With all due respect to Doug MacQueen, the mechanism he described is not actually a dashpot which is more like a pneumatic cylinder. Push on a dashpot’s operating rod and it will slowly move as air escapes at a preset rate. The mechanism Doug described is more a centrifugal speed regulator or centrifugal governor.
Adding to the confusion, B-H had three patents in which a centrifugal device is described (364,922 and 383,040 and 383,041) and another in which a dashpot is described and illustrated (382,071).
A similar centrifugal device was used in dial telephones, for example, to regulate the rate at which the dial returns to its resting position. This provided adequate timing control for the pulses sent to the central office.
