Oh yay! Calcium carbide, producing acetylene gas! Used to use them on Scout Camps, stank the tent out 😡 To think that they were once the headlamps on motors! 😲
Oh yay! Calcium carbide, producing acetylene gas! Used to use them on Scout Camps, stank the tent out 😡 To think that they were once the headlamps on motors! 😲
Young at heart 😉 Slightly older in other places.😊 Cheers Doug
Yep, they also got pressed into service! I think Grandad started sponsoring my batteries when he realised why his bike lamps were always so dim 😉
Yep, they also got pressed into service! I think Grandad started sponsoring my batteries when he realised why his bike lamps were always so dim 😉
Young at heart 😉 Slightly older in other places.😊 Cheers Doug
Mine were all Ever-ready (which they weren't🤔) and I made a simple balsa battery box for them, also with brass strips for contacts. Hotspur's motors were also the rattly 6-12V Mabuchis. Seemed to me then that they made ALL e-motors! 😎
Mine were all Ever-ready (which they weren't🤔) and I made a simple balsa battery box for them, also with brass strips for contacts. Hotspur's motors were also the rattly 6-12V Mabuchis. Seemed to me then that they made ALL e-motors! 😎
Young at heart 😉 Slightly older in other places.😊 Cheers Doug
And these bike lamp batteries,(I remember halfords selling tins of carbide!).
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And these bike lamp batteries,(I remember halfords selling tins of carbide!).
I think they were smaller, we just used to just strip the motor wires and wrap them around the flat strip terminals.We would use any battery that didn't sink the boat!.
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I think they were smaller, we just used to just strip the motor wires and wrap them around the flat strip terminals.We would use any battery that didn't sink the boat!.
Wow! You had the 'posh' version of the Bell battery with screw terminals!
Mine only had brass strips and I was forever cleaning them with Brasso 🤔
Granny & Grandad used to help keep Hotspur running. She got most use when visiting them in Folkestone anyway. Near where I lived, RAF Cosford, I had nowhere to sail her! By the time I got around to glowplugs, Simprop 'Zaunkönig' and a little heli from Great Planes, the reliable 2V SLAs from Yeasu and similar had appeared.
Just found the bits of Zaunkönig in the cellar, looking very sorry for herself! 😲 Time to think about upgrading to a brushless!?
Advice from the experienced flyboys welcome!
Cheers Doug 😎
PS The 'manky hanky' sounds familiar, I had used mine to clean the terminals of the wet cells Dad had fitted in our Sea Scout 😲 And they were 'WET'!
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Wow! You had the 'posh' version of the Bell battery with screw terminals!
Mine only had brass strips and I was forever cleaning them with Brasso 🤔
Granny & Grandad used to help keep Hotspur running. She got most use when visiting them in Folkestone anyway. Near where I lived, RAF Cosford, I had nowhere to sail her! By the time I got around to glowplugs, Simprop 'Zaunkönig' and a little heli from Great Planes, the reliable 2V SLAs from Yeasu and similar had appeared.
Just found the bits of Zaunkönig in the cellar, looking very sorry for herself! 😲 Time to think about upgrading to a brushless!?
Advice from the experienced flyboys welcome!
Cheers Doug 😎
PS The 'manky hanky' sounds familiar, I had used mine to clean the terminals of the wet cells Dad had fitted in our Sea Scout 😲 And they were 'WET'!
Young at heart 😉 Slightly older in other places.😊 Cheers Doug
Batteries!, always a problem in the 50s on "paper round" money, used to cadge,"borrow" or steal batteries for our boats.Used to be able to buy a cheap kit and even a cheap Japanese motor (coupled to the prop shaft with bicycle valve tubing) but it would be unused for weeks until I could afford a battery, and then they did not last long.Used to borrow batts from my dads bike lamps,my grannies gas stove lighter and the door bell!.Also use to be able to remove cells from the "winner 120" batteries from my dads sky queen radio as the HV cells used to discharge first.This was the downfall of glowplug motors,we could start them at home but on getting to the pool the tall 1.5v battery would be flat.My dad showed me how to locate good cells on duff car batteries by putting a load on them and measuring the voltage across each cell,we then emptied the acid out into mums washing up bowl and sawed the good cells out,refilling them with acid filtered through a handkerchief!,this worked a treat for starting glow motors but my hankie and the pocket I kept it in suffered!I eventually sorted the power problem by using a clockwork motor removed from the family gramamphone to fit an autochanger.
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Batteries!, always a problem in the 50s on "paper round" money, used to cadge,"borrow" or steal batteries for our boats.Used to be able to buy a cheap kit and even a cheap Japanese motor (coupled to the prop shaft with bicycle valve tubing) but it would be unused for weeks until I could afford a battery, and then they did not last long.Used to borrow batts from my dads bike lamps,my grannies gas stove lighter and the door bell!.Also use to be able to remove cells from the "winner 120" batteries from my dads sky queen radio as the HV cells used to discharge first.This was the downfall of glowplug motors,we could start them at home but on getting to the pool the tall 1.5v battery would be flat.My dad showed me how to locate good cells on duff car batteries by putting a load on them and measuring the voltage across each cell,we then emptied the acid out into mums washing up bowl and sawed the good cells out,refilling them with acid filtered through a handkerchief!,this worked a treat for starting glow motors but my hankie and the pocket I kept it in suffered!I eventually sorted the power problem by using a clockwork motor removed from the family gramamphone to fit an autochanger.
Hi, Sounds good, but where are the pics??
Oh how I remember the Lantern batteries big square lumps with two conical (or comical?) springs on top. And the flat pack 'Bell' batteries which no one used for bells! These were the staple diet of my 1/72 HMS Hotspur when first built in the mid sixties. No RC, just set the tiller, hidden under a depth-charge rack on the stern, and let her go. Often had to be rescued by Mum and I walking 100yds of fishing line around the lake🤔
Ooops! Sorry madam 😲
Pics show her on sea trials in Radnor Park Folkestone ca August 1966.
Captain must have been just 15!
Last pic is how she looks now - currently undergoing complete engineering refit. Cheers Doug 😎
PS Portimoa!! Nice place to live. I remember the market hall on the harbour front well, and the great fish restaurants on the other side of the inlet😋 "I'll have that one please - grilled" delicious.
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Hi, Sounds good, but where are the pics??
Oh how I remember the Lantern batteries big square lumps with two conical (or comical?) springs on top. And the flat pack 'Bell' batteries which no one used for bells! These were the staple diet of my 1/72 HMS Hotspur when first built in the mid sixties. No RC, just set the tiller, hidden under a depth-charge rack on the stern, and let her go. Often had to be rescued by Mum and I walking 100yds of fishing line around the lake🤔
Ooops! Sorry madam 😲
Pics show her on sea trials in Radnor Park Folkestone ca August 1966.
Captain must have been just 15!
Last pic is how she looks now - currently undergoing complete engineering refit. Cheers Doug 😎
PS Portimoa!! Nice place to live. I remember the market hall on the harbour front well, and the great fish restaurants on the other side of the inlet😋 "I'll have that one please - grilled" delicious.
Young at heart 😉 Slightly older in other places.😊 Cheers Doug
