I've stumbled across this forum while looking for more information on Rapid, which is proving quite elusive, not surprising if they finished up business circa 1970, well before the internet! Thank you Andrew for those few tidbits of information.
For myself I have now collected a Rapid No 1, Rapid 'A' and a Rapid 'B', all three are of a similar size with only minor differences in design most significantly:
- Fully cast blower fins in the Rapid 'B' while the other two have a cast spindle with riveted sheet metal fins
- Two piece cast handle on the Rapid No 1, while the other two have a single piece cast handle (not including the wooden handpiece assembly)
- And as previously mentioned the Rapid No 1 has the gear box cast into the main body with a removable top cover, while for the other two the gearbox is split vertically
Neither the handles or the blowing fins are guaranteed features as they would be easily interchangeable between models and possibly even from different machines entirely, which given the age of these is not unthinkable. Does anyone have any ideas of the chronology of Rapid models and/or how many different models there have been?
While my Rapid No 1 came with the stand it was in pretty poor condition and missing the firepot entirely. I'd be very interested to see some more pictures of that cast firepot mat, especially the ash grate assembly.
I haven't got any pictures to share on hand, but might take some over Christmas when I have some time to pull them apart to show the internals as well as externals.