Luke Coletti responded: > > Laborious indeed! As you already know I was the "lucky" bidder of the >Pilkington and Gibbs Sol Horometer that was recently auctioned on e-bay. >I think you recently requested some of the pictures of it. I'm happy to >let all those interested know that I too will be making a series of >reproductions from this original unit. The original EoT scale on the Sol >Horometer is actually quite good although I've generated a new set of >values that I calculated and printed out and laid over the original >plate for comparison, they match very well.
There are one or two 'wobbly' graduations in the outer scale but who is surprised with the technology of the day. > Also, I have just recently acquired one of the "standard" Pilkington >and Gibbs helios (made entirely of brass) and have been comparing the >two "brothers", I actually think I prefer the Sol Horometer thus far. I >too plan to generate CAM drawings for the parts that won't be getting >cast, looking forward to comparing our respective efforts. > As I think I mentioned previously you will probably find that the 'brass' is 'gunmetal'. This seems to be a term not in common use in the USA??? where no doubt the 'brassy' metal used to cast water valve bodies etc. is called something else. In the UK it is a casting alloy of copper, tin and zinc which has improved corrosion resistance due to the tin content and good fluidity for casting from the zinc. Today's gunmetals also have a small addition of lead to improve the machinability. It was used for casting smooth-bore cannon as it was much less likely to explode than brittle cast iron - hence the name. As the re-designed SOL is a project for my third, and final???, retirement I'm sure you'll be in production long before me but I look forward to comparing notes. Best Wishes Tony M.
