Trying To Locate Info On This Device

[MuseumMan]

The Northeastern Indiana Racing Museum just aquired this device and we are trying to locate any info on it. We've been told that it could have been used on the earlier Indy race cars from 1925 & 26.
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/206998_1516935062659_1812964451_939078_2375931_n.j pg

http://a5.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/206998_1516934942656_1812964451_939075_6246728_n.j pg

http://a7.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/206998_1516934982657_1812964451_939076_6853954_n.j pg

http://a1.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc6/206998_1516935022658_1812964451_939077_7737785_n.j pg

[carc7]

Have you contacted Yale university yet?
:idunno:

[MuseumMan]

Yep I have and they are also working on finding more info on this device.

[Olen McGuire]

I've been doing a lot of thinking about this Riding Quality Indicator, and I can't find a better riding quality indicator of an auto even in those early days, than the driver of the auto himself. We can assume that there were at least 8 of those instruments, and it comes out in the years that had a lot of "snake oil" items for sale.
I'm not saying that this is one of those items, but to calibrate something you have to have a base line. And where would you get a base line for something that's giving you a measured quality of riding in an auto?
The notation by the last calibration, that I can make out, says " Not used *****" and it was calibrated over a year from the first two.
Whether it's a "snake oil" item or an "up and up" instrument, it seems to be kept in good condition and it's certainly worth keeping in a museum for all to see.

[MuseumMan]

We intend to keep it for our racing museum, but I'm just trying to locate some history on it to put with it. I'm thinking with the springs in it that it was mounted on the running board of the vehicle and when it hit a bump it would move the needle up and down and make a graph and the person would have to turn the roll of paper by hand.

[MuseumMan]

We received this info from Yale University.

A report of this device entitled "A Riding-quality indicator" by E. H. Lockwood and L. B. Kimball was published in the Journal of the Society of Automotive Engineers, vol.15, no.1 (July 1924) pp.40-42. The paper includes a drawing and photograph. Here is the abstract:

A portable instrument of the seismograph type has been designed for measuring the riding-quality of vehicles. Readings are made by a continuously revolving counter that automatically sums up the vertical displacements of a partly suspended weight. As the counter readings are a measure of the riding-quality, a large reading indicates poor riding and, conversely a small reading indicates good riding. An arbitrary scale graduated into revolutions of the counter per mile of travel translates the readings into riding-quality; a reading of 10 indicates "very smooth," 20 "good," etc. The instruments have been calibrated in a special testing-machine in which the readings can be observed under harmonic motion of fixed period and amplitude.

Comparison of the riding-quality of balloon tires and of cord tires, made on three different automobiles run over a variety of roads, shows results that are very favorable to balloon tires. Data on the effect of shock-absorbers and of car speed on riding-quality are now being obtained. Detailed records of the riding-quality of an airplane, as measured by the integrating instrument, show the airplane to be slightly better than the best automobile.

A discussion of this paper, "A riding-quality indicator: discussion of semi-annual meeting papers" was published in the Journal of the Society of Automotive Engineers, v.15, no.6 (December 1924) pp.548-553


At the time this paper was written, E. H. Lockwood was an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Yale. L. B. Kimball was a laboratory assistant in mechanical engineering. Here is a biographic sketch of Professor Lockwood compiled by the Library's Manuscripts and Archives Department.

Edwin Hoyt Lockwood was born October 31, 1866, in New Canaan, Connecticut. He prepared for Yale at the New Canaan Seminary and received his Ph.B. from Sheffield Scientific School in 1888. He continued to be associated with the scientific divisions of Yale until his death. He received his M.E. in 1892 and his Ph.D. in 1901. He began as an instructor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and continued in that department steadily rising in rank until he was appointed Robert Higgins Professor of Mechanical Engineering in 1927. He was a member of the American Society of Engineers, The Society of Automotive Engineers, the Society of Mechanical Heating and Ventilating Engineers, The American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and other engineering societies. He contributed articles to The Journal of Automotive Engineers, Power, The Scientific American, and the Yale Alumni Weekly. He also wrote a pamphlet on mechanical drawing (Tuttle, Morehouse, and Taylor, 1892), and contributed a chapter on perspective to John Clayton Tracy's Introductory Course in Mechanical Drawing(New York, 1898).

His real reputation came not from mechanical drawing, but from the development of experimental mechanical and automotive engineering in which he played a part. He came to be respected as the leading authority in the scientific aspects of automotive design and testing, and in the late 1920's performed automotive tests on new models for the companies which produced them. His tests were as authoritative as the road tests conducted by independent testing companies today, in the days before road tests became standard.
http://hdl.handle.net/10079/fa/mssa.ms.0328


Andy Shimp
Engineering & Applied Science Librarian
Yale University