This wonderful scaled down laminated carved wooden ‘sample’ propeller was made in a similar way to full size propellers of this era; circa 1914. It has the international decall from Integrale when they had workshops in Germany and Britain as well as France; as indicated by the presence of the three different patent marks for those nations. During WWI the three workshops became independent companies and used decals with slight variations from the symbol on this propeller. Mounted on a custom-made wall bracket that allows the propeller to spin.
Dimensions: 84 cm/33 inches (length) x 8.75 cm/3⅜ inches (width) x 9.5 cm/3¾ inches (thick).
Prior to World War I, frenchman Lucien Chauvière was the pioneer in propeller development. Louis Bleriot’s aircraft successfully crossed the channel in July 1909 employing a distinctive propeller from Chauvière's company ‘Integrale’. One of the principal features of Chauvière's propeller designs was the shape of the blades; the leading edges being curved with the rear edges being straight, the ultimate effect of which is to allow a part of the air pressure to move behind the axis of the propeller i.e. on to the rear part of the blades; therefore limiting deformation which detrimentally alters the pitch of the propeller - a fault that plagued many badly designed propellers. So dominant was the position of this French firm that they started to manufacture propellers in several other countries. In 1913 they acquired temporary premises in Kentish Town, London and soon afterwards moved to a bigger “factory/workshop.
