Any information about the mufflers?
My net search was not informational enough!
Any ad claims or other information about construction?
?
AP Exhaust Products(still around?) manufactured the Taylor Loud Speaker tunable exhaust in 1927 or so. Maybe the company has archived info?
Here is period advertisement on the Taylor Loud Speaker muffler.
Automobile Trade Journal 1929
John E. Goerlich
Toledo, Ohio
Muffler
Patent number: 1697839
Filing date: Apr 5, 1927
Issue date: Jan 1, 1929
http://tinyurl.com/moxk8ca
Great Detective work as always Dan and Art!
HEY! COOL! I have that EXACT muffler on my T speedster! Well, my own reproduction of it. I had an original on the car when I got it but it was so rusted out that it was pretty useless - except as the basis to weld up a whole new one from scratch! It's not a great picture but you can see the muffler while I was rebuilding my rear-end.
There's a wire from the lever on the big pipe and it runs up through the floor board, when you pull the wire forward and hook it onto something, it leaves the big pipe open. The old advertisement shows the little lever sticking off the end of the big pipe but not the springs that hole the big pipe valve closed.
And yes, I agree with the add - with the big pipe open it is LOUD. I recently swapped to a Zenith S4BF carb and have noticed that when I'm over 40 MPH, if I open up the pipe, it's good for 2 to 3 more MPH without changing anything else, really relieves the back-pressure. However, with the big pipe closed, it sounds just like any other T. If you crank it up with the big pipe open it makes the T sound like a beast while it's sitting there idling. It's got a deep, throaty burble.
My reconstructed version is completely identical to the original item. I'd be glad to make another one for anybody interested - $250 total, shipped anywhere in CONUS.