On Wednesday, June 01, 2005 2:43 PM, Peter [SMTP:plp@actcom.co.il] wrote:
> If I understand it right, at the
> time they would pack the receiver end (with a hole about the diameter of
> a man's thigh for a crank pin) into a basket with hot charcoal and leave
> it there until dull red. Then they would hammer the pin in using huge
> hammers and something in-between to prevent marring the pin. There is no
> telling what this does to the heat treatment of the part (if any, since
> it's Victorian technology).
>
Which brings up the question that I have been asking myself since I saw the 
original post. Those victorian engineers would have realised that the thing 
was likely to need dismantling at some stage in its lifetime. Applying heat 
only to the female part prior to assembly could have happened exactly as 
Peter says, because the two parts were physically separate. But how would 
the victorians have applied localised heat to the female part without 
heating, and consequently expanding, the male part to an equal extent if 
they started with the two parts assembled?

R.

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