Some other examples of wood bearing use, from our Readers:
3 March, 1997
Reading your web I found one important reference left out... In 1722
John Harrison [built] a friction free clock that still tells time in
Brocklesby Park England, and the bearings were made of lignum vitae
wood.
Don Reed, Toledo, Ohio
NOTE: The fascinating story of John Harrison's clock, and of his
successful, forty-year quest for a means to establish longitude at sea, is
contained in Dava Sobel's book, Longitude. This is great reading,
and goes well beyond mere wood bearing history. Longitude is
available online from Amazon Books, and on
audio cassette from AudioSource.
Thanks for your recommendation of a great book,
12-15-97
HI,
You probably have heard it all, but going to mention as a kid on the farm we
had a set of harrows with wood bearings, and judging fron a new set of harrows
I bought with ball bearings, the wood ones would have been much better, I was
changing 1 or 2 each year, and I do not remember ever having to change a wood
bearing on the old harrows
Gene Blodgett,
4-20-98
Hi!
Maybe I missed it, but no one mentioned the use of lignum vitae as
propeller shaft bearings on the battleships New Jersey and Missouri,
both of which I worked on while employed at the Long Beach Naval
Shipyard. I was able to obtain a small sample as it was being replaced.
Jim Francis
restoreman@home.com
9-15-98
Sirs: The subject wood was also used for bearings in your grandmothers'
washing machine ringer.
Best wishes. Richard Stauffer
12-13-99
This wood was also used for most merchant marine stern tubes up until the
late 60's early 70's.
Lou McCarthy
01-10-2000
Interesting web page. You did miss a good example however.
Older designs of hydro-electric power plants used lignum vitae for their
turbine bearings for many years. Some of the bearings are still in use after
80 + years of service.
Kelly Casteel
(Tennessee Valley Authority employee)
kcasteel@icx.net
Good catch, Kelly, thanks. Woodex still makes lig waterwheel bearings for a few
hydro turbines.
We've also made oil-impregnated maple stave bearings for the water turbine at
the Mansfield Roller Mill State Historical Site in Mansfield, Indiana. - Ed.
01-25-2000
We presently use lignum vitae bearings in our low head hydro electric plant
at the Rock Island Arsenal. This plant has been in continous operation since opening
in 1919. Most of the original equipment (leather belt driven hydraulic pumps,
water wheel D.C. Exciters, etc.) was still in operation until 1998 when it was
replaced newer "modern" equipment. I have several pieces of old bearings that I hope
to make into some mallets. The cost to replace the wood segment bearings is
about $4000.00 per generator and we have 8 machines.
From Hydro Hank
09-15-2004
Wood is a common bearing in English ,and other ,wind and water mills. Shaft
spead is slow in most cases and the shaft surface not up to modern engineering
standards. They did run for many years. The neck bearings on the windshaft,
carrying the weight of the sails is often wood, greased for lubrication as oil
swells the bearing.
From Robert Bramley, Cambridgeshire
If you know of an interesting use of wood bearings not mentioned in these
pages, please let us know, so we can include it here. Please include any references or bibliography - online or printed, and send to: Woodex.
Return to Wood Bearing Page
Revised 26 January, 2000 Stark