Quote:
Originally Posted by Artistico
Quote:
Originally Posted by IanNVJ35
Just finished my Ever Ready restoration - and had my first ever go at French polishing. This was in very poor condition - it had some sort of lacquer splattered all over it and hard old putty too - probably used in the shed at some point. I nearly never bothered but it was very nice under the mess - and I have it running now. It has a punched reflector which spreads the beam very nicely and with a Gibraltar lamp, casts a soft glow. The switch was completely messed up but I got that fixed ok too. Probably about 1920. to say that it is completely different from modern LED lights is an understatement - yet both have their place.
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That is a nice restoration. I just bought a similar bullseye glass torch from eBay. I am not a torch collector, but it was sold by a seller I bought a reel-to-reel player from and I just fell in love with the look of it.
While I've not received it yet, I have started thinking about batteries. I see that you have modified yours to take a single D-cell. If it has an original-style bulb, however, do you know what the original battery's voltage would have been? I've tried googling for old batteries, but I've still not positively spotted the style that would have fitted in one of these originally.
Are replacement LED bulbs available that run best on 1.5V?
I'll look into more of this after receiving it, of course, but I just thought I'd get prepared. |
Hi,
Sorry - missed your question.
Original battery would have been a 4.5 Volt box battery with external terminals - driving a 3.5 Volt bulb. However if your lamp still has the original antique bulb it should not be driven at more than 3.2 Volts - they will burn out on any more. The original battery would have sagged to a lower Voltage very quickly.
I have a few suggestions, but the main thing with these old lights is that the bulb you use works well with the reflector and lens. Some bulbs give a nice beam and some give an absolutely horrible light - a big black hole in the beam for one. If there is no bulb fitted, look for 'pointer' bulbs used in 1960's and 1970's slide shows - makes an arrow. These, with their long filament work well in these lights and don't show up as an arrow in the beam. Modern bulbs with short coiled filaments don't really work - well they do, but its not pretty!
Keep us posted
