5 Jun
2004
5 Jun
'04
6:19 a.m.
I went to a little hamfest today. Brought back another SWTPC Function
Generator and two OLD or homemade (or both?) vacuum tubes. These things are
weird! Other finds include the main unit for a Pace MBT desoldering station
(no handpiece or tips :-(. Also a HP 12C calculator and NOS military lead
acid battery from 1953. It's about 2" square and about 5" tall and is made
of clear plastic so everything is readily visible. It's never had acid put
into it and has never been used. It's sort of cute and it makes an
interesting show and tell piece. Pictures later.
Joe
5 Jun
5 Jun
8:07 a.m.
At 14:19 05/06/2004 -0400, you wrote:
I went to a little hamfest today.
[snip]
NOS military lead
acid battery from 1953. It's about 2" square and about 5" tall and is made
of clear plastic so everything is readily visible. It's never had acid put
into it and has never been used. It's sort of cute and it makes an
interesting show and tell piece. Pictures later.
My dad had (probably still has, knowing him) a big camera flash unit that
features one of these batteries. Big unit the size of a handbag with a
shoulder strap, with the accumulator in this, and flash gun on the end of a
spiral cord. I was always fascinated with it as a kid, so I guess that
places it earlier than the '70s...
Rob
Joe
9:11 a.m.
At 09:07 PM 6/5/04 +0100, Rob wrote:
At 14:19 05/06/2004 -0400, you wrote:
My dad was just over visiting and I showed it to him. He says that he
has a similar one that was made in WW-II. He doesn't know what he's saving
his for either. He just says that it looked neat. I guess that I came by
being a pack rat honestly :-/
Joe
I went to a little hamfest today.
[snip]
NOS military lead
acid battery from 1953. It's about 2" square and about 5" tall and is made
of clear plastic so everything is readily visible. It's never had acid put
into it and has never been used. It's sort of cute and it makes an
interesting show and tell piece. Pictures later.
My dad had (probably still has, knowing him) a big camera flash unit that
features one of these batteries. Big unit the size of a handbag with a
shoulder strap, with the accumulator in this, and flash gun on the end of a
spiral cord. I was always fascinated with it as a kid, so I guess that
places it earlier than the '70s... 
1:28 p.m.
My dad was just over visiting and I showed it to
him. He says that he
has a similar one that was made in WW-II. He doesn't know what he's saving
his for either. He just says that it looked neat. I guess that I came by
being a pack rat honestly :-/
Most of these batteries were made in World War 2, many by a company called
Willard. They pretty much fell out of fashion roight after the war in new
designs, but probably were still produced for all of the existing radios
(mainly) that used them.
Most are worthless, but some are slightly valuable.
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org
4:34 p.m.
My dad was
just over visiting and I showed it to him. He says that he
has a similar one that was made in WW-II. He doesn't know what he's saving
his for either. He just says that it looked neat. I guess that I came by
being a pack rat honestly :-/
Most of these batteries were made in World War 2, many by a company called
Willard. They pretty much fell out of fashion roight after the war in new
designs, but probably were still produced for all of the existing radios
(mainly) that used them. 
6 Jun
6 Jun
5:16 a.m.
couple years old :^/ As I recall the acid had leaked
and pretty much
destroyed the boxes that were supposed to hold the batteries (I think
4 to a light).
This is a common problem with old (1930s) portable radios in the UK, many of
which used a wet cell LT (A) battery. The acid either leaked out, or
acidic vapour escaped and rotted the cabinet (and the wiring sometimes).
-tony
1:20 a.m.
New subject: Pictures Re: new hamfest finds
At 09:28 PM 6/5/04 -0400, William Donzelli wrote:
You're probably right about them being only slightly valuable but it's
still interesting to look at. Most people today have nver seen the inside
of a battery and have no idea what they look like. This battery was built
by Willard. I took a picture today and posted it at
<http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/battery/willard.jpg>.
I forgot to mention yesterday that I also picked up a battery for a
radiosonde. It's still sealed in it's orginal can so I don't know what it
looks like but the guy that I got it from says that he thinks it's a
Lithium battery. The date on the can is Sept 12, 1982 and it was made by
VIZ. I don't know exactly who VIZ is/was but they seemed to have taken over
production of cheap test equipment from RCA. I've seen their name along
with RCA's on a lot of educational grade electrical equipment. I've posted
a picture of this one too. it's at
<http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/battery/radiosonde.jpg>. FWIW I used to have
a radiosonde but the battery for it was MUCH larger than this.
Finally, I took pictures of the two odd tubes that I got. They're at
<http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/battery/tube1.jpg> and
<http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/battery/tube2.jpg>. The filament is in the
large bulb at the side of the main tube. Only the first tube is marked.
"73" has been painted near the center of it. The can see it in the photo
but it's upside down. It was not printed but instead it looks like it was
painted on with a small brash. Only the first tube has the silver getter
material in it. Anyone have any idea what these might be for?
Joe
My dad was
just over visiting and I showed it to him. He says that he
has a similar one that was made in WW-II. He doesn't know what he's saving
his for either. He just says that it looked neat. I guess that I came by
being a pack rat honestly :-/
Most of these batteries were made in World War 2, many by a company called
Willard. They pretty much fell out of fashion roight after the war in new
designs, but probably were still produced for all of the existing radios
(mainly) that used them.
Most are worthless, but some are slightly valuable.
11:24 a.m.
New subject: Pictures Re: new hamfest finds
You're probably right about them being only
slightly valuable but it's
still interesting to look at. Most people today have nver seen the inside
of a battery and have no idea what they look like. This battery was built
by Willard. I took a picture today and posted it at
<http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/battery/willard.jpg>.
Congrats - you found one of the better batteries. Three of these fit
inside a CY-77/PPN-1 battery box for the AN/PPN-1:
http://users.bestweb.net/~toober/images/CY-77_PPN-1A.open.jpg
AN/PPN-1s are quite valuable ($3500 typical), but few collectors pay much
for the batteries - who wants to lug around three heavy batteries in a
closed box when playing soldier? Still, you could probably get $25 to 50
for your unit.
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org
5 Jun
5 Jun
10:56 a.m.
My dad had (probably still has, knowing him) a big
camera flash unit that
features one of these batteries. Big unit the size of a handbag with a
shoulder strap, with the accumulator in this, and flash gun on the end of a
spiral cord. I was always fascinated with it as a kid, so I guess that
places it earlier than the '70s...
These sort of units were quite common at one time (and often used
lead-acid 'wet cell' accumulators). Actually, I'd not be suprised if the
batteries were still available somewhere..
Sometimes there were 2 or 3 plastic balls of different densities inside.
They floated or sank depending on the density of the eletrolyte, which in
turn depended on the state of charge of the cell. Interesting idea.
Getting the HT for the 'electronic flash' tube was something of an
entertainment before transistors (which took all the fun out of it, due
to the ease of making an oscillator that would run off a 6V battery).
Some manufacturers used a mechanical vibrator, like the one in a car
radio [1] to chop up the DC from a battery to feed it into a transformer.
Others used HV (250V or so) batteries. The Voigtlander Vitrona, one of
the first cameras to have built-in electronic flash, did this -- a
handle containing an HV battery plugged into the bottom of the cammera.
[1] I am showing my age. This was how they got the HT (B+) voltage for
valves (tubes) in car radios about 50 years ago...
-tony
6 Jun
6 Jun
1:22 a.m.
At 23:56 05/06/2004 +0100, Tony Duell wrote:
Yep, his had the balls ... As a kid, I'd watch them when he had it on
charge to see if I could spot them moving! The battery was exposed on the
flash unit so you could monitor it's state as you used it.
My dad had
(probably still has, knowing him) a big camera flash unit that
features one of these batteries. Big unit the size of a handbag with a
shoulder strap, with the accumulator in this, and flash gun on the end
of a
spiral cord. I was always fascinated with it as
a kid, so I guess that
places it earlier than the '70s...
These sort of units were quite common at one time (and often used
lead-acid 'wet cell' accumulators). Actually, I'd not be suprised if the
batteries were still available somewhere..
Sometimes there were 2 or 3 plastic balls of different densities inside.
They floated or sank depending on the density of the eletrolyte, which in
turn depended on the state of charge of the cell. Interesting idea. Getting the HT for the 'electronic flash' tube
was something of an
entertainment before transistors (which took all the fun out of it, due
to the ease of making an oscillator that would run off a 6V battery).
Some manufacturers used a mechanical vibrator, like the one in a car
radio [1] to chop up the DC from a battery to feed it into a transformer.
Others used HV (250V or so) batteries. The Voigtlander Vitrona, one of
the first cameras to have built-in electronic flash, did this -- a
handle containing an HV battery plugged into the bottom of the cammera.
I remember, also as a kid, so mid to late 70's, pulling apart an old valve
radio I picked up at a jumble sale. Battery operated, with spaces for
about three different sort of huge batteries... I think one of those was
supposed to be an HV battery - I never came across one though.
[1] I am showing my age. This was how they got the HT
(B+) voltage for
valves (tubes) in car radios about 50 years ago...
-tony
5:23 a.m.
I remember, also as a kid, so mid to late 70's,
pulling apart an old valve
radio I picked up at a jumble sale. Battery operated, with spaces for
about three different sort of huge batteries... I think one of those was
supposed to be an HV battery - I never came across one though.
Most valve portables used 2 batteries -- HT (almost always a dry battery,
between 67.5 and 150V) and LT (originally a wet cell accumulator, later
radios (1950s) used a dry cell pack for this too). Grid bias was almost
always provided by 'self bias' circuits (resistors in the cathode circuit
of the valves, etc), but some early sets used a 9V (tapped every 1.5V)
grid bias battery.
I can just rememebr using the 90V HT batteries (Every Ready B126 IIRC).
The LT batteries often had ADnn numbers, the AD stood for 'All Dry'
refering to the fact that you didn't have a wet cell in the radio.
I also remember reading about an RCA (I think) set that was valved but
ran off a single wet cell. It used a vibrator and transformer to get the
HT.
These days, if you want ot use such a radio (and they sound a lot better
than many modern sets, and yes, some of them did cover the FM band) you
either use 10 PP3 (9V) batteries in series for the HT or a mains PSU. A
30V (RMS) trnasformer followed by a votlage doubler rectifier works fine
for most sets.
-tony
7456
days inactive
7457
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