Wear of mill-lantern spindles and ox-horn oiling
Why gear teeth wear spindles unevenly, and a horn oil-cup for pivots
Folio 100r explains why the spindles of a mill's lantern-pinion (carello) wear out quickly: the tooth of the driving wheel moves faster at its outer edge than its inner edge, so it pushes, touches and wears the spindle unequally, rubbing along two lines at once. Leonardo concludes that small toothed wheels are poor for durability while a large wheel or a straight rack, like a crossbow-jack rack, gives little trouble. A closing note describes setting a whole ox horn filled with oil beneath the pivots of great wheels so the oil, escaping only where the horn is worn, keeps the pivot always greased.
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Why mill-lantern spindles wear unevenly
Because the tooth of the driving wheel moves less at its inner part than at its outer part, the faster-moving part pushes the spindle more, touches it more, and wears it more. Small toothed wheels are therefore bad for durability, while a large wheel or a straight rack causes little or no such wear.
Rubbing along two lines at the tooth-spindle contact
The wear is made along two lines: from top to bottom, as the tooth-corner r touches the spindle at a and, descending, rubs from n to f; and around the circuit of the spindle for as long as the tooth stays in contact. This double friction is worst on small toothed wheels.
An ox-horn oil cup lubricating a pivot
An ox horn is set beneath the pivots and filled with oil; the oil, unable to pour out except through the place worn in the horn by the pivot, must keep the pivot always greased. The figure at lower right shows the horn under the shaft.
Small wheel a compared with the better wheel n
The motion of wheel a wears itself by the two motions discussed and so is not to be praised in small wheels; wheel n is better. The two labelled wheel figures set the poorer and better forms side by side.
