ECN Forum Forums Photo Discussion Forums Photos for General Discussion A blast from the past

Guys,
I was awoken this morning to the sound of a ringing phone, when I answered it, I was met with a frantic young lady, who was a hair-dresser.
She had a hair-dryer that would not work and she had booked a client for 10am this morning (I might add she is a mobile hairdresser that goes to people's houses).
Now, when she said this, I thought "really?, how expensive is a new hair-dryer"
She then said, this is not your average hair-dryer, it is about 50 years old.
I really had to see a thing like this so I said bring it round and we'll have a gander at it.
When she turned up, she handed me what initially looked more like a vacuum cleaner than a hair-dryer:



Bear in mind, that this on my work-bench, that is in it's usual untidy state.
She then set it up to look like it should when it is working:



I then set about taking the base of it to bits, where the "workings" are.
Sorry I never got to take a picture of the inside of the actual appliance, it was such a simple fix, I had the thing back together before I realised what I'd done.
Suffice to say, all this thing is, is just a fan, some elements and a 3-heat switch (much the same as we used to have on stoves here before the Simmer-stat came out).

The phase wire had come out of the terminal block, by the appliance moved all the time.
I then put it through it's paces, using my T5 tester and a current loop plug:



That is the appliance running on "High", 3A is pretty decent.

It's pretty compact and well thought out:



The heat control, I thought was pretty cool:
(sorry about the shocking out of focus pic)



A view of the top:



And the name-plate:



I was really happy about this job, the lady didn't mind waiting while I did the job and I got to capture a bit of appliance history.
Ralta were bought out by another company about 20 years ago and the name is not that well known here anymore,
they made some really good quality stuff in their day, I still own a Ralta toasted sandwich maker, I guard it with my life.

Cheers guys.