N. C. Boats First Self-Starters

It is not generally known that the N. C. flying boats which not long ago accomplished the successful trans-Atlantic flight, were the first heavier-than-air machines in this country to be equipped with electric self-starters for each of their big Liberty engine motors.

The result of the Navy Department's decision to so equip its seaplanes undoubtedly aided the success of the enterprise, for the NC-3, lost in the sea and fog near the Azores, all her engines stalled, wet and cold, would never have been able to taxi into Ponte del Gads, under her own power without the assistance of mechanical means for starting her propellers.

This little device, the work of the Bijur Motor Appliance Company of Hoboken, N. J., consists of a small 12-volt electric motor operated by a storage battery connected through a geared reduction to a Bijur automatic screw drive. On the end of the screw shaft is cut an 8-tooth pinion which meshes with a larger gear on the propellor shaft. The starter will turn over the engine at 40 to 50 r.p.m. with a consumption of 100 to 110 amperes and a maximum of 1300 foot-pounds is available on the engine crank shaft, for breaking loose a cold engine. When the engine begins firing the screw drive automatically demeshes from the crank shaft gearing. The storage battery weighs 26 pounds, and has a rating of 24 ampere-hours or sufficient to supply enough current to make 150 starts on one charging.