On 25/04/10 08:01, David Hare-Scott wrote:
John Savage wrote:
I use an electric line-trimmer to mow a grassy area of stony ground
that I hesitate to call "lawn". Originally the trimmer came with a
thin flexible nylon line, and while it performed satisfactorily, I
was horrified at the amount of nylon line it consumed. I felt I had
to too frequently tap it on the ground to feed more line and drooping
branches of shrubs and Morning Glory would tangle with it and draw
out excess line, only to have it instantly severed by the trimmer's
built-in metal cutter. Besides, I pictured all the nylon dust with
which I was needlessly contaminating the yard each time I mowed.
So I purchased a heavier gauge green nylon line, the stuff with about
8 sharp corners. It is stiff and demands some dexterity to get it
wrapped around the spool properly and the ends threaded through the
pair of eyelet holes for it to feed out.
Despite seven hours of mowing, it's still on the first spool of
this thicker line, so it is indeed lasting considerably longer,
though there are only about 2 turns remaining now.
But the mystery is this: not once have I bumped it on the ground
to feed more line! Every time I check, the two nylon whiskers
are about one cm short of the length where they would be auto-
matically trimmed. So the line must be feeding through all by
itself. The coil of line cannot slip around on the spool, I made
sure of that. I can't figure out the mechanism by which this magic
automatic feed operates. I am quite sure it is not feeding so much
at a time as to have it trimmed by the metal blade, as I would
recognise the characteristic sound; and the fact that one spool is
giving such enduring service attests that none is being wasted in
that way.
Anyone seen this phenomenon before??
No and I am by no means an expert on these things but I will have a
guess. The heavier line pulls harder due to centrifugal force and this
is slowly unreeling it, luckily at a useable rate. In any case bless the
day that you have serendipity and not sod's law at your house.
I agree with David, the same happened to me.
But as an aside, centrifugal force is fictitious.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centrifugal_force