Bob Chilcoat wrote:

Hey Tom,

Do you have a copy of Knight's Dictionary? I have one too. Three volumes.
A great set of books. I bought mine from an antique store in Wales when I
was in graduate school in the 70's. Great fun to look through. Whoever had
my copy originally was involved in the shipping industry. He made a lot of
pencil notes in the margins for listings related to steamship design.

This is my favorite plate:
http://www.geocities.com/viewptmd/GatlingGun.tif/ listed under "Battery
Gun".

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)

"Tom" wrote in message
...
wrote:

An "Oldham Coupler" is way to transfer torque between two parallel but
not-quite-collinear shafts. It has three disks, one coupled to the
input, one coupled to the output, and a middle disk that is joined to
the first two by tongue and groove. The tongue/groove on one side is
perpendicular to the tongue/groove on the other. Often springs are
used to reduce backlash of the mechanism. The coupler is much more
compact than, say, two universal joints. But: who was Mr. Oldham?
Google searches turn up the device's inclusion in R-390A radios and
astronomical instruments, but nothing about its inventor. Tim. (who
otherwise wonders who takes care of the caretaker's daughter while the
caretaker's busy taking care.)

Knight's "American Mechanical Dictionary" of 1872 says that it was
invented by Oldham...So it goes back a ways.

Tom

That's a real classic!
Couldn't get your link to work, so I put a scan he
http://shopswarf.orcon.net.nz/gatling.jpg

Tom