I always say what I have to say and stay by it until I am convinced of the error.  Now some of you will smile when I say that the only thing for gear where there is dust, is “Mica Axle Grease.”  And you smile because you don’t know what it is made of, but think it some common grease named for some old saint, but that is not the case.  If these people who make this lubricant would give it another name, and get it introduced among engineers, nothing else would be used.  You have seen it advertised for years as an axle grease and think that is all it is good for; and there is where you make a mistake.  It is made of a combination of solid lubricant and ground or pulverized mica, that is where it gets its name, and nothing can equal mica as a lubricant if you could apply it to your gear; and to do this it has been combined with a heavy grease.  This in being applied to the gear retains the small particles of mica, which soon imbed themselves in every little abrasion or rough place in the gearing, and the surface quickly becomes hard and smooth throughout the entire face of the engaging gear, and your gear will run quiet, and if your gearing is not out of line will stop cutting if applied in time.

It will run dry and dust will not collect on the surface of your cogs, and after a coating is once formed it should never be disturbed by scraping the face of the gear, and a very little added from time to time will keep your gear in fine shape.  Its name is against it and if the makers would take a tumble to themselves and call it “Mica Oil” or some catchy name and get it introduced among the users of tight gearing, they would sell just as much axle grease and all the grease for gearings.

FORCE FEED OILER

Force feed oiler come next on the list.  This is something not generally understood by engineers of traction and farm engines, and accounts for it being so far down the list.  But we think it will come into general use within a few years, as an oiler of this kind forces the oil instead of depending on gravity.

The Acorn Brass Works of Chicago make a very unique and successful little oiler which forces a small portion of oil in a spray into the valve and cylinder, and repeats the operation at each stroke of the engine, and is so arranged that it stops automatically as soon as the oil is out of the reservoir; and at once calls the attention of the engineer to the fact, and it can be regulated to throw any quantity of oil desired.  Is made for any size or make of engine.

SPEEDER