An idle question to satisfy my curiosity.
Back in my youth, compacting of small areas of road & pavement subsurface was done with a pogo stick like petrol powered compactor. None of your modern vibrating rubbish but a big single cylinder thing that went "ka-dumph-ah" about once a second or whenever triggered.
I presume health & safety killed them off but what were they called and where did they all go? How did they work and how did you start them? Where can I get one? ;-)
Tim
We used to call them "Jumping Jimmys" - but I was only about 10 :o)
Other than that, no idea.
Jumping jacks, aka trench compactor.
I remember them - they seem to have been replaced by percussive rammers, which operate at ~600 strokes per minute with ~50mm displacement (as opposed to whacker plates which run at ~4000 strokes/minute with few mm displacement). I always assumed they were self firing diesel cylinders compressing and firing when they hit the ground but, like you, I wondered how they started them. I guess too many operators fell over and had them land on them when they flew about!
Before that, they used a big iron plate on a stick.worked by hand. Probably gone the way of the night watchman's hut that I also remember from road works.
Colin Bignell
With a real brazier in front...
:-)
================================== Rammer / tamper / tamping rammer; plenty of them still around:
Cic.
Did you even look at the pictures (or read the question)?
Tim
I doubt they were diesel. That wouldn't have given you much chance of any control I'm pretty sure I remember seeing a spark plug on them.
Tim
I noticed TMH commenting on a love of English earlier and thought I'd share...
BTW, I appreciate that Tim's question was jokingly phrased and I'm certainly not correcting anyone.
It intrigues me that there never has been a word "Ye" as an alternative to "The".
It's a misapprehension of the Anglo-Saxon letter "thorn" that was pronounced like our modern diagraph "th". Thorn had changed its shape over the years and, by the 14th century, looked very much like a letter "y". By the end of the 15th century thorn had disappeared and we were left with "th".
So, when we look back at Middle English writing, we see a word written as a letter thorn followed by a letter e - it was pronounced "the" - no one ever said "Ye" as in the "Ye Olde Village Pub" though they did use it for the 2nd person pronoun as in "I say to ye..."
And that, as Kipling might have said, is how "The Old Road Compactor" got its "Ye".
I know it's way OT but I'd been discussing it earlier in the week and so it came to mind when I saw the subject line and thought that someone might be interested - sorry if it was inappropriate or smart-arsed.
Only one þing to þay to þat: :-þ
:-)
I recall them - definitely fuel powered - I think they got them started by having a couple of guys bouncing them up and down. Visible smoke from exhaust.
nightjar
We have one of those! I used it recently, when preparing the base for a short wall in the garden (raised bed).
I assumed that everyone knew about that, I'm always amused about 'Ye Olde' anything. If it's on a pub or other such establishment I simply don't patronise it.
But I think that 'y' was used for 'th' for a long time after Middle English, I recently read some letters to Robert Herrick which used it.
Mary
I always took that to be like ampersands & &c., ! (for io), ? (for quo) - just an ink/paper/pen/time saver.
Well they weren't what the OP wanted but they are not the 4000/min vibrating whackers with minimal displacement. These are all the 600/min 50mm jobbies that have taken the place of the fe-dump-ah's, presumably because the latter were a bit fly-away. These are used on clay and heavy soils rather than gravel or whatever. I guess 600/min 50mm thumps were regarded as equivalent to 30/min 300mm thumps!
Not what he wanted though, as you say!
I agree. They were petrol powered and I think they had a spring mechanism - bit like a pogo stick which the operator used to get some sort of bounce going and then enabled the spark ignition. Once going they were self timing at one stroke every second or so. I assume the base was heavy enough to keep them upright reasonably easily. As for where to get one? I've not seen one for years - not really the sort of thing to find in an old barn auction. Maybe contact an industrial museum curator?
Bob
yup. IIRC they were 2-strokes without any crankshaft.
Mary Fisher wrote in
Excellent - can I stretch the OT aspect of this even further and ask for a quote?
If you think it's too OT for the NG, the email address works - I have it tested on a regular basis by some nice people who have some medicine that they are convinced I need. Someone has been talking!
Many thanks.
There's a little black dot at the back of my brain which is telling me that they used to be called a "Benjo Whammer". But ICBW.
Derek
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.