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[ta0]

Two stars of my collection from the 1890's:



Both appear on the famous drawing from La Nature of 1896.
They have an internal flywheel (antique Wizzzers  ), with vanes that push air through sound-making slots with reeds at the bottom.

The doll (described as Tyrolese on the article of La Nature), came from Don Olney's collection.
The Eiffel Tower is an extra that Cyril had. He told me it was from the inauguration of the tower. In fact, the article describes it as "almost a historic souvenir" even though it was written only seven years after the inauguration  When I got it, it was broken with the flywheel loose inside. It was very difficult to repair and the first two times it only lasted one spin. I finally made a custom piece on my 3-D printer that did the job.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULaQSI6_eP0

[jim in paris]

Superb
Bravo for the repair job!

Jim

[lincolnrick]

A great addition to your collection. They're larger that I had anticipated and your custom repair did a great job. Congratulations.

[CUPER]

Exelente piezas

[cecil]

Very nice - thanks for sharing.

[ta0]

This photo shows the part I 3D-printed to carry the flywheel and blades.



I did work a little more on the aligning the blades after I took the photo. They are slanted, so they push air upwards when spinning counterclockwise. I believe the air enters through the slots with vibrating reeds at the bottom and exits on the sides.The top only makes the noise when spinning in that direction. The same happens with the doll that has the mechanism intact. I was surprised how loud was the sound.

I was also surprised how long the Eiffel Tower spins in spite of all the air drag that it must have, the somewhat tall center of mass and non-precise balancing.

[Jeremy McCreary]

Very cool -- top design, repair, photos, spin time observations.

I've discovered the hard way that the various bearings involved have a big impact on the performance and play value of a Wizzzer-like coax top.

Q: How much resistance in the bearings, and how effective at keeping the shell and internal flywheel/fan spin axes aligned?

[ta0]

Q: How much resistance in the bearings, and how effective at keeping the shell and internal flywheel/fan spin axes aligned?

When I spin it with my fingers the axle spins smoothly in its sleeve bearing.
I forgot to take a picture of the upper bearing, a conical hole where the pointy tip of the axle goes. But it didn't look like metal.
The axis orientation is well fixed between those two bearings.