@all
I have found this guy working on the hendershot motor.
Yeah. That would be me. Hello.
Here is an interesting observation I made this weekend:
WHY 57 pegs?
Hendershot's coil used 57 pegs that are 1/8 inch diameter.
His coil is 5 15/16 inch in diameter.
So the question I had was WHY 57 pegs?
In attempting to wire up such a coil, 57 to me seems like overkill.
I do, however, entertain the notion that Hendershot selected
57 for a specific reason.
In playing around with the math a bit, and with inspiration from
Hubbard's assertion that Hendershot is using Hubbard's idea,
I've come up with a WAY that 57 pegs could have been selected..
Let
D be coil diameter - 5.9375 inch
d be peg diameter - .125 inch
pegs = round_to_odd( PI * D / (d * phi * phi))
were phi is 1.618 (golden ratio).
By using phi here, Hendershot may have been trying
to create a very specific angle where the wires cross --
one that is a function of PHI.
Hubbard used the golden ratio for his coil ... so
perhaps Hendershot used it as well in this way.
This is PURE speculation on my part ... but it
is interesting that it works out to exactly 57 pegs.