>John, John, John,
>little did the Brits realize when the Colonies were revolting but the
internal
>combustion, gasoline fired, reciprocating engine had already been invented.
>It was invented in the soon to be formed township of Penfield, Neu Yawk by
a
>chap with the moniker of Leon.
Ah! A truly remarkable man and I'm sure that all of us, without exception,
are in his infernal (sorry, ETernal) debt.
>While he did his darnedest to keep the invention secret he had found a need
for
>a device to count the times his engine had revolved before it seized. (you
see
>he was using an oil manufactured by Lucas).
Yes, I know it well - Lucas 20/50 with added synthetic, a truly remarkable
product with outstanding properties of lubricity.
>He then invented the revometer. Since the revometer had counted several
times
>before the engine siezed (see oil manufacturer above) he called it Revs Per
>Moment since he didn't have a good chronometer (they were being
manufactured
>by Smiths you know).
I must correct you on this, Jim. The Smith's chronometer was only a whisker
behind the Tompion long case clock in terms of accuracy. It's just that King
George III in a moment of regular madness banned the export of both to the
colonies. This is why modern colonists are now so anxious to acquire these
outstanding timepieces. They pre-date solar cells and are more commonly
known as sundials.
>Hence 'revs', 'spins', and r's per m.
I can take that on board. It's not the "r's per m" that trouble me but the
"rpms" which would appear to translate into the "rev's per moments."
>Hope this clears things up for those of you across the great water. We
here in
>the colonies have had this straight in our minds since, oh, it's probably
>1773 or so.
>Jim...... by the way Sir, my middle name is Briton. Does that qualify
me
>for some sort of award?
Well, as it happens, I am on very good terms with our Prime Minister and he
feels you ought to have a burnt out Lucas regulator, mounted on a plinth of
polished English oak. We did review and debate the possibility of an old
dynamo but the current international balance of payments is sadly in grave
deficit and HM Government can't afford the postage. It's the weight, you
see? Nonetheless, we scratted around at the bottom of the garden at Downing
Street and found a piece of tree that was waiting for something else to be
done with it. BTW, you may not be aware of this, but Joseph had so much
success with his oil in days of yore that he moved into the field (so to
speak) of electricity. Wasn't this another force of nature that a former
colonist by the name of Edison had something to do with?
Jonmac
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