Below is a transcript of an article written by Ralph Kennison, I believe from The Kennebec Journal around 1961. “Hum” Reynolds, seen crouching under the table to the left, was my great grandfather.
Many times our Service Departments are called on to do unusual jobs, but the most unusual to date recently came to the Augusta Service Department—and the boys came through!
Shortly before Christmas the division office received a telephone call from a local doctor who has great faith in the Company. This doctor, a World War II Veteran, had an injury that impaired circulation in his legs. Recently, complications and a diabetic condition stopped circulation to the danger point, and he was in danger of gangrene and the possible loss of a leg.
The conversation brought out the fact that part of the treatment in a Boston hospital consisted of sleeping on an oscillating bed. Oscillating beds, while made commercially, were very high in price, and beyond the possibility of delivery in time. Question—Could we make an oscillating bed?
We said we would try if we knew what was needed, and these were the specifications: A bed spring was to he suspended on a fulcrum in the middle, and was to have a travel of 9 inches above and below the horizontal at both head and foot. No pictures or detailed specifications were available, but it was believed that the commercial beds were operated by a small motor of about one-quarter horsepower. And, and this was the big one, the complete cycle of oscillation was to be once in two minutes. This meant a reduction in speed for an ordinary motor of 3500 to 1, from 1750 rpm to ½ rpm.
No promise was made other than that we would try, and then let him know. We called Ernest Haskell, Service Foreman, told him that our ability to produce had been challenged, and asked him if he wanted to try. His answer was instantaneous:
“Yes. If anybody can make junk parts go together, I think we can.”
Tough Problem
Servicemen Kenneth Willet and Harold Heath were given the assignment. It was even a problem to know where to start. A gear reduction motor reducing the speed to 24 rpm was located in New Jersey, and the manufacturer agreed to ship immediately. Due to the Christmas rush, it did not arrive for five days. In the meantime, the doctor badly needed the bed. How could it be made out of angle iron and old parts, and above all, how was the speed to be further reduced 48 times without big pulleys and countershafts?
About this time “Hum” Reynolds heard about the deal, and thought he could help. “Hum” is one of our appliance salesmen, but lives on and runs a farm, is an all around handy man, and has a junk pile of parts that “might come in handy sometime.” From this pile he produced a worm gear reduction from an old Everybody’s Washer.
From that point on, “Hum” worked all his spare time with the service men, and did all the welding to save the delay of having it done outside. This second gear reduction with proper pulleys and a vee belt did the trick, one revolution in exactly two minutes. The Yankee ingenuity of Willett and Reynolds and the machining of bearings, cranks, shaft extensions and lever arm by Harold Heath produced a bed which the doctor says is better made and better looking than those used by the hospital, and yet it was produced without a picture to go by. The cost, about half the commercial price. The time, one week, far superior to any commercial delivery.