in the Oywhee Mountains between Idaho and Nevada. The stream that feeds Camel Falls was almost dry, but the lake below the falls was a wonderful small lake. Slot canyons nearby provided terrain unusual for Idaho, and good Spring desert hiking.

For our next backpack we hiked to Twenty Mile Basin, a hike of 6 miles, 2100 feet elevation gain, above Upper Payette Lake. My friend Josh went with us, and gave the boys some good map and compass instruction as well as some great Marine stories, as Josh is a Marine.

In one of those lakes Jim caught a very large trout, and I almost got there in time to get a picture of it. Judging by the size of its tail, that sucker was huge!

There was snow at the lake where was camped, in shady places. The elevation was about 8000'. I don't think I have seen more shooting stars than there were around the lakes and wet places at these lakes.

In July Jim went to Lake Fork Scout camp in Wyoming, and broke his arm on the last day of camp. We rested the arm in a soft cast for a while, and our next backpack was to Sawtooth Lake in the Sawtooth Range of Idaho.

I didn't see much of Jim on the hike in, because he took off and left me! He and the fast hikers zoomed on ahead, and as it turned out ran into two people we know on the trail. The adult leader with Jim was very impressed and thought Jim must know everyone on the mountains trails.

Our August backpack was a 4 day hike, of 18 miles in the Sawtooths. We hiked to Farley lake, then Toxaway Lake, then Alice, then out to Petit lake, our starting point. On this hike were three boys, none older than 12, with Jim the youngest at 11. The two other boys had attended some of the earlier hikes, so they were equipped and experienced.

Our camp at Farley Lake, the first night of the trip.

Lars was the patrol leader for this campsite, so he started the stove, and cooked the food, and supervised the dishes and camp clean up.

My friend Bryan waiting for the boys and checking his watch, which was a pretty common scene.

The boys on top of Snowyside Pass, overlooking Twin Lakes.

Twin lakes, looking down from Snowyside Pass.

Barb and Bryan study the map.

The fourth and last day on the trail, and everyone is still having a good time!

This was our last view of Alice as we headed down the trail to end the trip.

By the summer's end lots of the boys who had been on the backbacking trips had done a lot of requirement for advancements, and Jim was almost done with all his first class requirements.

The Star Bicycle

2007-07-29T20:03:09-06:00

In the era when alternatives were being tried to the "ordinary" bicycle, many new configurations were tried. One was that made by the Star Company, of H. B. Smith. In this design, the small wheel was in front, with the intent of reducing the number of headers that riders suffered. The Star Bicycle was used by Lucius D. Copeland as a frame for his steam engine.

H. B. Smith Steam Tricycle

2007-07-23T01:02:03-06:00

New Jersey manufacturer Hezekiah Bradley Smith patented a steam powered tricycle in 1889. He also built the American Star Bicycle, which sold for $150 in a time when an average income for a man was $500. Smith did very well with his manufacturing business, and was elected to Congress in 1879. He purchased the town of Shreveville New Jersey and invested vast sums of money to make it an industrial center. He renamed the town Smithville, and the town still hosts the company Smith founded, the Smith Machine Co.

Paul Arany's Recumbent Trikes

2007-05-22T22:13:10-06:00

I don't know much about Paul Arany's trikes, except they look like a lot of fun!

The Recumbent Couch-Cycle

2007-04-11T09:07:51-06:00

Nate Welbourn showed me his recumbent couch, and I had to know how that beast came to be built.

"The whole notion of an amphibious tall couch trike is the beer-induced brain child of a Rat Patrol member who goes by the name of Nancy Porker; I am simply the conduit between a fantasticly absurd idea which should never have been done, and something that now exists and is actually practicle to use in the real world.

Why? That's a fair question, but one that I haven't seriously considered until now; I guess we were looking for a ride with style so we figured a couch bike is probably going to satisfy that brief, and it had to be a tallbike so that the eye level of the pilots would be well above that of all but the tallest pedestrians (good for concerts and the like)... also the couch had to be easily removeable for parties (it's held on to the frame by 8 bolts, and the brake and gear levers simply pull off)...

Yes, we happened to have quite a bit of refuse steel lying about our workshop too... Plans are afoot for a parasol cover, fold-out bed, etc, etc. This is a chick magnet by anyone's standards! In any case, it probably hadn't been done before, and that seemed like a sound reason in itself. It made sense at the time!

What else? Well, you'll notice a bit of a cocktail bar/table at the couch; this will soon be completed with drink holders in which to put one's beer, thus affording our no-doubt-soon-to-be-patented Steer by Beer Technology (you need a beer in order to steer!). Seing as we were already building a tall trike with a serious inherent danger of off-camber cornering disastery, I thought it would also be great to have a reliable 360degree-turning system, allowing it to (theoretically) spin on it's own footprint in traffic. And guess what; it turns on it's own footprint!!! It was all "educated guesswork" (I'm a graphic designer working at a university, so that seemed to make excellent sense!), but I tried to design the weight distribution such that most was over the back wheels so that the bike would turn well and minimise the tendancy to roll over and snap people's backbones...

After working out some basic dimensions, it just seemed to make some kind of 'lateral sense' to create such a thing which could be ridden into and through the water without stopping (we had consumed a lot of beer at this point)... that makes sense, doesn't it?

After a lot of talk about using empty coke bottles, discarded newspapers and old candy packets for displacement, I found myself insiting on retaining 'some kind of hydro dynamics'. We ended up sourcing some old plastic barrels, chopped the tops off and smashed them together with a film of epoxy. All of a sudden the hulls became very strong — even stronger than I had invisaged. Then, we used a 2-part expanding polyurethane foam to fill each barrel, ensuring enough displacement (and that at the very least, the hulls couldn't sink), based on some rather blurry mental calculations. A rudder? The front wheel would do.

The floatation hulls and associated frame attach or detach easily by one person and are held in place by 4 high-tensile bolts. The aqua propulsion system also easily detaches when required. I think the floatation system weighs about 80kg (you'll be used to do your own metric conversions of course, living in probably the only country in the world still using emperial measurements! Anyhoo...), while the rest of the bike is probably around 70kg. Surprisingly (and this REALLY surprised me!), she is pretty stable on land and absolutely stable in the water. We have tried to capsize her, but to no avail!!

I think I must be quite good at guess work and bring with me a wealth of good luck, because the test float was so successful that no further structural changes were required. This was good news, after about 250 humorous hours of late-night labour and much domestic anxt.

OK, it probably has a top speed in the water of about 1 knot, but it's a STYLISH ride! The cops aren't sure how to take this one, it's a bike but it's much bigger than a car... or is it a boat? We are quietly confident that she is legal in this country.

So, what's the next project? Sleep :)

Long Wheelbase Recumbent Bike

2007-04-01T21:53:35-06:00

One type of recumbent bike is called a long wheelbase recumbent, and this is an example which was patented in 1981. There are several commercial models using this general configuration, such as excellent bikes by RANS.

This model also has under seat steering, with a linkage to the front wheel, which is still a popular mode of steering.

Pinewood Derby Speed Tips

2007-03-18T17:01:00-06:00

An annual event in many Cub Scout Troops is the pinewood derby. In the derby, a father son team builds a very simple car and races it against the other cars on an inclined track, with an electronic timer.

Cars must be made from the BSA kit, using the enclosed axles (nails) and wheels. My goal in the race was to help my son have a fast enough car that it would not be eliminated on the first heat. It would also be a project in which he could learn that perfecting some simple parts would require some thinking, and result in a better operating machine.

The car is so simple that you would not think that one car could be made to go much faster than another car. Surprisingly, a person can invest a lot of time and creativity into making this simple car go faster. All the tips to make the car go fast are on the net, but here is my experience in making a fairly fast pinewood derby car.

Weight: it is essential to have the car weigh the most that is allowable. The scale (in our Pack) was a digital scale that weighs to the nearest tenth of a gram. The best way to get the car as heavy as legally possible is to remove weight to get it under the 5.0 g limit. If a car starts out weighing 5.1 and you remove weight, the scale will show it at 5.0 grams when maybe it is really 5.04. You would rather be 5.04 grams than 4.95, but both weights will read 5.0 grams on the scale, and be legal weigh ins. I got the car close but slightly heavier than 5.1, and then to get to just barely 5.0, I removed one at a time the small lead fishing weights that I had pounded into holes the underside of the car body. When I got down to 5.0, that was the best weight I could have.

Wheelbase: You want to have the longest wheelbase allowable, which means not using the grooves in the base as the axle slot. You need to drill holes in the side of the car, being careful to end up wtih enough clearance to clear the guide strip. The longer wheel base results in fewer bumps of the wheels against the guide strip, and thus fewer bumps which reduce speed.

Axle Preparation: Smoothing the axles and alligning them is where all the work is. The "axles" are actually crude nails, with ridges under the head and on the nail shaft. Those have to be removed and those surfaces made as smooth as possible. The surface under the nail head is smoothed using first a small triangular file, then files of various grits down to 400 grit. I have small metal files with diamond grit that I use to sharpen ski edges, and these are perfect for the underside of the nail head. The files are in different grits down to 400.

To smooth the nail head and shaft I put the axle in a drill or dremel, and put the dremel or drill in a vise. With the axle spinning, I use the triangular file for a rough pass, then hold a narrow strip of sandpaper on the shaft of the nail, and go through grits of 80, 120, 220, and 400. One sheet of paper of each grit is plenty for the four axles. As a last step, I put diamond paste on the backside of a strip of the sandpaper, and run it back and forth on the spinning axle. I have used the diamond paste before in metallography work, and it was the polish I knew, but there are probably others that work well.

The Wheels: All the wheels have to be regulation BSA wheels, but there are wheels, and then there are wheels. Four wheels come with the kit, but sets of four wheels are also available from BSA. I would buy 20 extra wheels, and my son and I would give then spin tests. He would run the stopwatch, and I would spin each wheel on a polished axle, with my finger. We would time the coasting time of each wheel, and found that some would spin for 1 minute and 30 seconds or more, and some would stop at 40 seconds or less. You use the four fastest wheels, of course. After getting the best spinners, you smooth the wheel surfaces to take off any mold ridges and make them perfectly round.

Alignment: The wheels are held on the car body by the nails, which are also the axles. Depending on the allignment of the wheels, the car can angle left, angle right, go straight, have the wheels press against the car body, or press against the nail heads, or run on the middle of the axle. You want the wheels to run in the middle of the axle, and for the car to run straight. What I did to help this was to tilt a long dining table slightly, by putting books under one end of the table. I ran a strip of masking tape down the table, then ran the car down the strip. By running the car down the tape, and observing one wheel at a time, you can bend the axle slightly up or down, forward or backward, to attempt to get a neutral (and perfect) axle orientation. If all four axles are thus alligned, the car will run straight. If it runs straight, it will have fewer bumps against the guide strip. If you reef too hard on the axle, you can break the axle out of the wood, so keep some super glue handy to glue the wood chip back in place.

Lubrication: I got a tube of graphite powder for lubrication. The trick is to get enough of the graphite onto the axle, then to spin it alot, to get it worked into the porosities of the metal and plastic. I put the axles in a baggie of graphite and jostled it for days. Then I assembled and alligned the axles before the race. Before the race I would add graphite, spin the wheels, add more graphite, spin more, etc. Immediately before the weigh in, I gave it a last shot of graphite. If you add too much at this point, the first few heats will be slower, but the last heats will be fast. If you dont' add enough, the first heats will be fast, but the last ones will be slower. The trick it so add just the right amount, and that is difficult.

Our first race resulted in our car taking about 5th place. Our car the next year did better, and I think I got lucky with the last minute lubrication. We won every heat and placed first in our pack. Jim was thrilled, and I felt like I was the envy of the Dad's. We decided to compete the car in the next level of race, and took it to the district race. Every car in this race had placed first in their pack, and I told Jim not to be surprised if we finished dead last against these cars. At the weigh in were some beautiful cars, and kids were evaluating which were the cars to beat. They didn't see our car as a contender, because it didn't look very good. As the race started, we won the first heat by inches, and ours and several other cars won heat after heat. Finally the fastest cars were run against the other fastest cars. Heat after heat, our car won, sometimes by a fraction of an inch. It came down to the last heat, and we edged out the other finalist, by millemeters!! Some kids were crying at this point, because they were beaten by a younger scout, and because they thought their car would win, and our car looked so plain.

Photo: Bob and Jim with the big district trophy. Jim with road rash from a recent bike crash.

I hope you have the chance to do this project with your son and have fun with it!