Some old machinery pics

[BennVenn]

I love big old mechanical things and when I walked around our roof and found this I thought I would share.

My workplace was built in 1881 and was originally steam powered. Much of the HP steam distribution pipework is still fitted and steam powered cargo lifts - although decomissioned many decades ago - are still in place. Many pipes, leavers, valves, pulleys and miles of wire rope are still fitted inside our work place.

I'm not sure when this passenger lift was converted to electric but looks to be atleast 60yrs old. All the switching and contactors are mechanical and all leather belt driven from the main pulley. I have no idea how they kept all this synchronised! Even the govenor was belt driven which on overspeed makes a contactor which activates the big mechanical brake.

[DenzilPenberthy]

Some nice old stuff there. 

[dr.diesel]

That is very cool.  I've been searching locally for a 1-2HP hit and miss to run a ceiling fan in my shop, via an overly elaborate unnecessarily complex drive system.

[Ian.M]

Hmm......
Why not ditch the Heath Robinson drive system and simply provide compressed air to the fan to power it  via blade tip jets using Coanda ring nozzles?

[XOIIO]

Look at the balls on that fellow.

You should totally get it working again.

[SL4P]

Don't let anyone clean and strip,it... if it's ever being pulled out, call your local mechanical museum /historical society to look after it for future generations to look back!

[SeanB]

Looks like it is pre 1920 or so, and would probably all work again if you just cleaned, rewired and did a little maintenance.

I used to live in a building built in 1939, which still uses the original FIAM lift motor, gearbox and cage, though in the 1990's we did replace the horridly unreliable Express tappet shaft switching with something more feliable, using an Otis retrofit for the controls. Still uses the original 1930's transformers, some of the relays and control gear in it, as they will last pretty much indefinitely.

Next door is an old 1900 Otis lift, still in use and still complies to the modern standards, though there are some things that are grandfathered in, and you do need to have it ultrasonically checked every 5 years for fatigue, like the modern units.

At work the 1967 Schindler unit is in perfect order, and is the standard local " service example" used for the head office QC inspections every year. There are only a few older units in the country, and they are not in such a good condition.