On Tue, 21 Dec 2004 14:54:17 -0800, Tom wrote:
Jon Elson wrote:
I think the spelling is Kaufmann, and it was also available as an
emergency starting
technique on the F-4. There were big warnings all over the place where
the cartridge
went to never store the cartridges in the aircraft. I think this
version of the thing looked
more like a 70 mm shell than a shotgun shell.

Jon

The man responsible was Roscoe Alexander Coffman and his first patent
for the starter was #1776228 granted in 1930. Breeze Corp made starters
under his patents. Bendix-Pioneer were also licensees.

Yep, that's the fellow. He's distant kin. His line and mine both come down
from John Coffman. John Coffman was the first blacksmith in Kentucky.
John's grandson Jacob was Roscoe's father.

Roscoe not only invented the Coffman starter, he also invented the first
practical variable prop pitch mechanism. Roscoe's son Morris at one time
owned a chunk of what is now the Vegas strip. He sold it to Howard
Hughes in 1968. I once met Morris at a Coffman family reunion in Henderson
Kentucky.

(We used to have huge family reunions held at Audubon State Park each
August. Coffmans scattered all over the country would come back to attend.
Sadly, that ended a few years after my father died in 1962.)

Gary