Benelux mid-50's derailleur - not adding tension - any ideas?

[Poacher]

Mostly - I can get 6-8 gears of the 10 - but my thought is that it probably needs a replacement derailleur. The cage is quite battered, the spring unit a bit rusty.

But at least it works.

Since there only looks like about two teeth difference between the chain rings, maybe you're not missing much!
I've never understood the point of having tiny differences, but my mate Crazy Nick was convinced that this gave you a wider range of gears! It took a great deal of patience and irrefutable mathematics to persuade him otherwise, and I think he still suspects I pulled some kind of con.

 

[DCLane]

@Poacher - I do quite like the front derailleur. It harks back to a classic time period. However, I'd agree that having very little difference between the chainrings makes no sense at all imho.

 

[tyred]

Those old derailleurs couldn't handle large jumps in gearing very well so they were usually close range.