Posted by Smithy (203.38.223.82) on August 11, 2002 at 15:01:16:
In Reply to: Re: Costa Wheel Pictures posted by Rob on August 09, 2002 at 21:45:12:
G'day all from down under,
A thought about the long arms on the mechanisms of the Costa wheel, I believe they may be for the actuators or cam like devices at the top and bottom, they do however look like a bit of an after thought!!
: Looking at the drawings from the patent pages, I can easily understand the mechanisms on the rim of Costa's wheel - at the bottom of the wheel the weights are lifted (from an outer radius) by a cam action against a spring which locks the weight into place on an inner radius only slightly smaller than the outer radius, especially in relation to the scale of the wheel. At the top of the wheel a cam action releases the spring which again lifts the weight, but now back to the outer radius. Thus the weights are further from center on one side than the other. I think the wheel is so large because with such a small differential in radius, quite a few weights are required to amount to any substantial imbalance strong enough to make the wheel move. I don't see the purpose of the long rods sticking out though,. Perhaps they have something to do electromagnetically or electrostatically with the ground?