Magnetic Clutch for Oil-engine Electric Starters
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AN electric starting system particularly suited to oil engines has recently been patented in France by M. D. Gachon and produced commercially by the Societe Paris-Rhone, 83, Chemin de Saint Priest, Lyon.
In M. Gachon's arrangement, an electro-magnetic clutch, similar to those employed in certain well-known electric gearboxes, is introduced into the drive from the starter to the engine. Instead of engaging directly with a toothed ring bolted to the flywheel, or with teeth cut in the flywheel rim itself, the small starter-motor pinion Is in constant mesh with a toothed ring on the magnetic clutch plate. The last-named has only a small longi
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tudinal travel and is held ha In from the flywheel by springs: Normally, the current is • trected simultaneously to the starter motor and the magnet coils, but in he case of large engines, the clutch ay be used as an " inertia starter " h allowing the toothed-ring unit to ttain a certain speed before switching on the magnet coils.
A free wheel is sometimes ii corporated in the Gachon arrangemen • which has now been designed to suit a number of existing engines.
Back-fires in a high-corn ression engine are liable to break tb usual spring-drive arrangement empl iyed in electric starting devices and o e of M.
Gachon's objects is to avoid s.