Beauty of old electrical and measuring things, etc.

[dlgoff]

Hey Don
1954 on that ARRL manual ... not too many yrs before I was born ;)

Relative to me, that would make you a teenager. :D

 

[davenn]

wow, almost scared to ask your vintage ;)Happy New Year to both you and Jim ... have an outstanding 2015

 

[jim hardy]

Let's just say in 1954 i was in 3rd grade... President Eisenhower added "under God" to the pledge of allegiance... Navy launched the "Nautilus"...

 

[dlgoff]

Indeed it came from a television; that's where we got parts in early sixties... a local dump sold scrap TV chassis for 50 cents.
Even though it was just the right voltage I used a different transformer solely because that one was so ugly.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.

I consider first hand information like this to be like peer review information. I'm going to change it to the 5U4. Thank you. :)

You have a great memory Jim. I found a pic of the transformer I have used in the http://evilfurnaceman.tripod.com/id28.html .

I looked through my collection of vacuum tubes for a 5U4GB

and only found a 5U4G (which is more beautiful IMO)

but the filament was open.

So now I have an order in for a used 5U4GB and a new-old 5U4G.
I'll post a pic of the power supply with the correct transformer 5U4GB vacuum tube when it arrives.

 

[TurtleMeister]

When I was very young, before starting school, my parents had a tube type radio that was outside of it's enclosure. They kept it on the top shelf of a cabinet where I could not reach it, for obvious reasons. I think that was what first sparked my interest in electronics. The glow of the tubes, the seemingly magical way it could bring in sound from afar, and of course the fact that it could also be dangerous, made it very interesting to me. I wanted to know how it worked.

I did a little collecting of old stuff myself a few decades ago. I still have some of it, but not at my current location. I may have some pictures on my hard drive. If I find them I'll post them here.

 

[dlgoff]

I think that was what first sparked my interest in electronics. The glow of the tubes, the seemingly magical way it could bring in sound from afar, and of course the fact that it could also be dangerous, made it very interesting to me. I wanted to know how it worked.

So I'm not alone in how these old things sparked my interest in wanting to know how they worked.

 

[dlgoff]

While I've been waiting for the 5U4 tube to arrive, I've had time to take some pictures that may be of interest to some of our biological science members.

This vintage light bulb has a thick spiral carbon filament and has these markings: North American, (NALCO), 4CP 110V
It was used as a therapeutic heat source heating, for what I think are, tools for delivering blood absorbers and blood coagulants to the nose; from what was left in the vials I had to clean. I removed it to be displayed in one of my old surface fixtures and put a similar size blue bulb in it's place, which makes a good "night light".

 

[DennisN]

Even as a kid, I saw beauty in old devices. That made me want to understand how they worked. I had lots of old things that I keep and now reviving. Old things need to work to see the beauty. Here's what I've done so far.

Very cool, impressive and beautiful collection, dlgoff! :)

If you have any thing old and would like to share a photo, please do. It's all beautiful in my mind.

The only electrical/electronic things I could think of were some vacuum tubes I've got (I don't know how old they are) and two Hewlett-Packard calculators, HP-22 and HP-27 from ca 1975-1978, here are some photos:

Telefunken tubes:

Siemens tubes:

Philips tubes:

Mullard tube, unknown tube, "opened" tube and a Luxor Radio tube case:

HP-22 and HP-27 calculators, and a HP case to them:

 

[Garyabc]

Very very cool stuff

 

[dlgoff]

The only electrical/electronic things I could think of were some vacuum tubes I've got (I don't know how old they are) and two Hewlett-Packard calculators, HP-22 and HP-27 from ca 1975-1978, here are some photos:

Telefunken tubes:

Siemens tubes:

Philips tubes:

Mullard tube, unknown tube, "opened" tube and a Luxor Radio tube case:

HP-22 and HP-27 calculators, and a HP case to them:

Very nice. I really love the tubes. Especially the DY 87. Thank you for sharing these.

 

[jim hardy]

Ohhhhhhh, do i miss RPN calculators.

 

[dlgoff]

So now I have an order in for a used 5U4GB and a new-old 5U4G.
I'll post a pic of the power supply with the correct transformer 5U4GB vacuum tube when it arrives.

They arrived today and I decided to us the G type since the voltage regulators are of that type.

 

[dlgoff]

I added a 30,000K color temperature fluorescent tube and some more chemicals (glitter) to the chemistry glassware shelf. This revision goes out to Borek, who has enriched my life over the years.

 

[Mike_In_Plano]

On the topic of ancient things, there used to be an ultra-precise multi-turn potentiometer that was great for building references. All I recall now are the Helipots, but this thing had rings within rings on the face. I cannot remember their name, but they were wonderful instruments.

 

[dlgoff]

On the topic of ancient things, there used to be an ultra-precise multi-turn potentiometer that was great for building references. All I recall now are the Helipots, but this thing had rings within rings on the face. I cannot remember their name, but they were wonderful instruments.

So it wasn't a Beckman Instruments Helipot? Interesting.
[/PLAIN]
Helipot history.

 

[Mike_In_Plano]

Don,
Excellent video, and your probably correct that it had a Helipot buried in it, but assigned a product name to the whole thing, inclusive of the indicator rings.

 

[dlgoff]

I'm still moving on this Beauty project. I made some shelf room by putting the fluid gauges in a shadow box and did some restoration work on the old electrical meters which will go into their shadow box.

Stay tuned. Beauty via old Telephone Stuff coming soon.

 

[Mike_In_Plano]

Regarding the ancient technology for making precise settings -

The Dekastat!
http://www.tegam.com/pdf_files/calibration/resistors/ds1463_obs.pdf
I'm so happy I could kiss a duck on the beak after finally rediscovering this technology

 

[dlgoff]

I'm so happy I could kiss a duck on the beak after finally rediscovering this technology

That's the smallest "decade box" I've ever seen. Not like the ones I used in Physics II Lab. Do you have one?

Speaking of small. This is the smallest "Variac" I've ever seen. It's used as a light intensity controller for a cystoscope diagnostic light. It's old and is stored in a cool wood, felt-lined box. The variable secondary scale has 14 divisions from DIM to BRIGHT.

 

[dlgoff]

Stay tuned. Beauty via old Telephone Stuff coming soon.

I'm getting close to getting the telephone stuff restored and displayed.

Here's how the fluid gauge and electrical meter shadow boxes turned out.

 

[dlgoff]

The telephone project has taken a tremendous amount of time. It's hooked to my home phone line and just made my first test. Good dial-tone. I'll do some more test later. I won't be cranking the generator though. Fairly sure I won't get an operator asking what number I want if I did crank it. I'll upload some before pics later.

 

[dlgoff]

Here are some before pics.

It had some previous work in the past. Note the uneven glue job.

It was really dirty inside.

After it's been taken apart.

Here's the clean wood. The front (door) has been re-glued.

I had to make several tools to get the dents out of the candlestick (receiver/transmitter & stand)

Here's the door glue fixture.

 

[davenn]

Don,
thought of you when I saw this advert on facebook in Melbourne city far to my south ...
https://www.facebook.com/events/1436964459929586/

there's going to be so many items there you would love to get your hands on :)

If it had been in my city I would have gone and had a look for you and may got some gems for you

Dave

 

[dlgoff]

...I would have gone and had a look for you and may got some gems for you

Everyone need a little beauty in their lives. One of those gems belongs in your home.

Your thought gives me more beauty Dave. Thank you.

 

[dlgoff]

Now this beauty is very useful. It's the Heath Kit V-6 VTVM. I repainted the box and couldn't duplicate the color exactly but it was close.

 

[OmCheeto]

DSL modem just went on the blink. stop
Currently communicating via free Wi-Fi. stop
Was at the local Science museum on Wednesday, when I heard Morse code. stop
Still haven't learned Morse code. stop
Drats! stop

Modem is in the freezer. stop
Heard that fixes these new fangled machines. stop

Can't remember why people always ended sentences with "stop". stop

Argh!

 

[dlgoff]

Still haven't learned Morse code.

I've got just what you need.

And if you don't have a way to play it, I may be able to help there too.

Once you've learned the code, you'll need one of these.

 

[dlgoff]

Some old test equipment pieces can never look a good as they did in their youth, like this 1941 Philco 050 Tube Tester. It was stored for years in dampness and all I could do for the front panel was to seal in what was still there with a clear spray. I repainted the enclosure, replaced the felt on the feet, and spliced in the middle section of the carry strap (splice is under strap brackets). But most of the time was spent on the inside coating every wire's insulation with clear fingernail polish to seal crack and prevent shorts.

The real beauty in this case is the thing works. Now I'll be able to go through all my old tubes and annotate their quality on some new tube boxes.

 

[Borg]

I remember in the early 70's taking tubes to a local TV repair shop whenever our TV stopped working properly. I would take all of the tubes to the shop, find the bad one and have the TV working again pretty quickly. My mother thought I was some kind of miracle worker.

 

[dlgoff]

I remember in the early 70's taking tubes to a local TV repair shop ...

I did the same thing but at a gasoline filling station.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tube_tester:

From the late 1920s until the late 1960s, many drug stores and grocery stores in the U.S. had a self-service tube-vending display. It typically consisted of a tube-tester atop a locked cabinet of tubes, with a flip chart of instructions.

 

[dlgoff]

I added a little Sodium to the gas-discharge lamps. The one on the right is a low-pressure lamp and the one on the left is a high-pressure lamp. Both are rated at 35 Watts. The first pic was take at turn-on and the second pic was taken after they warmed up.

 

[dlgoff]

Here's a couple of items I picked up at an antique store. The Narco VHT-3 is going to be a fun one as I'm hoping to be able to demonstrate the VOR (very high frequency omnidirectional radio range) receiver by watching the course deviation indicator (CDI) change when reorienting the omnidirectional antenna I'm building.

 

[davenn]

hey Don,

real cool ... some great new additions there

Dave

 

[intonamouri]

Good stuff

 

[dlgoff]

real cool ... some great new additions there

Good stuff

Thanks for looking at these pics.

 

[Borg]

Did some late spring cleaning on a room where I store misc. stuff. I could have created a thread called the "Beauty of old coffee makers".

 

[dlgoff]

I could have created a thread called the "Beauty of old coffee makers".

If they have wires, post some pics. Preferably really old ones.

 

[Borg]

If they have wires, post some pics. Preferably really old ones.

I tossed them out. The thread would have honestly had to have been called "Crappy old coffee makers" or "Stuff for the garbage heap". I wouldn't think of sullying your thread with such trash.

 

[dlgoff]

It's good to have, as ZapperZ calls them, enablers. One of my "enablers" was talking to one of his neighbors, who's in the construction business, about my collection and the neighbor said he had found something in this old house that I may want and gave it to him to pass along to me. May want? Hello! What a great find!

Original leads, leather case (removed for display), and instruction manual. The ohms scales require a 1.5V and a 30V battery. The 1.5V battery leaked a little on the 30V one which is still alive at 27V. I'm so thrilled to have this Beauty.

 

[jim hardy]

That pristine Triplett is just wonderful !

I series-ed three nines for mine (bought new in 1964).

 

[dlgoff]

That pristine Triplett is just wonderful !

I series-ed three nines for mine (bought new in 1964).

I couldn't believe how good the condition was. I tried checking the space needed to use three modern nine volt ones but I just couldn't bring myself having them out side of the meter's designed battery compartment. Besides, for Ω measurements, the 1.5 volt battery is used on all but the X100 000 scale. If I ever wanted to use that scale, I'd have to bite the bullet and purchase the http://www.batterystore.com/eveready-413-neda-210-replacement-30-volt-battery-by-exell/. But I think I'll just look at the meter instead.

 

[Averagesupernova]

I have a meter like that Triplett but have never had a set of leads for it.

 

[dlgoff]

I have a meter like that Triplett but have never had a set of leads for it.

You know. These test leads may not be original after all. When I saw the "1200V MAX." molded into the red and black prob ends, I just assumed they were originals. Now I'm thinking they may be replacements. Sorry about that. You know what they say about "assume"?

 

[dlgoff]

It's been a while since updating with some more beauty. I've been working on several goodies so I'll just show a snapshot of the display for now. The Nav radio is the one I've been clearing the bench for.

the display

To get the Nav radio working required an antenna, so I had to build one like the ones used with it back in the day. They called it a "cat wisker whisker" directional dipole similar to this one on the tail of a Cessna 172. (image compliments of http://www.weekendcfii.com/)

Since Greg and berkeman has made it possible to share my stuff, I'm dedicating the one I built to them and Physics Forums. Thanks Greg and Mike.

It is rotatable and uses a sleeve balum like this. (image compliments of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dipole_antenna)

The radio was originally powered by a 12 volt lead-acid battery and required 10 amps (receiver plus transmitter) so I found a nice 11 amp supply to use. This is a work in progress; first getting the thing to power up (had to open the power supply's vibrator to clean contacts and realign). Here's a pic of the progress so far.

Edit: Here's a couple of pictures of the "cat whisker" antenna mounted.

 

[jim hardy]

My local scrap metal yard sees an amazing array of gizmos.
For some months i watched what i assumed to be high voltage power line bushing, thinking if the insulator rings weren't broken it'd make a nice mounting base for a birdbath or sundial.
Well, one day the owner (Calvin) cut it in two with his giant diesel powered pincer. It was full of strange looking things so out of curiosity i brought home some of the parts. At thirty cents a pound one can indulge his curiosity.

Anybody who's been around switchyards has heard of a "Capacitive Coupled Potential Device".
It looks like a transformer bushing

but it actually houses a voltage reducing circuit that allows one to measure those hundreds of kilovolts with ordinary meters.

The series capacitor string inside the bushing divides the high voltage down to something manageable at the tap, perhaps 20kv which one can further reduce to 120VAC with an ordinary transformer and read with everyday meters.

Here's what it looked like when i got it home.

Who could resist taking that apart ? Looks like a trove of Tesla coil parts !

Each deck is a pair of small capacitors in parallel-series, the little green buttons

and judging by the glass insulators, they're high voltage parts. Their part number is cryptic so I've emailed an inquiry to Sprague...

The blue&gray stacked cylinders are connected in parallel with the capacitors, as are the smaller black cylinders. What on Earth were they for?
Ancient and barely readable instruction leaflets suggested there'd be a spark gap to protect against overvoltage
http://www.electricalpartmanuals.com/pdf/transformer/Westinghouse/Arresters and Capacitors/DB39631.pdf

and if you're going to strike an arc around power equipment you'd darn well better provide something to limit the fault current !

Sure enough,
the grey cylinder turns out to be a 2 kohm resistor, presumably to limit current to <around 100 amps ?

that thing would absorb tremendous wattage for the milliseconds it takes to clear a fault

and the blue cylinder indeed turned out to be a stack of spark gaps,
note the copper horns, so carefully spaced with a plastic separator piece

The coil around the center layer of spark gap i figure is to help extinguish the arc.

it's wound in direction that its MMF by right hand rule pushes the arc toward the center, where the horns diverge.
That makes the arc longer and surrounds it with ceramic to help absorb heat and extinguish the arc. The gray cylindrical resistor takes the brunt of a fault, limiting the current to a value that won't blow up this blue arc arrestor.
Basic Physics Rules !
This one showed minor burn marks and there was one charred wire nearby, probably the reason this CCPD was in the junkyard. It didn't blow up , though !

The black cylinders are in parallel too, and i believe them to be high megohm bleeder resistors to prevent DC buildup on the capacitors. I don't have an ohmmeter that'll measure them. They're hard ceramic, probably silicon carbide. They need to be tall to keep the kilovolts per inch within reason.

So - i had an afternoon's entertainment for just a few bucks.
Had i known it was CCPD i'd have brought it home before Calvin crushed it. I believe a fellow's heirs should scratch their heads in wonderment at the estate sale.

I mailed a couple parts to dlgoff for his museum, put some in my high voltage pile. I have ten pounds of #30 magnet wire for a Tesla coil...These high voltage caps might be handy for that, amateur Tesla enthusiasts make their own out of window glass.
Maybe Don will post a pic of the neat 10KV capacitor.

So - while this was hardly a beautiful piece of equipment, i'd say the thought that went into it has beauty.
old jim

 

[Windadct]

We called them CVTs - never saw the inside( well at least intact) - http://new.abb.com/high-voltage/instrument-transformers/voltage/cpb
The parallel resistors have two functions - they "balance" the caps - helping the Voltage divider stay uniform and distribte the V stress in sync with the waveform. But also provide a discharge path for the energy, as well as over voltages. With one of these (assembled and in good health)- just a (dry) wind blowing on the HV bus can induce a static charge.

 

[dlgoff]

I mailed a couple parts to dlgoff for his museum, ...

You should have seen my eyes light up when I took the first glimpse on opening the package. Some may have considered it junk but there's a lot of beauty there. It was kind of like a puzzle in that you packaged it with the bleeder resistor connection plate on the blue spark gap stack instead of the 2kΩ current limiting resistor. Luckily there was just enough corrosion that I figured that part out. Here is how I thought it went together.

I'm glad you posted those solution pictures.

Maybe Don will post a pic of the neat 10KV capacitor.

It about floored me when I saw the voltage rating of that cap. Here's a good pic of it.

 

[dlgoff]

Life's little problems keep getting in the way of my beauty stuff. So while I've got some time before the next problem I'm able to show a couple beauties. I purchased an old Heathkit IB-1103 frequency counter that wasn't working for cheap. Whoever had put this thing together could have use some soldering training. After re-soldering half of the components and clearing bridges from the other half, I finally got it to count. What I like about the looks of this useful piece of test equipment are the Nixie tubes. I also got the NARCO VHT-3 Super Homer navigation radio all working. I mounted both in the wall under the HP 651A Test Oscillator.

The hardest part of the NARCO Nav Radio project was building Greg's omni-receiving horizontal V-type antenna. Here's the radio receiving the Butler VOR signal at 115.90 MHz with a bearing set by the course selector directly to the station (To get this bearing, I used Google Earth to get the latitude and longitude of the receiving antenna. The Butler station coordinates are a given.)

With the bearing set for a heading left of Butler,

With the bearing set for a heading right of Butler,

This one, thanks to berkeman's advice on transmitter dummy loads etc, shows the transmitter working by the lit indication lamp when keyed. (It only get lit by coupling RF energy from a coil in the output section, making it a reliable indicator.)

This one shows the Bird dummy load and power supply behind the wall.

 

[Averagesupernova]

Whoever had put this thing together could have use some soldering training. After re-soldering half of the components and clearing bridges from the other half, I finally got it to count.

I have found this to be the case with many many Heathkits.

 

[gmax137]

I don't frequent the EE forum page so I had missed this thread. Wow you guys have some cool stuff! ...dlgoff, you do beautiful work, AND you have a drill press on your kitchen counter. What a hero! You made my day...