From Farm To Meditation – Memoirs Of An Angel 02

To find other posts in this series click here. In this second post in the series, “From Farm To Meditation – Memoirs Of An Angel”, Bill continues his memoirs. He digresses to speak about his father’s car. Apologies to all who have no interest in cars. This does, however, display one of Bill’s lifelong characteristics in that, despite the fact that he was born a farm boy, he was always keen to have the latest technical innovations, whether it be in the form of telephone, radio, television or cars.

It is worth reflecting for a moment on the Model T Ford because it was unique in those days. There were lots of cars around, most of them made in England, but they tended to follow the design of the horse drawn buggies and traps and phaetons that were used on the roads. The Model T Ford was different, it had a style of its own, and there was practically no wood used in the manufacture of the Model T Ford. Even the running boards were made of metal. The metal was dimpled so that people getting into or out of the car would not slip on the running board. And there had to be a running board because the bottom of the entrance doors was more than a comfortable stride from the ground level upwards. So there had to be an intermediate step and that was this dimpled running board.

The nickname given to the T Model was “Tin Lizzie.” It looked so much unlike the horse drawn carriages (which were mainly made of wood) it was nicknamed “Tin Lizzie.” This Model T Ford of Wally’s did not have a starter motor, it did not have a generator, it did not have a battery, it had to be started with a crank handle permanently located in the front of the motor but it was designed so that once the engine started, the handle would be disconnected from it’s crankshaft connection and then the starting handle would just stay idle. There was no choke button on the dashboard as such, but the carburetor was choked by operating a control located near the starting handle at the front of the car. So one hand could be used to operate the choke while the other hand was used to turn the crank handle.

The ignition power was supplied from a flywheel alternator. The flywheel was fitted with a whole series of horseshoe magnets which rotated with the flywheel and they were positioned so that they ran very close to a series of coils which were mounted around the flywheel housing. And so by induction the coils were energized electrically as the magnets went past and that, of course, produced voltage and current at a point removed from the flywheel housing. The voltage would average about 16 Volts at normal revs. It could be lower, of course, when starting up, and perhaps could get a bit higher.

And so ends this second installment of this fascinating series, From Farm To Meditation – Memoirs Of An Angel. Look out for the next post in this series.