Some design/manufacturing achievements sure change things.

The development of the right angle gear set sure changed our machines. That little pinion and (ring?) delivers the all the horsepower and absorbs shock and is not often the downfall of the design. Early cars, steam engines, cross mounted tractor engines didn't have that technology. I have seen early water wheels & windmills use two pegged plates but surely who ever developed the gear cutting technique for the bevel gear set never dreamed of its many uses. Just rockin and musin, Leonard.

Enjoyed your comments.

Good post.
Wasn't it the worm drive that made the Fordsons tip backwards?

But who made the machines to cut these gears, like Harrison and his longitudinal clock, who cut
the small wheels.??????? and threaded the mi-nute
screws.

But who made the machines to cut these gears, like Harrison and his longitudinal clock, who cut
the small wheels.??????? and threaded the mi-nute
screws.

U-dog,

I've heard that the Fordson's worm gear rear end contributed not only to its tendency to flip over, but it also generated a huge amount of heat right under the operator's seat.

I'm not sure why the worm gear drive caused the tractor to flip, but my guess is that it made the CG fairly high. Also, worm drives tend to not want to be driven from the output side, so even if you hit the clutch when the tractor reared up, the tractor is going to stay up in the air.

Very few cars today have right angles in the drive train. The right angles are inefficient.

The typeof gear drive would have nothing to do with its tipping over. Doesn't matter what rype of gear, the torque on the axles is the same, and that and the position of the hitch is what cuses flips.

RAW, whether or not it was true, the worm gear drive was blamed for the Fordson's tendency to flip. When you push the clutch in on a hypoid geared tractor, you instantly remove all torque from the wheels and the front end comes down. Disengaging the clutch on a worm gear, however, effectively sets the brakes on the rear wheels. So there is still torque to hold the front end of the tractor in the air. And if the tractor's front end is rising rapidly, it will have significant angular momentum. It seems reasonable to think that in the right circumstances the angular momentum of the tractor combined with the locked-up rear could cause it to continue to flip after the clutch is disengaged.

I looked into this a little further. It seems that the later Fordsons with the worm gear on the bottom of the differential had a greater tendency to flip. So it seems that the higher CG caused by larger rear wheels was a contributing factor.

Mark is right, if the worm gear ratio is very high ( and on the Fordsons, it was probably in the range of 60:1 or 100:1) the tractor wouldn't immediately drop back down when you hit the clutch. I have specified many 60:1 worm gears on elevators just so the elelvator wouldn't run backward if there was a power interruption. However, if there is vibration coming through the drive mount, the thing will slowly (at first) reverse. The other post was right on in that the torque at the axle is what cause a rear-up. Ever notice how short a Fordson was, not enough weight in the front end for the horsepower and you want your pull point under the axle to keep the front down. Yes the worm gears could take a lot of shock but are very inefficient, creating excessive heat. The right angle gear and pinion is not nearly as inefficient as the worm gear, don't confuse the two. Their efficiency is up near that of spur gears of that ratio. And helical bevel sets are very quiet. Even John Deer, clinging to the paralell crankshaft and gear sets, used right angles in the steering, coolling fan and PTO, without them they would look like a Waterloo Boy! Leonard

This reminds me of something I thought about in the past-- how were the first machine tools made when there were no machine tools? In other words, how would you make the first lathe parts without a lathe?

They ordered it from Harbor Freight!

As to how the first lathe was built,I wasn't there but hand filing and waterwheel turning was plentiful. I have a friend who deals in antiquities like color manuscript pages from the middle ages and old coins, showed me an old coin about the size of a nickle that was hollow. One half unscrewed off the other half and there were fine internal and external threads. He said it was a hand made coin to show off the skill of the craftsman (I think German). It was reportedly made a couple of hundred years ago.
I asked on this forum a couple of years ago how the D John Deere could have the short wheel base for the approx. 40 hp when later 40 hp row crops had to be so long. A reply said the D radiator assembly had to be mounted with a fork lift..it weighed about 600 lbs! The upside of short wheel bases (like the Fordson) was the turning radius was reasonable even though the steering mechanism was crude and didn't let the wheels turn very sharply left or right. Leonard

"A reply said the D radiator assembly had to be mounted with a fork lift..it weighed about 600 lbs! "

Yeah, RIGHT!

Do you believe ALL the nnalert guys tell you???