Been trying to visualize this a bit and have the following to ask you all about. Consider a capstan that was a brass roller instead of what we have today. So that as the key move and the capstan raises the whippen this brass roller simply rolls along the underside of the heal. Wouldn't this result in the roller-capstan starting off further back on the heal (closer to the whippen flange) then it ends up ? I.e. the opposite of this increasing leverage concept ? And if that is the case.... then wouldn't it be more likely that the best a tilted standard capstan could achieve is to more or less compensate for that ? Cheers RicB MIKE writes: As the capstan/wippen moves thru its rotation the capstan moves upwards & rotates to the middle of the capstan & then to the rear edge. SO, as it continues thru its arc, the point at which the wippen is lifted moves to the rear edge of the capstan & closer to the wippen pin thereby accelerating the key/action motion. Kind of an automatic transmission affect.Things move faster without shifting.
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