In the US, manual Y-Delta starting was so rare as to be almost non-existent if it didn't come from Europe on a piece of machinery. There are serious problems with all Y-Delta starting, even if done correctly. There is IMHO, nothing worse for your motor. It is in fact usually less harmful to start across-the-line! Y-Delta is essentially a "cheap cheat" around the requirements for reduced voltage starting. It appears to do the job, but only because you can't see what is really happening. A phenomenon called a "transition spike" is occurring every time you switch from Y to Delta, and that spike can be out of phase with the motor when it happens, causing a torque transient of up to 3 or 4 times the rated torque of the motor. It's very brief, but it is always doing some incremental damage. On big motors, I have seen it twist the shafts right off. it also causes voltage and current spike, which is what damages the controller contacts, causes fuses to blow, breakers to trip and can damage other electronic components in the facility such as SCRs. All in all, not worth the trouble to figure out how to use them.
The old "1 armed bandit" type starters that Rabbit witnessed with the corn mill were "Manual Compensators", a form of manually stepped autotransformer or reactor starters. There was a big autotransformer or reactor on the bottom, and the crank handle on the side moved a double-throw switch from sending power through it (dropping the voltage) or directly to the motor after it got to speed. Those things were bullet proof and reliable. Unfortunately they relied heavily on the skill of the operator to work correctly, so as time went on, old timers retired and new workers were not interested in learning the "art" of starting a motor. So electrically controlled autotransformer starters replaced them, followed by electronic soft starters as they became cheaper.
[This message has been edited by jraef (edited 07-29-2006).]
