Mr. Tim's lever arm

Posted by Scott Ellis (216.87.95.64) on December 03, 2002 at 19:46:13:

Here is a submission by a friend of mine who goes by Mr. Tim. He was kind enough to share a diagram and description of his latest idea.
-Scott

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> snip >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

DON'T PANIC!  The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The following is courtesy of MrTim.  Drawings not to scale or proportion.

C is wheel arm.  D is a slide track in C.  A is a leverage arm (w/45 degree bend),
one end of which is attached to outer part of C.  B is a lever (w/30 degree bend)
with weight W at one end (other end attached to A).  A pivot is located at the bend
of B, which slides freely in D.
Operation:
>  As C moves upward (1), W pulls B inward along D (2).
>  When C is moving downward (3), W 'flips' B over to slide B's pivot along D (4).
End of A moves up (5) allowing L to reach it's full horizontal position.

> E is an 'improvement'.  It allows W to flip over sooner (6).
(E only has to move a short distance (and stop parallel to F)  It's function is
to change the c.o.g. of B earlier.)  For (2), W on E must contact F to provide the
leverage.
> (7) can be ignored.
-Trade-offs-
>  The longer L is, the greater the 'differential' (i.e. distance between weights
on opposite sides), but this requires more space so that adjacent mechs don't interefere
with each other.
>  F can be made longer for improved (2), but this contributes to
'drag' (weights hanging below axis of wheel arm).  Shorter F results in less efficient (2).

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