UNUSUAL BRITISH GRAMOPHONE MOTOR

[old country chemist]

I was sorting through some electric gramophone motors last evening, and found this heavy, lumpy motor. I suppose this section is for British and European MACHINES, so I suppose you could call this motor a MACHINE in it's own right!
It is a QUALCAST GRAMOPHONE MOTOR, pretty quiet running, and with that tank unit, probably an oil bath motor, but not sure. I cannot figure out the ratchet arrangement that stops the motor from unwinding when winding it up. I also have a bit of metal, not shown, that may possibly be some interconnecting part of it all.
Frank James gave it to me some years ago as a gift. If I remember correctly, he passed it to me with his great hand, I took it from him with one hand, and almost dropped it to the floor as it was so heavy! I cannot remember if we made a joke about it being able to drive my lawn mower, as Qualcast "push" mowers were popular years ago.
An interesting curio.

[poodling around]

I was sorting through some electric gramophone motors last evening, and found this heavy, lumpy motor. I suppose this section is for British and European MACHINES, so I suppose you could call this motor a MACHINE in it's own right!
It is a QUALCAST GRAMOPHONE MOTOR, pretty quiet running, and with that tank unit, probably an oil bath motor, but not sure. I cannot figure out the ratchet arrangement that stops the motor from unwinding when winding it up. I also have a bit of metal, not shown, that may possibly be some interconnecting part of it all.
Frank James gave it to me some years ago as a gift. If I remember correctly, he passed it to me with his great hand, I took it from him with one hand, and almost dropped it to the floor as it was so heavy! I cannot remember if we made a joke about it being able to drive my lawn mower, as Qualcast "push" mowers were popular years ago.
An interesting curio.SUNP0098.JPGSUNP0098.JPG

There seems to have been another Qualcast sold on ebay:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Columbia-Gra ... 7675.l2557

A connection with Columbia ?

[poodling around]

I was sorting through some electric gramophone motors last evening, and found this heavy, lumpy motor. I suppose this section is for British and European MACHINES, so I suppose you could call this motor a MACHINE in it's own right!
It is a QUALCAST GRAMOPHONE MOTOR, pretty quiet running, and with that tank unit, probably an oil bath motor, but not sure. I cannot figure out the ratchet arrangement that stops the motor from unwinding when winding it up. I also have a bit of metal, not shown, that may possibly be some interconnecting part of it all.
Frank James gave it to me some years ago as a gift. If I remember correctly, he passed it to me with his great hand, I took it from him with one hand, and almost dropped it to the floor as it was so heavy! I cannot remember if we made a joke about it being able to drive my lawn mower, as Qualcast "push" mowers were popular years ago.
An interesting curio.SUNP0098.JPGSUNP0098.JPG

Oh another one............ and these seller remarks made me laugh

Unsurprisingly, perhaps, the item did not sell !

https://picclick.co.uk/Columbia-Gramoph ... 56834.html

[gramophoneshane]

Interesting motor.
I wonder if Qualcast may have done the cast iron for Garrard in the early days, before they set up a foundry of their own?
At 7kg I can see why you would nearly drop it one handed.

[Gramtastic]

Qualcast was founded in Derby in 1801 and produced many castings for different companies - my 1934 Standard Nine has a cylinder head cast by Qualcast !

[epigramophone]

Qualcast were best known for their lawnmowers, which they first manufactured in 1920. In 1928 they became a Limited Company.

After WW2 they acquired the Atco and Suffolk lawnmower brands. By 1961 they had 5,000 employees manufacturing a wide range of products from kitchen furniture and household appliances to engineering jigs and tools.

[old country chemist]

THANK YOU all of you who have enlightened me about the "Qualcast" motor that I have. I enjoyed the bit about the chap who altered a screw in the motor, and then it became a dangerous item. Did the governor end up embedded in the ceiling perhaps?
I am thinking of dismantling this motor, cleaning and re-lubricating it, so I must be careful in what way I go about it. Perhaps it will all have to be done in a large sack to prevent bits flying away!

[Oedipus]

'Qualcast' was a brand name of the Derwent Foundry, and was adopted in (I think) 1928 as the company name. As the name implies, they were iron founders, who started making lawnmower parts in the early 1920s, and soon made whole mowers in their own name, which were phenomenally successful. They made castings of many kinds, including Garrard gramophone motors; this motor is one of the Columbia motors made by Garrard from 1923 onwards.

During WW2, Qualcast were given the rights to a ferrous diecasting process from the States, for use in armaments, but after they war they were used for general purposes. A typical example was the slave cylinder used in hydraulic brake systems, which are recognisable as die castings by the bright colour of their unmachined surface.