Antique Battery Charger

[EAMC]

Triple A Specialty Co. Chicago, IL manufactured this charger. Any information will be appreciated, Looks like it might be from the1920's or 30's. It is old.

 

[Roberts210]

That is really neat! But you better hope that tube never burns out.

 

[tym]

It's a Tungar rectifier diode.

 

[BFBOB]

Wow, a vacuum tube rectifier!! Sadly, tubes are consumable items; in normal use the filament is eroded by all the electrons boiling off it. With enough erosion, the filament breaks and burns out. Of course, when that happens you can replace the tube with solid state rectifiers (plus some other stuff to get the output voltage right). Not worth the time and effort just to have a battery charger.
Best to preserve and love it, just fire it up once in a while to enjoy the glowing tube, and have a living piece of history.

Let's see - it consumes 550 watts. Efficiency somewhere around 50%. At 12V it should put out something like 20A. But, with only half wave rectification it would be VERY noisy DC. Don't hook it up to any vehicle made since 1969!!

 

[garthg]

Need three more of those tubes to make a cool bridge.

 

[6PTsocket]

Wow, a vacuum tube rectifier!! Sadly, tubes are consumable items; in normal use the filament is eroded by all the electrons boiling off it. With enough erosion, the filament breaks and burns out. Of course, when that happens you can replace the tube with solid state rectifiers (plus some other stuff to get the output voltage right). Not worth the time and effort just to have a battery charger.
Best to preserve and love it, just fire it up once in a while to enjoy the glowing tube, and have a living piece of history.

Let's see - it consumes 550 watts. Efficiency somewhere around 50%. At 12V it should put out something like 20A. But, with only half wave rectification it would be VERY noisy DC. Don't hook it up to any vehicle made since 1969!!

Look at the GE booklet for Tungar tubes. They say they are low noise, but I guess that is relative. Ebay is full of replacements. A battery is a great filter capacitor. I think it would work on a modern car. That thing is really neat. Rectifier tubed like the 6X4, 5Y3, 5U4 and the high voltage 1B3 kept us entertained with radio and TV for a lot of years. What was really a loser were selinuum rectifiers. They were short lived and I can still remember the smell when they burned.

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[2oolhound]

That is so cool. You should make a plexi window side for it so you can see the tube yet it's still protected. Maybe it will fit in one of those plexi computer housings.

 

[garthg]

I don't think I would connect it to a modern car. It might not hurt anything, but given the cost of car electronics these days, I wouldn't take a chance. At least not without disconnecting the battery ground, and that would be a hassle.

 

[jeeper46]

isn't it a 6-volt charger?

 

[vladim]

Good thinking! No need to worry about connecting it to a modern (or almost any) car Lol!
Actually I've seen one of these with 6 AND 12V settings. Must have been the last of its kind.

 

[vladim]

So would that be rectifying the AC110V input or the transformer output?

 

[vladim]

I suppose it could be either???

 

[Sevenhills1952]

It would have to rectify the transformer secondary. It's a very interesting piece of history and kept as it.

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[Private Lugnutz]

I'm not sure why vladim bumped a three-year old thread, but it reminded me I had one, too! Made in 1923.

 

[Sevenhills1952]

I'm not sure why vladim bumped a three-year old thread, but it reminded me I had one, too! Made in 1922.

Very nice. It even has voltage taps to select output. Museum piece!

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[Private Lugnutz]

Very nice. It even has voltage taps to select output.

Thank you, sir. I've never seen another one like it. There are a number of Westinghouse "Rectigon" type battery charger YouTube videos on the web (as popular with old radio guys and electronics geeks as their competitor's GE "Tungar" model), and they pop up for sale on eBay and elsewhere from time to time. They all have the same basic brown steel housing. Most have a fixed handle on the top, not a baling wire, as mine does. Most have a newer looking data plate or even a foil sticker where my riveted brass data plate is. Most don't have a glass fixture on the fuse. And most have the output taps on the back. I haven't dived deep enough into it to look at model numbers etc, but I think mine is pretty old. At least 1923. The patent on the Royal fuse is 1917.

The negative lead is original. The positive lead is more modern, leading me to believe some oldtimer was using this well into the 60's, almost certainly on 6 volt batteries.

The tungsten filament in the bulb is in great condition.

Museum piece!

Funny you should say that! A slightly newer model actually has been. The Simeon Foundation in Philly had one in their automobile museum that was eventually sold (for $187!) by Bonham’s in a “Preserving the Automobile” Auction several years ago. You can see it here.

 

[Bert_]

I'm not sure why vladim bumped a three-year old thread, but it reminded me I had one, too! Made in 1922.

So based on the nameplate it could charge a 12v battery? Pretty cool. Do you ever use it?

 

[pelletman]

Since we are on the subject, I ran across this about a month ago. It is in North Central Mass if anyone wants it.

 

[Modern Garage]

That is some great styling! I love the rocket logo.
Joe

 

[ndnchf]

Antique battery charger - another item for my want list!

 

[Zrxrunner]

Here's mine..another item on the "wanna restore" list! Lol