Found this link posted on the IEE website, and then noticed that the uploader is known to us at ECN!

Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOnUi5R3jwA&search=electrical

Wow, nice find! Rewinding small appliance motors... hard to imagine today!

when you get done w/ this video scroll down click on see all videos.scroll down to 500kV disco switch Awsome 9 sec. video!!!

An important job of the electrical worker is repairing toasters! Another era, for sure.

I like the two test lamps in series, and especially that rotary commutator sign flasher.

Ooooh yes, that one's a real classic!

At my former school (graduated in September) students of the full 5 year course (technical High school, I did the 2 year college) still learn to rewind and repair small appliance motors and similar stuff. All students. teachers and so on can take their stuff there to have it fixed for free.

Thats really cool! I want to see one of those sign flashers. In this digital age, something like that is about as analog as it gets. It would be neat to have one of those wired to my Christmas lights

Yep, $9.95 throw-away toasters from China. Who'd have thunk it back then?


Reminds me of the ringing machines in old telephone exchanges. They operated on the same principle with a motor driven cam assembly to produce all the appropriate flashing signals and tone interruptions.

You might be intersted in http://www.archive.org/details/Behindth1935

As a kid, I remember a nearby grocery store that had flashing lights around a metal awning.

The controller was a metal box hanging inside the awning. You could hear the mechanical whatever's in there go squeak squeak squeak as it turned.

I'm sure those things are solid state now -- this memory is from back in 1988.

And unlike their modern digital microcomputer counterparts these old obsolete mechanical light chasers:

1) did not get damaged by routine spikes on the line.
2) Did not get stupid and require a full power down reset once a week.
3) Could be repaired on site with two hands and basic home shop tools.

My how we have progressed!