ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area antique photos/advertisements.

Does anyone know of a source for old photos or advertisements of Electrical Appliances, equipment, or Electrical safety-related campaigns etc that I could post on this Website (www.Electrical-Contractor.net) or at www.Electrical-Safety.com? or does anyone have any to contribute?

Collectors of electrical/electronic memorabilia, old books and ephemora shop on ebay. I'd seach for anything related and then contact bidders who collect to see if they have anything they might want to share. The more unusual the collection, the more excited people are to share. You might also look at the boards and see if there's one related and post there. If you're new to ebay, ask around, you're sure to know someone familiar with the site.

There is a dandy picture of the equipment used experimentally in constructing radio stattion KDKA. It is clear that safety was not a primary concern of those researchers!

http://www.kwarc.on.ca/hammond/kdka.html

Good luck.

John Dunn
ambertec@ieee.org

Thanks Guys,

You gave Me some Ideas to work on. I figure I can try some museums too. I'm primarily looking for pictures of common type Electrical Appliances, Fixtures, gadgets etc.
Did you ever see the Carousel of Progress? (from Worlds' Fair & Disney) That's one of my favorite exhibits.

Speaking of antique things & electricity, you may want to watch PBS's feature on the life of Tesla, coming to TV in early Dec. Check out <www.pbs.org/tesla> for info.

RM

Thanks Rick,

One of most amazing things I ever saw was the show at the Museum of Science in Boston with the Giant van de Graf generators producing Lightning bolts that went across the room in front of us striking a Birdcage like thing with the presenter inside.

http://www.mos.org/sln/toe/cage.html

Another source for days-gone-by(e) is the IEEE (www.ieee.org).

Regarding the presentation with the van de Graf generator, this is a classical Faraday cage used today in modern electronics to contain electric fields.
Years ago, I was visiting the science museum in Munich, and ther the lightning from the van de Graf generator punched through a sheet of glass.

One time I was crawling under the floor of a very old house. There was a light bulb(lamp)mounted in a screwshell of ancient vintage. The glass envelope had the pointed tip created by the glass blowing, and vacuum process. The filiment was still intact, it would function.
We later determined it had a platinum filiment, with nickel lead in wires. Circa 1905.
I carefully removed it, and replaced it with a new lamp. I asked permission from the owner, to have it placed in the display, at the local museum. The lady/owner was almost as old as the lamp. It is probably still there.