Rain-O-Mat No. 11 and No. 7 Full Circle Brass Ball Drive Sprinklers and the story of Elmer Reynolds

Elmer Reynolds was an irrigation designer in the Los Angeles area who developed and patented a ball-driven rotor to help his clients. This invention led to the founding of his company, Rain-O-Mat. Come along and enjoy the story of Elmer Reynolds and his amazing sprinkler, then enjoy watching two of his creations in action.
Thanks for watching!
#irrigation #sprinklers #whittier #losangeles #californiahistory #americanmanufacturing #patents #turfgrass

[@photocontrol]

Nice Rain-O-Mat ball drive sprinklers. They are able to get pretty good distance. The ball drive is an ingenious way to achieve a rotating sprinkler in a small package.

[@antiquesprinklers]

Thank you. I agree.

[@oldschoolsprinklers9000]

Great looking display of Rain-O-Mat sprinklers. I always found very intriguing of how simple the design is and how well they work! I did also noticed how the first one rotates clockwise and the second one rotates counter clockwise. Interesting! It must be the direction of the port plate that is cut for the water to whirl into the respective directions. Thanks for sharing these gems!!

[@antiquesprinklers]

Thanks. I think you’re right about the port plate.

[@MooglePower]

Beautiful! I’ve been looking to get one of these for a while now.

[@antiquesprinklers]

Thanks!

[@rasensprengermannparzival3018]

The magic ball drive! A great sprinkler. Could it be that the direction of rotation is determined by which side of this mysterious nose the ball lands on? I can clearly see that N° 7 also turns to the left.
Apart from the ball mystery: thank you for quoting the "„spirit of the age“ of the 60s. (I just realized that there is no suitable translation into English for the German word “Zeitgeist means spirit of the age"). I wouldn't have noticed it with the pop-up sprinklers, but all the sprinklers that were placed on the lawn by the hose seem to me to have been influenced by the 1960s sense of form, and not just in the USA. In Germany, too, people wanted to be modern in the garden.

[@antiquesprinklers]

Since my teen years, I’ve translated that in my head directly as time ghost every time. It’s a great term. We’ve borrowed it untranslated to make up the hole in our language, as we do. Good question about the all relative to the tab on the spindle. Will have to ponder that.

[@randyvanheusden732]

It is an amazingly simple design. I hear the ball moving inside, but it seems to be inconsistent. The 7 caught me off guard as it appeared to run in a clockwise direction and then counter-clockwise. Was I seeing things or did it change directions on its own? Seems like a very smart design. I would love to have seen a close up of how the spring and ball work together. Thank you for your videos.

[@antiquesprinklers]

Thank you. I always appreciate your close examination and insightful comments. Would love to be able to show the role the spring plays, but can’t imagine how…maybe I could take one out, light the interior better…I’ll give it some thought. I have a couple I wouldn’t mind sacrificing to the cause.
I have to admit I had to take another look. In a couple of segments of video it can be hard to see which direction the No. 7 is moving, but I think it’s still moving counterclockwise. I was surprised that it ran in that direction with my bias being clockwise as forward for sprinkler, but looking at it again I think it’s consistent.

[@randyvanheusden732]

@@antiquesprinklers It sure was a good illusion for sure. I had to look at it a second time to see if it changed directions some how. I tried watching the one stream and I was convinced it changed direction. Anyway the working pieces inside have me thinking of how that works, a great mystery.

[@antiquesprinklers]

@randyvanheusden732 for sure.