Anyone own a Latham blower, and can take some measurements for me? I'm a model builder, and I want to make a 1/8th scale Latham for a Corvair powered Model T i'm building. If i'm going to make one, i'd like to get it close to realistic. I need the diameter and length of the tube part of the housing. Also how thick are each of the rings that make up the housing. Need the measurement across the ends of the square housings, and how thick they are. Maybe the pulley diameters if possible. I've been searching the forum and the internet like crazy, and only finding a few stay pics here and there, so I know this an obscure request! Thanks in advance!
Search Indy Road Rockets and contact one of them, maybe they can put you in touch with a Rumble participant from a couple weeks ago. Yancey Johnson goes by "Gassedbaker" here on the HAMB and I know he knows the car as Yancy is a died-in-the-wool Caddy man. There was a Gold '35 Ford Coupe with a Latham Blown Caddy mill. It appeared to be an old '60's Drag/Show Car and the engine bay was over the top. Good Luck, Johnnie.
I've got a 4 Carb Latham waiting for either a SBC or a FE. I'll take all of the measurements tomorrow & PM you "just the facts" Ha ha. I'll also take Pic's with a tape measure beside them for additional info I don't have the carb mount phlenum. (SP???) but do have all of the pulleys for either a Y-block or a SBC. Movin/on
Man!! That would be so awesome, I would appreciate it so much!! Any measurements you can, i'm gonna try and do this one right. Really appreciate it!
I'm getting pissed at this web site typed for 10+ minutes & then starting making attachments of pic's & then it dumped me due to 3 photo'd being over 117Meg. So here are the specs then i'll send another with pic's. Model 16-AL serial # 001540 4 carb setup Overall housing length 16-1/4 " Front pulley 2-1/2 flange with a pulley dia of 2" & a belt width of 1.5" The front bearing housing is 3"dia * 1" thick Case bolts are 3/8 dia & are stainless with open ended cap(acorn) nuts. Front Case is aluminum 6-7/8 wide & 6-1/4 high. 2-5/8 thick with a slight bevel to the nuts.(see photos) Rear Case is 6-3/4 wide & 6-3/4 high and is 2-3/4 thick with a bearing case hole 4" dia & 1-3/4" deep. The turbine case rings are 1/4 inch wide for the thin ones and 3/4 " for the thick with a 1/32" bevel between them. The Case dia is somewhere between 6-1/4 & 6-3/8. Hard to measure because I don't have a 6" caliper. Picture of the pulleys carbs & brackets in the next reply. Sorry but Pictures in the next reply. I hate typing things 3 times
Thank you so much Movin/on!! That will really do the trick, I should be able to make a pretty realistic version! I had no idea that the front slanted down like that, I never noticed it in other pictures. I forgot all about the YH carbs, I think i'm going to make those too, but fairly simplified. Carbs are going to a bear, probably more time to build than the blower! If I can make a couple more request? Can you get a straight on shot of the Latham tag? I think I can make that into a sticker to put on the front. How long is the YH carbs? What's the outside diameter of the throat opening, and how far apart are the bolts on the base, the two with the open-ended holes? Luckly there is a lot of info on YH's on the internet, if I have a couple of basic measurements, I can scale from the pics for the rest. Oldcarmanualproject.com has a great service manual for that carb. I want you to know I really appreciate your effort, thank you!
Mojo and movin/on. Thanks for the info, too. I always thought they were a good looking unit. This got me curious to "how's that work?' Stole this from the internet in case anyone else wants to know: One unusual design is Latham's "Axial Flow" supercharger that resembles a fan compressor from a jet engine. A cylindrical rotor with dozens of little blades spins inside a bladed housing to compress the incoming air in stages. Like a centrifugal supercharger, it runs at high speed (470 percent overdrive) and is not a positive displacement pump but more of a high volume fan with an operating speed around 20,000 rpm! One of it's claimed advantages was a much lower outlet air temperature than a Roots type blower. The Latham supercharger was produced briefly from about 1955 to 1965, but never gained widespread acceptance. And here:http://www.axialflow.com/history.htm Over 600 produced. Pretty rare. Frank
I have a Latham/manifold, the 21st built. It was the first thing I bought when I got a job with the Post Office in 1960. It took one years salary to pay for it (I lived at home). It was on the 1959 US Nationals Car Show '"Best Engine Award" winner from the 1959 Detroit Nationals, before they moved the event to Indy. I have stored it under my bed, under a Danish Modern couch (...remember those?) and now it is stored in a closet. It has outlasted two non-understanding wives. I still plan to use it someday.....unless somebody buys it. Those blowers were individually made by Norm Latham, one of the oiginal NASA engineers (retired), they were never meant to be mass produced. Production ended when Norm could no longer build them. It is not that they "never caught on". As a side note, I have most of the original literature, including the Goodyear Belt advertisement which announced the first production flat belt, and many pages of mimeographed (another memory)installation and parts information. I also still have quite a few original return letters & info sheets from Norm Latham, magazine articles & testimonials. Every project I have built has had the "possibility" that the Latham would finally be used. I am now finishing up a streamliner for Bonneville Salt Flats racing, and again the possible use of the Latham has been considered....unless someone buys it.
Just saw the post about "Billet" & Streetrods at Billetproof NW. Kind of made me sick & rethink my latham. Billetproof in Michigan looked alot better from my 3 visits Does a Latham qualify/look like Billet????? It sure does look like Billet to me & I own one. WTF am I doing posting pictures here of one? Where is the limit nostalga or polished & billet aluminum. I do realize that Lathams were last produced in 1965.
Here are some shots of my friends Latham topped Hemi.I dont have any measurements but the pics may help you.
mazdaslam, thanks for the pics! Now that I have some mesurements, I can measure the rest out from any picture I get. It's interesting to see that this 11-A doesn't have the same slanted top (where the tag is) as the 16-AL that movin/on posted. Being a lower model number, I wonder if it's earlier? Or just a different fitment? Is that a dodge sedan? Tough looking car, really diggin it!
It is billet! You don't want to be a "street rodder" do you?? You should sell it to me! I think there is a huge difference between billet like that Latham, and billet, like those ugly sharp edged mirrors advertised in the back of "Street Rodder". The Latham is billet because it was a viable construction technique, to make a high quality part that would hold up well. Those mirrors and other accessories are billet because it's a cheap way to mass produce boring looking items that fit into a certain culture. You gotta wonder if people will be search for billet in 50 years, the way they search for old speed parts now...
What are you smoking? To me the B word is a decoration made to replace something that would have been a form follows function design. When You make something out of aluminum because it's the best/easyist way to accomplish the design function It's not B anymore. It's form follows function. I make some stuff from plate and bar stock. I'll never polish it, and strickly functional spacers and adaptors. I don't consider it billet. It's available and easy to work material. That's hot roding. I would not consider what you got as billet. Unless you break out the "Neverdull" once a week Frank
It's good that it's survived for so long. I suspect quite a few were scrapped, when people didn't uderstand what they were or how rare they are. It is possible to see some photo's of yours? It would be really great to see those parts and installation instuctions! Do you have a means and desire to scan them? It would be good to have an archive of those some where on the internet. I've never even heard of someone having them, it would be interesting to see!
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