I belive they stopped use it because the enormous wear on the gear, if i remember correctly the big gear wheel used to be made of oil-bronze, because of the trouble lubricating it.
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But they must still have had it in an oil bath and not just relied on the oil-bronze properties I hope, even though it is a lot of oil in that
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Yes, it was in oil bath, the oil bronze was to compensate for “point pressure” where oil film breaks.
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Wouldn’t a worm gear have to be something:1?
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Since I do not know and since you asked, I’m guessing that you are correct so it would be a 20:1 ratio on this. 
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I looked into using a worm drive for my chunker, because you can make very large speed ratios that way. I they a make a lot of heat because of friction. It is difficult to remove this heat from larger sized worm drives. So worm drives usually are not used for more than 5 hp.
Rindert
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Ok, that makes sense. This is a 3hp motor but it is enough for this work. 
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They use them in the walk-behind two stage snowblowers if you need to find one cheap.
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