At 09:51 AM 12/5/2007, Karin Baker & Raymond Paquette wrote...
>I still can't really tell what the Thompson is.  Looks like a U joint
>with
>some extra bits that I can't decipher.  That photo of all the pieces
>just
>looks like a lot of pieces to me, I can't see how they go together.
>
>Anyone able to describe it simply?

I think it's basically two Cardan joints ("U" joints), one inside the
other, so when one is accelerating, the other is decelerating.