Tomato can carburetor

Why was the fisrt Harley carburetor, made by Ole Evanrude, called The Tomato Can?

Curtis was apparently documented to have actually used a tomato can.

Methinks the HD folklore was a borrowed term.

....Cotten

Not the right answer.

I think because it closely resembled a tomato can...

What resembeled a tomato can?

the bowl ....

the air cleaner/intake? did it have a shutter on one end to act as a choke?

john

If we are talking 'lookalikes' and not actual artifacts incorporated, who knows which carbs were the "beanpots"?

....Cotten

Later "official" H-D folklore claimed the first carb was MADE from a tomato can (presumably the bowl). But if you go back farther in time (early 1950s) H-D only said that the first carb RESEMBLED a tomato can.

However, a pal of mine measured both very early Harley carbs and measured tomato cans of that period and they were very similar in size!

For mockup or experimental purposes if a vessel could hold tomato juice, it could also hold gas, so who knows?

Belle got the right answer first. The float bowl was about the size and shape of a can of tomato paste.

The 1940 Indain Schebler Carb bowl is sometimes called a Beanpot, also an Onion Bowl
Huck

If we are talking 'lookalikes' and not actual artifacts incorporated, who knows which carbs were the "beanpots"?

....Cotten

Huck got the easy question that is so hard for Harley folks.... even though there is a pic of one in my icon right next to the question.

Here's another "Grant's Tomb" question for which the "right" answer is only popular folklore:
Who "invented" the carburetor?
(First name required.)

Now for real glory, name some carbs that preceded his patent.

....Cotten

Dr Atkins? At least he wrote a diet book about about carbs.


Here's another "Grant's Tomb" question for which the "right" answer is only popular folklore:
Who "invented" the carburetor?
(First name required.)

Now for real glory, name some carbs that preceded his patent.

....Cotten[/quote]

Here's another "Grant's Tomb" question for which the "right" answer is only popular folklore:
Karl Benz
(First name required.)

Now for real glory, name some carbs that preceded his patent.

....Cotten

[/quote]

Google sez,
The carburetor was invented by Karl Benz in 1885 and patented in 1886. It was apparently also invented by the Hungarian engineers János Csonka and Donát Bánki in 1893.[citations needed] Frederick William Lanchester of Birmingham, England experimented early on with the wick carburetor in cars. In 1896 Frederick and his brother built the first petrol driven car in England

Wilhelm Maybach who worked with Gottlieb Daimler is credited with the first functional Carb. Carl Benz is sometimes credited since he added the butterfly throttle valve. But all any of them did was to add air and fuel controls to the already invented venturi which is variously credited to Dr. Allen De Vilbiss, Giovanni Venturi and Clemens Hershel.
Dusty

Geez, Dusty,...
Giovanni Venturi died in 1822!

Everybody went for the extra credit, but nobody gave the U.S. Patent Office answer: http://www.batesvilleareahistoricalsociety.org/03histories/06people/06georgeschebler.html

It would be pure revisionism to say his 1902 carburetors were the first, but he did develop the dual-circuit configuration that American motorcycles depended upon from '12 to very modern times.

....Cotten

I'm sorry. I thought the question was "Who "invented" the carburetor?". Not who first patented it in the USA.

Here's where the tomato can legend began:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glenn_Curtiss

....Cotten

Cotten,
Are you dodging the question? The first carburetor patented in the United States was not Who invented" the carburetor?". There is a big difference between the two.
Also it sounds like whoever wrote that story on Glenn Curtis morphed the H-D legend into the Curtis legend.

Chris!

It's hard to dodge my own question any more than when I asked it with quote marks around "inventor" in the first place.

My whole point is that the "right" answer is often determined by where one lives, by one's favorite make of machine, or the colorful hearsay that is easiest to repeat.

....Cotten