RUMCars Forum

General Category => Unusual Microcar Discussion => Topic started by: richard on January 08, 2012, 03:48:17 PM

Title: Icknield speedometer
Post by: richard on January 08, 2012, 03:48:17 PM
A NEW YEAR RESOLUTION !! - to make all my posts  , and replies , interesting, informative , positive and pleasant  ;) wish me luck !

to this end  :D : an Icknield speedometer 0 - 15 mph , aprox 2 1/2" across . 8835 miles recorded .whatever can it be off ? i believe at least some Berkeleys had Icknield speedometers but surely not this one ! A milk float perhaps ? 
Title: Re: Icknield speedometer
Post by: marcus on January 08, 2012, 03:57:28 PM
I hope your posts and replies remain funny too!

I have no idea, but I would guess it's for milk floats and/or powered baggage wagons, as were used at railway stations, Smithfield Market etc.. Perhaps Agricultural machinery too.

Or perhaps for Ferraris, for that Special Sixty Seconds between working normally and going in for the next service!
Title: Re: Icknield speedometer
Post by: Jonathan Poll on January 09, 2012, 07:40:36 AM
A NEW YEAR RESOLUTION !! - to make all my posts  , and replies , interesting, informative , positive and pleasant  ;) wish me luck !

to this end  :D : an Icknield speedometer 0 - 15 mph , aprox 2 1/2" across . 8835 miles recorded .whatever can it be off ? i believe at least some Berkeleys had Icknield speedometers but surely not this one ! A milk float perhaps ? 

Probably a Nobel seeing the top speed!
Title: Re: Icknield speedometer
Post by: marcus on January 09, 2012, 08:37:01 AM
Invalid carriage perhaps, Mr Cyphus to the red phone please...
Title: Re: Icknield speedometer
Post by: Big Al on January 09, 2012, 01:46:51 PM
Speed is pretty fair seeing as the company is named after one of the great ancient drove roads, the Icknield Way, which links up with the Ridgeway. None of that helps decide what the unit was fitted to though.
Title: Re: Icknield speedometer
Post by: Stuart Cyphus on January 09, 2012, 01:57:09 PM
Invalid carriage perhaps, Mr Cyphus to the red phone please...

 Nope, all carriages in days of yore, regardless of being petrol or electric were capable of faster speeds than that! Most I've seen with a speedo tend to use the typical Smiths 50mph unit.
Title: Re: Icknield speedometer
Post by: marcus on January 09, 2012, 02:05:56 PM
Thought that might be the case Stuart, but good to know anyway.
Sadly it goes rather too high to be of any use for my Drum Car!
Title: Re: Icknield speedometer
Post by: Rob Dobie on January 09, 2012, 02:45:35 PM
Could it have come from a tractor or an airport/station platform luggage tug?
Title: Re: Icknield speedometer
Post by: richard on January 09, 2012, 10:20:11 PM
had thought of most of the above . surely platform use would not require one  would it ? tractors are much faster surely - it may not seem it when behind one though  ;D respectable mileage though - praps a float is the most likely.
Title: Re: Icknield speedometer
Post by: Jonathan Poll on January 09, 2012, 10:26:55 PM
had thought of most of the above . surely platform use would not require one  would it ? tractors are much faster surely - it may not seem it when behind one though  ;D respectable mileage though - praps a float is the most likely.

If a tractor is too fast, it only leaves the Brutches!  ;D
Title: Re: Icknield speedometer
Post by: Bob Purton on January 09, 2012, 10:36:01 PM
The floats I see around our way go much faster than 15mph. Maybe earlier ones didnt? Why would a vehicle only capable of going 15mph need a speedometer anyway?
Title: Re: Icknield speedometer
Post by: Big Al on January 10, 2012, 08:19:39 AM
It is from an Austin Seven powered Pachyderm. That favourite of this forum. Speedometer needed to help it creep up on Tigers and the like with memsahib on board. Also fitted with a Mahooter, don't you know.
Title: Re: Icknield speedometer
Post by: marcus on January 10, 2012, 08:26:02 AM
It all really depends on how old the speedo is, if it is 1950s then a lot of vehicle types were much slower then than now. Odd that it reads backwards.
Vehicles normally have speedos with a higher speed than can normally be achieved, so I would guess this one would rarely have exceeded 10 mph. 5 - 10 mph is very much the speed range required for goods yards, docks, Mail sorting depots, large factories, stations etc.. When I was young and often going through Waterloo and Victoria I think I remember platforms used to have 5 MPH signs on them, and powered wagons with the driver standing at the front. Sometimes the wagons were joined to form a train. Once outside the station they could do 10 mph.

If it is appreciably older then it could be for old London taxis (particularly the electric ones) or Harrods electric delivery trucks, but it really does not look that old.
Title: Re: Icknield speedometer
Post by: marcus on January 10, 2012, 08:32:39 AM
It is from an Austin Seven powered Pachyderm. That favourite of this forum. Speedometer needed to help it creep up on Tigers and the like with memsahib on board. Also fitted with a Mahooter, don't you know.

Tusk, tusk, silly boy!

Perhaps it was for the Dowager Duchess's Rolls Royce and fitted near the window to the Chauffeur's cabin. Every time the speed rose to 7 mph she tapped her ivory tipped umbrella firmly on the window while exclaiming "Slow down Wetherspoon, we are not Automobile Racing at Brooklands!"
Title: Re: Icknield speedometer
Post by: marcus on January 10, 2012, 08:57:33 AM
How about for Fork Lift Trucks and other industrial/goods yard machines?

And why do they only make Fork Lift trucks? What about Knife, Spoon and Plate lift trucks?!
Title: Re: Icknield speedometer
Post by: Big Al on January 10, 2012, 01:11:04 PM
This speedo might be from Huffy!
Title: Re: Icknield speedometer
Post by: richard on January 10, 2012, 10:16:03 PM
some of the Bonds , 0 - 50  wow , read backwards and i think those speedos were moped types. some also needed a figure of eight in the drive chain to make them read at all - very twisted
Title: Re: Icknield speedometer
Post by: richard on January 18, 2012, 08:15:22 PM
further to my reading the AA handbook for 1949/50 - first postwar edition , i find that ANY vehicle used on the highway needed a speedometer fitted , seemingly regardless of the attainable speed .quite how steam traction engines and the like coped i don't know. a lot of them were still around post war 
Title: Re: Icknield speedometer
Post by: Rob Dobie on January 18, 2012, 09:53:21 PM
But was it law as some mopeds and Peels didn't have speedos?
Title: Re: Icknield speedometer
Post by: Stuart Cyphus on January 18, 2012, 10:00:53 PM
Only vehicles over 50cc have ever had to have a speedo fitted by law.