Good old British Engineering

[Alan Drover]

This is a Kismet trolley compressor made by William Turner from Sheffield dating from about the late 1940's or so. I bought it for £3 in a job lot at a local auction in the 1980's and it needed just an airline to get it working. It's a twin cylinder (one inside the other) and it makes short work of pumping the tyres on my MGB.
I tried it on the 7.50 Land Rover tyres and after 100 pumps I'd added 1psi. With 2 more psi and 3 more tyres to go I chickened out and used my twin cylinder T Max compressor connected to an old slave battery capable of the 45 amps the compressor takes.
The Kismet is very well engineered with oil cups on the pivots and the handle locks down for transport. Very hard work on 7.50's though.
I have a Kismet twin cylinder (again 1 cylinder inside the other) foot pump which is far superior to the modern tinware passing off as a footpump.

[2286]

I have yet to encounter a manual pump that is up to the task of inflating land rover tyres, or maybe its me that is short on compression.

I include double barrel and track pumps in that sweeping statement.

The problem I think comes when the pump allows more to escape than it actually is capable of shovelling in.

The trolley compressor is great visually.  Does the handle serve to pump and drag it around by?

I have found small 12v compressors require sizeable amps to have any effect.

[Alan Drover]

2286, the handle locks for transportation and unlocks to pump. Even that size barrel is slow work inflating Land Rover tyres. On 7.50's about 100 pumps is 1 psi on the gauge. Ok for smaller tyres though. I used it for pumping the Land Rover tyres until I bought the T Max. It was a good workout.
A modern car type electric tyre pump will likely burn out trying to inflate 7.50's. The T Max twin cylinder I have had a duty cycle of about 45 minutes before it cuts out thermally by which time the battery would be right down unless the engine is running. It pumps out 150 litres of air a minute, well suited for Land Rover tyres.

[2286]

Pumps of this vintage sometime feature oil soaked leather seals, might they want a refresh.

In the bike shop work out came courtesy of https://www.sks-germany.com/en/products/rennkompressor/.

This was considered top of the range track pump.

I have not encountered a land rover series track pump other than in the optional parts books.

[Alan Drover]

I was told by the man from whom I bought a refurbished Kismet Duplex foot pump not to use mineral oil but something like Neatsfoot oil sparingly which I've done. He emailed me an exploded diagram of the compressor with a list of the parts and maintenance instructions which I've had printed.

[ChrisJC]

I would think that if you were prepared to spend £500 on a foot-pump, you could have something equally over-engineered today. But of course nobody is, so there aren't any.

Chris.

[Ian F]

I had an Uncle and two Aunts who worked in William Turner post war. I got taken there occasionally by my Mum and remember it well. Especially the smell of solvents and the banter of the women.
Two of them died of cancer, one of them being mesothelioma.
Needless to say my dad and all my Uncles had Kismet pumps for their motorbikes.

Ian F

[Alan Drover]

I would think that if you were prepared to spend £500 on a foot-pump, you could have something equally over-engineered today. But of course nobody is, so there aren't any.

Chris.

I did spend on a refurbished Kismet Duplex foot pump recently from Gordon Edwards at vintagepumps.co.uk who refurbishes them and it wasn't cheap but excellent quality. The pump is at least 75 years old and it might even be prewar.

[martinthefirst]

I recently restored a "Dunlop Giant" footpump. It's working well now. Hope this link works:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/tgkw6J4S5rHVPzN6A

[Alan Drover]

Looking good.

[Gritstoner]

Plenty of good information on this site about old footpumps.

https://vintagepumps.co.uk/index.html

I have a Kismet Duplex Master that is ex air ministry, one day I'm going to clean it up and paint in the correct colour, but perhaps then it'll look too good to use!

[Alan Drover]

That's the site I used to get my Kismet Duplex foot pump. Gordon Edwards is the owner of the business.
I bought a refurbished but not over restored pump from him.

[2286]

I have got a couple of old pumps.

Pump 1
Alloy barrel and 1/4 steel frame, the tread is cast alloy and has halfords brand but I am sure its badge engineering.  No gauge.

Pump 2
Is a as above but has a water slide transfer on the barrel golden tornado.  This I believe were oe fitment on suffix a range rover, not sure how long for.  It has a brass dial gauge.

I find all pumps can suffer from poor sealing where the adaptor clamps the shreider valve.

The older pumps get age cracking in the delivery pipe usually concealed by the woven outer braiding.

The mention of neats foot oil suggests leather seals may be in use.

[Alan Drover]

The seals are leather. When I bought the pump it had a long clear airline pipe. I replaced it with a shorter one from a redundant foot pump.

[w3526602]

Hi,

Many yonks ago ... maybe late 1950s, or early 1960s, I drove Dad's 1835 Austin 10 Lichfield into a garage in the back end of Croydon, and asked for a gallon of petrol.
The "Old Codger" wound a handle to deliver the fuel.

When that task was completed, I went into the real reason for my visit ....

"Where can I check my tyres?"

The "Old Codger" went into his shed/office, and returned with a hand pump. 

I told him not to bother, and gave him a shilling tip .... I think the petrol cost about five shillings.

Gone are the days when you could buy a pint of "commercial" oil for a shilling, and garages were happy to sell you petrol by the half gallon. Barbara's Hyundai uses no oil between services, and I always "brim" the petrol tank, and don't look to see what it cost.

602