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From the web site www.axialflow.com a company making axial flow supercharger units today…
HISTORY
The first use of axial flow compressors for automotive supercharging was by Norman Latham of West Palm Beach Florida in 1956. This unit was known as the Latham Supercharger and was sold until 1965. These were built with a sheet-metal blade installed into a ring and locked by another ring. Very clever way of getting a wing into a disk. Trouble was there was no aerodynamic shape and the time to build was totally unacceptable.
These were made for almost all cars being produced at that time. They were supplied with Carter one barrel side draft carburetors in two and four carb setups.
There were over 600 produced. Most are still in running condition and sell at a premium on the vintage car market.
The Latham company was sold to Richard Paul in 1982.
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From the 1959 book, ‘The Complete Book of Hot Rodding’ by Robert E. Petersen and The Editors of Hot rod Magazine published by Prentice-Hall, Inc.
Chapter 11, ‘Supercharging for Increased Performance’, page131, second column…
Latham axial-flow superchargers are available for both road use and competition. These superchargers differ from conventional centrifugal and positive displacement types in that their only moving part is a long rotor encased in a tubular housing. The rotor runs on ball bearings and it is rotated by the crankshaft by means of a flat belt. The outer diameter of the rotor is fitted with a large number of blades, as is the inner diameter of the housing.
As the rotor is rotated, air moved in the housing by the blades on the rotor creates a low pressure at the front end of the housing and a high pressure at the rear end. Atmospheric pressure outside the blower forces air through the carburetors bolted to the front of the housing to compensate for the low pressure. As the air passes through the carburetors,fuel is mixed with it and then the fuel/air mixture is forced to the rear of the housing and into the engine’s intake manifold.
When Latham blowers were first made available they were designed to use the stock intake on the engines on which they were installed. Performance with this set-up wasn’t too good because of the restriction to air flow create by the manifold but this condition was corrected at a later date by providing special manifolds with the blowers. These manifolds have adequate flow capacity to handle the air displaced by the supercharger, enabling the boost created by the blower to get into the engine. Good performance has been recorded at several competition events with this new set-up.
Note: On page 130 there is a picture of a 45 degree down front-on-view of an early ‘Bird engine compartment with a Latham unit installed. Perhaps the hood was removed for the picture taking. The pictured Latham unit has two carburetors mounted horizontally at the front of the supercharger parallel to the radiator. Flexible tubing is attached to the carb air horns and makes a 90 degree bend back toward the firewall seemingly supported just above each Ford exhaust manifold. The flexible tubing junctions into helmet-like air cleaner housings that are also horizontally positioned and end about midway between the tip of the wing and the head of the bird on the aluminum ‘Bird valve covers.