New Acquisitions

DST100 Communications Receiver

 

 Strowger Relay

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 Low Voltage Stabilised Power Supply

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 Doolittle PR7NA

US Navy receiver made in 1944

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 T4188 Transmitter

These were fitted in the V-bombers

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 A Resistance Bridge made by Elliott Brothers

 A Lissen Kenilworth with push-button tuning

Model 8543
 

 

This has been propped up on our window ledge pointing up the stairs for the best part of 25 years.

Does anyone recognise it?


Toyo 100Watt Dummy Load

 A useful dummy load which turned up recently. I wonder why it's spec starts at only 3.5MHz and what's the significance of "M" and "N" on the curves? This has a PL259 socket so I wonder if "N" implies there's a version with an N connector?

 

 An old REVO electric fan from the early 1930s I think?
 

 

 This came fitted with an old two-pin 2-amp plug commonly used before WW2 and, on the underside, the makers' name "Revo" Model? "12" and Serial Number 62384.

 

It bears a marking for 200 to 220 volts 50 Cycles but etched next to this is "240 volts".

 

I haven't plugged it in because the wiring is a bit too brittle for my liking.

 

I think there are plenty of Electric Fan followers out there so maybe one would care to comment on the Revo's true age?

Sony CDP101

I was tidying up the workshop when I found an old CD player. It was left over from the days I used to repair such things and I recall this particular thing belonged to me rather than a customer. Repairing CD players was a tricky business. Usually one could buy a complete optical mechanism for a few pounds and drop it into place and the player would work like new, however, some manufacturer's models used very unusual optical units whose replacement cost well over a hundred pounds. These equipments were automatically consigned to the scrap heap because prices on new players had dropped to less than £30.

For some reason I'd kept this Sony player and today I looked it up on the Net. It turns out to be the first commercially produced CD player so is definitely worth keeping. These players sold originally for over £500 in 1982 and working models still fetch well over £100.

Ever Ready Portable Radio

See its relation using the same circuit

 A nice Ever Ready portable from 1939. It's a model 5214 and it's most unusual, at least in the UK, as it uses "side contact" valves. These were common in Germany and other places but not the UK, whose manufacturer's preferred octal based valves.

It came from Wimborne in Dorset.

Is the covering real snakeskin? I suspect this may have been cheaper than plastic in those days. Then again I don't recall seeing many red snakes. Perhaps they were wiped out in the late 30s when parted from their outer coverings?

Philips N4418 Open Reel Tape Recorder

 This is the Philips Model N4418, their top of the range open reel tape recorder in the 70s.

I picked it up for £10 from the local recycling centre after filling in numerous forms, presumably to imdemnify the workers, local council officials, the UK Government and Brussels beaurocrats if I accidentally electrocuted myself when plugging it in. Absolute and utter nonsense! What's the world coming to?

Fortunately the mains lead was intact, tucked into a little compartment. Were the recycling people breaking some sort of law not cutting it off!

£10 was a lot of money considering the showroom was not available for demonstrations, but I was very pleasantly surprised when I plugged it in, and switched it on, to find it was in perfect working order.

Even the perspex cover is intact. The only faults I could find were a slipping belt on the tape counter and a faulty bulb in the RH output meter.

Considering that the price of the machine when new was about 50% of a small car such a mini, £10 wasn't bad. As the chap said when he quoted £10, "collectors are after them". Well one was and I'm very pleased I coughed up the cash.

Horn Loudspeaker

 An early horn loudspeaker

Standing on a mahogany base and having a lacquered brass adjuster and connectors, this loudspeaker probably dates to around 1922 or 1923. It was made by S G Brown who were a leading company in the early days of audio amplification, particularly of crystal sets, using magnetic amplifiers, before valves were commonplace.

This example, which has a horn opening of 12" and stands 21" high, appears to have been restored, or at least repainted. The impedance of the energising coil is 4000 ohms and would have been ideal for connection to a crystal set in place of the usual headphones.

Stella ST404T

 Newer than my usual purchases, this Stella "All Transistor" ST404T dates from August 1960. It looks as if it just came out of its box for the first time and worked perfectly when three "AA" batteries were fitted.

 

WW1 Aircraft Transmitter

click the box to see more pictures

 This is part of a WWI Aircraft Transmitter. Encapsulated within the wooden box is a step-up transformer. The metal fittings on the top are parts of a buzzer which interrupts the battery supply. There is an iron stud protruding slightly in the centre of the top panel which is magnetized when current passes through the transformer primary winding. This attracts an iron spring (missing) which carries the current. As the spring moves toward the iron stud the current is broken and the spring returns to its current carrying position, from where the cycle repeats.

The high voltage produced by the transformer secondary winding provides the energising current for the morse code transmitter.

A more complete example (a Trench Transmitter) can be seen here

French Galvanometers

click the picture to see more

 These are two similar examples of a mirror galvanometer, a very sensitive device for use with something like a Wheatstone Bridge.

The greater the sensitivity of current measurement, the greater the accuracy of measurement of resistance for example.

I bought these from a chap in France, where I imagine they were used in a Physics Laboratory. This particular design was invented by a chap named D'Arsonval.

The mirrors are presently detached but normally would be suspended so that they are visible through the front window. A light source can be directed at the mirror, which reflects a spot onto a remote scale. Inside the case is a horse-shoe magnet and the flux from this reacts with the field developed by current passing through a coil mounted with the mirror. The result of this interaction is a mirror deflection.

English Galvanometer

 This is an English galvanometer, probably also from a Physics Laboratory. This type operates as an ordinary moving coil device and has a pointer which deflects when current flows through the instrument.

Both the pair above and this model rely on accurate setting up by altering the height of their feet.

 

Eddystone 770R 19-165MHz click to see

World War I but what is it? click to see

RAF Test Meter

 This meter measures a little over 2 inches across and attracted no interest to buyers, being described as WWII. If it had been correctly identified as WWI, I might have had to pay ten times the sum it went for.

It probably dates to 1917 or 1918, as before then it would have been inscribed "RFC" rather than "RAF".

The case is heavily nickel-plated brass and it reads 0-0.5Amp.

It once lived at the W/T Stores Depot, RAF Kidbrooke in Kent and it has No.4494 marked on the dial.

From the scale marking it could be a hot-wire type of meter and as such could have been used for tuning an early spark transmitter (click to see)

 

Calibrator, Crystal No7 MkI

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Some old valves

Latest collection

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See more stuff not yet included in detail

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