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.
Two views of the gadgets shelves and my small work space:
Here's a close up look at the meters, gauges and other measuring things:
This is what I think of as surface-mount electrical components and wiring. The components are very old and shows how electrical wiring was done from ~1915 to ~1930+. The ceramic "stand-offs" were called knobs and ceramic "through-hole" insulators (usually through wood beams) were called tubes. Hence the name, knob and tube wiring. I haven't acquired any tubes however.
Everything has been wired to power (with the exception of the knife switch w/fuses with vintage incoming and outgoing cloth insulated wire). The toggle switch is made of black ceramic and brass. The bluish color bulb is very old and still works. The other white bulb is modern, but the pull-chain socket is vintage.
Here's two reproduction Edison bulbs in vintage ceramic sockets and is switched by the right push-button switches (other push-button is a spare). The switch cover is brass plated copper.
These ceramic sockets have pull-chain switches in their bases. The switches still work and the pull chains are original. The clearance between the pull-chain and rotating brass contacts is very small. That's probably why the left pull-chain has an insulator in it.
There's another push-button switch and duplex receptacle in the wall under the surface stuff. It's receptacle and cover are made of Bakelite. That push-button turns on these bulbs:
Two of the bulbs are really old; one uses neon to make a flickering flame and one uses phosphorescent purple and green flowers and leaves. They’re running on 115 volt power. The other ones (note the big 1000 watt bulb) filaments are being lighted by 25 volts via a step down transformer so as to just glow and not overwhelm the gas bulbs. The gas bulbs are screwed into vintage ceramic sockets.
There are three high voltage transformers (two are really old). The 6.0 kV transformer powers the green neon tube. Check out how it illuminates my old glassware.
The 7.5 kV transformer applies its potential to one end of small vintage fluorescent tubes inserted in the test-tube & distilling flask and causes them to glow from "static" discharge. Note how I tried to make the flask appear to be condensing drops of light from the string of very small neon tubes inside the flask's discharge tube. I was very lucky to find the drip shaped neon tube. I took it out of an old Heath-Kit fish/depth finder.
The 9.0 kV transformer power is applied to handmade electrodes. I had two really old bi-metal temperature switches where I removed and reshaped the bi-metal, added the brass "arc tips", and attached them to a vintage glass power line pole insulator. After being power, the bi-metal leads are orientated such that the heat from the current causes the gag to increase; making the arc get longer and longer.
This is still a work in progress as I still have to add a brass platted duplex receptacle to supply power to the oscilloscope and sweep generator (just left of the scope) shown in the first photo.
If you have any thing old and would like to share a photo, please do. It's all beautiful in my mind.
Two views of the gadgets shelves and my small work space:
Here's a close up look at the meters, gauges and other measuring things:
This is what I think of as surface-mount electrical components and wiring. The components are very old and shows how electrical wiring was done from ~1915 to ~1930+. The ceramic "stand-offs" were called knobs and ceramic "through-hole" insulators (usually through wood beams) were called tubes. Hence the name, knob and tube wiring. I haven't acquired any tubes however.
Everything has been wired to power (with the exception of the knife switch w/fuses with vintage incoming and outgoing cloth insulated wire). The toggle switch is made of black ceramic and brass. The bluish color bulb is very old and still works. The other white bulb is modern, but the pull-chain socket is vintage.
Here's two reproduction Edison bulbs in vintage ceramic sockets and is switched by the right push-button switches (other push-button is a spare). The switch cover is brass plated copper.
These ceramic sockets have pull-chain switches in their bases. The switches still work and the pull chains are original. The clearance between the pull-chain and rotating brass contacts is very small. That's probably why the left pull-chain has an insulator in it.
There's another push-button switch and duplex receptacle in the wall under the surface stuff. It's receptacle and cover are made of Bakelite. That push-button turns on these bulbs:
Two of the bulbs are really old; one uses neon to make a flickering flame and one uses phosphorescent purple and green flowers and leaves. They’re running on 115 volt power. The other ones (note the big 1000 watt bulb) filaments are being lighted by 25 volts via a step down transformer so as to just glow and not overwhelm the gas bulbs. The gas bulbs are screwed into vintage ceramic sockets.
There are three high voltage transformers (two are really old). The 6.0 kV transformer powers the green neon tube. Check out how it illuminates my old glassware.
The 7.5 kV transformer applies its potential to one end of small vintage fluorescent tubes inserted in the test-tube & distilling flask and causes them to glow from "static" discharge. Note how I tried to make the flask appear to be condensing drops of light from the string of very small neon tubes inside the flask's discharge tube. I was very lucky to find the drip shaped neon tube. I took it out of an old Heath-Kit fish/depth finder.
The 9.0 kV transformer power is applied to handmade electrodes. I had two really old bi-metal temperature switches where I removed and reshaped the bi-metal, added the brass "arc tips", and attached them to a vintage glass power line pole insulator. After being power, the bi-metal leads are orientated such that the heat from the current causes the gag to increase; making the arc get longer and longer.
This is still a work in progress as I still have to add a brass platted duplex receptacle to supply power to the oscilloscope and sweep generator (just left of the scope) shown in the first photo.
If you have any thing old and would like to share a photo, please do. It's all beautiful in my mind.
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