Walter & Group...
Interesting passage on rods from Gary Eaton :
12:30pm Sunday 14th March 2010
By Barbara Jordan
A REVOLUTIONARY invention could transform the biggest sport in the world.
A Runcorn physicist has invented an innovative fishing rod, inspired by the design of medical instruments.
Dr Chris Underwood, aged 52, said: ?I realised that what I had used in medical technology could be applied to the fishing rod.?
He converted the circular cross section into a triangle with rounded edges.
Dr Underwood, of D-Flex, developed his idea at Daresbury Science and Innovation Campus, after taking up fly fishing.
He spent 30 years making prosthetic hearts and articificial blood vessels and realised he could adapt the same technology to develop his invention.
His rod is based on ?a curve of constant width?, similar to the shape of a 20p coin.
?This shape is much stronger than a circle,? he said. ?This is a really simple idea.
?There has been no real innovation since carbon fibre came in 30 years ago.
?But it has taken me three years to get the technology to make the rods.
?It?s tremendously exciting yet increasingly frustrating.?
His patented prototype is stronger, lighter and more flexible.
Its unique shape allows the fishing rod to bend more readily on one side whilst the other stronger side provides more power and control for casting.
He said: ?I don?t want to go into manufacturing.
?I want to licence this new design tool to fishing rod manufacturers.
?Anything can be done if you have the right attitude and you?re really determined and creative.
?I?ve got my brief case in hand and I?m going to trawl the world.?
© Copyright 2001-2010 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.runcornandwidnesworld.co.uk
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Gary....
This triangular cross sectional fly rod might well resist change in geometry (ie. tendency to flatten) when bent.
One wonders how these would cast.
I searched for evidence of triangular rods made in past years. Found a wealth if not a virtual tome of information in Ernie Schwiebert's writings. * He describes bamboo rods of 2 strip design and of 3 strip design built by Samuel Phillippe and his son, Solon, in 1884. Whether or not the 3 strip models were sanded down to a circular outer configuration, I don't know.... however, they were said to have been abandoned by 1850. **
Jeffrey Hatton wrote about multi-strip rods including Charles Murphy's 4 strip rod, Edward vomHofe's 7 strip design and Abbey&Imbrie's "Best Eight-Strip" rod as well as Murphy's 6 strip later model followed by many who embraced that design over the years..... but nothing about triangular cross sectioned 3 strip models. He even included one by Everett Horton based on his 1887 patent. This one was a hollow tubular telescoping fly rod with no guides. The line entered the rod via a hole in the wood handle and exited at the tlp ! ***
Don Phillips describes bamboo fly rods of varying cross sectional geometry all the way from triangular through 4,5,6,8 and even a dodecadron design; lastly, rods of circular cross section. ****
* TROUT by Ernest Schwiebert, pp. 909 - 1095.
** " " " " , p. 966.
*** ROD CRAFTING by Jeffrey L. Hatton, pp. 8 - 60.
**** THE TECHNOLOGY OF FLY RODS by Don Phillips, p. 18.
Gordy