Flotsam & Jetsam – 55: Air, Rubber and Clockwork

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John Parker delves into the archives


Compressed air engines, from a 1928 catalogue.

Alternative energy in the form of air, rubber and clockwork motors for model boats are today only a curiosity, but in the 1930’s when other options were more limited or expensive, they were looked upon as a viable alternative, even for serious models. They are of course examples of ‘stored power’ motors as the manual energy expended in charging or winding them up is released slowly during their power run. Another example of a stored power motor is the inertia, or flywheel, motor but this was mainly limited to powering toy vehicles.

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