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Other Vintage Household Electrical or Electromechanical Items For discussions about other vintage (over 25 years old) electrical and electromechanical household items. See the sticky thread for details.

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Old 26th Aug 2019, 1:35 pm   #21
valvekits
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Default Re: Weird 'thing'...

Stick a handle on the shaft and my best guess would be an early electric tram car controller to regulate the voltage for the traction motors.

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Old 26th Aug 2019, 2:30 pm   #22
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Default Re: Weird 'thing'...

Are any internal contacts up to that kind of current or would it need external contactors to drive the starting resistor bank steps?
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Old 26th Aug 2019, 10:40 pm   #23
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Default Re: Weird 'thing'...

Is this the same one or a different one? https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthist...k_its_british/


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Old 26th Aug 2019, 11:18 pm   #24
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Default Re: Weird 'thing'...

looks the same device, interesting it has a 24V DC supply as well, and what looks like a selector plug for the 11 positions. PVC cables terminated in industrial Lewden plugs. Are those push buttons above the indicators? Looks like its been screwed down through the base to something.

Maybe railway related, some sort of remote signalling sender or decoder? Someone must know!
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Old 27th Aug 2019, 8:09 am   #25
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AFAIK the first pipe organ (or at least the first patent for one) to be fully electrically controlled was built by Uli Behringer's (yes that Behringer) father who was a nuclear physicist. Now how many people can say their house that they grew up in had it's own pipe organ!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=woQTCaTndhk
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Old 27th Aug 2019, 9:50 am   #26
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I'll need to read the patent to discover exactly what 'firsts' they are claiming for H. Behringer's organ action. The first pipe organs to be fully electrically controlled were built around 80 years earlier in the late Victorian period. Intricate electromechanical actions such as matrix relays, data multiplexers for expanding the number of channels stored on the paper roll of a reproducing organ, and 4-kilobit non-volatile memories that functioned like EEPROMS for storing stop combinations were in use in the 1930s. Solid-state electronic organ relays were commercially available from the early 1960s.

Anyway, I can say with 99.999% certainty that Blake's device is not part of an organ!
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Old 27th Aug 2019, 11:53 am   #27
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Hi

Trains use 110V or 24V for operation. 24V for diesel trains as these have generators and 24V batteries and they were the first on the market so to speak. 110V for electric (pantograph) since the supply voltage is high to start with and they keep it high for the usual reasons I guess.

Interesting item! Steam Punk without even trying!


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Old 27th Aug 2019, 12:25 pm   #28
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The voltages give certain hints, e.g. it is not 'ordinary' telephone apparatus which typically works at 50V, but don't tie it to any particular field of engineering because they are such popular voltages. There is a slight bias towards battery-powered or battery-backed applications, but not as strong as in the case of a 36V device for example.
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Old 27th Aug 2019, 4:51 pm   #29
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110V DC also for diesel electric. Battery drives generator for starting up.
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Old 27th Aug 2019, 5:03 pm   #30
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Jon_G4MDC View Post
110V DC also for diesel electric. Battery drives generator for starting up.
I remember some electric trains also used 80V for in-compartment lighting.

The purpose of this "Thing" - I suspect - might never come to light (pardon the pun) I wonder if it could perhaps be some sort of "Trade test" piece produced by an early-last-century apprentice/journeyman/technician? Some of these were extremely elegant bits of hand-manufacture using a range of skills (turning, soldering, wiring, joinery/cabinetry) but served no practical purpose except to allow the apprentice to demonstrate a level of competence adequate to gain him admission to the Fraternity of Spodwanglers or similar.
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Old 27th Aug 2019, 5:23 pm   #31
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Trains use all sorts of odd voltages including 24 volts, 32 volts, 50 volts, 64 volts, 75 volts and 110 volts, most of which are rather variable depending on whether a battery is on charge or discharge.
However I don't think that this item is railway related. Nor IMHO likely to be tram or trolley bus related.

One possibility occurred to me, perhaps remote group control for street lighting ?
Some early street lighting schemes were manually controlled from the town hall or police station as being cheaper and more reliable than time switches.
Switching in groups would be preferable to all at once if the street lighting load was large compared to the generating capacity.

The well finished cabinet might support this theory as the control box would likely be on view in a public building.
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Old 27th Aug 2019, 8:04 pm   #32
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The shaft on the LH side might be partly under hand control leaving the other hand to do other stuff....

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Old 27th Aug 2019, 9:06 pm   #33
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Well, we know there are at least 2 of them, so it isn't a one off.
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Old 27th Aug 2019, 10:54 pm   #34
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Quote:
Originally Posted by IanBland View Post
Well, we know there are at least 2 of them, so it isn't a one off.

My forensic examination of the images, largely based on the the angle of the slotted wood screws in the case, suggests to me that we are looking at the same artefact.
Not to mention they are both in Milton Keynes!

Radio_Dave, I'm intrigued to know how you searched for, and found that other image. I had tried a Google Image search and also TinEye.com
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Old 27th Aug 2019, 11:48 pm   #35
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Default Re: Weird 'thing'...

Sequencer for a lights display like Blackpool?

David
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Old 28th Aug 2019, 6:33 am   #36
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Default Re: Weird 'thing'...

If it's lift related find an American building that had 11 floors
and has since been demolished.
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Old 28th Aug 2019, 9:11 am   #37
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Quote:
Originally Posted by rambo1152 View Post
Radio_Dave, I'm intrigued to know how you searched for, and found that other image. I had tried a Google Image search and also TinEye.com
I just put random keywords into a google image search, something like "vintage 110vdc relay neon".

I've stared at the photos for ages and there's so many things I don't understand. Why does it have a glass front, why does the front open easily, What's the sliding scale for and what moves it?

Here are my random thoughts. It looks like should be wall mounted, but it's not. Is it because there are no walls to mount it to? It's also not hard wired, which in my mind rules out lift controllers, door locks etc. Perhaps it was portable for use in something like a class room or hospital? Perhaps it was temporary, traveling fairground or Christmas lights?

If it were mine I would have applied power to it by now!

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Old 28th Aug 2019, 9:16 am   #38
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Default Re: Weird 'thing'...

If it were mine I'd have reverse engineered it mechanically and electrically.
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Old 28th Aug 2019, 9:19 am   #39
Viewmaster
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Radio_Dave View Post
If it were mine I would have applied power to it by now!
Then a voice would say, "First floor, ladies underwear."
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Old 28th Aug 2019, 9:26 am   #40
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Default Re: Weird 'thing'...

anything to do with ticker tape, some sort of shift register or demultiplexer, or some sort of event storage device, can the OP elaborate on the actual interaction of the shaft with the relays...for example, are the relays all mechanically latching? Does the rotation just reset them, either together or sequentially? What other solenoids are there in there, any? Are the 110 and 24 interconnected at all? I need it here!
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