Go visit and be amazed.
And for those of you who will ask?
Based on the inductor and the worn manufacturer's label, I believe it's an adjustable toroidal transformer coil, a Variac from the General Radio Company of Cambridge, though I don't know if they call themselves that any more.
I think the" Good Doktor" used one in her little experiments in the barn. Using it to tune her creation from 'peaceful' to 'homicidal maniac'. Either that or it powered the ice cream churn. One or the other.
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23 comments:
I thought it was a transformer from an old Marx train set. Woo-woo!
Looks like a little Variac to me.
Lorimor - I think you're right.
It might be small and old but they are more efficient than you'd expect.Variacs divide voltage by dividing the impedance between the inputs into two parts. The fraction of the divided input impedance connected to the output determines the output voltage. Using a variac, almost all the power consumed is delivered to the load connected to the output. There is some heating due to the resistance of the winding wire, and the magnetic coupling between the input and output is far from being perfect. But still. . .
You got in enough trouble when you took the TV apart when you were 12.
MP - blabbermouth. :-)
Either one works! :-)
Holy Crap.. I think I've found my long lost twin.
Except it looks like she got all the ability, and I just got stuck with the overwhelming interest in shiny old stuff ;)
Paladin - Yeah I know. I feel that way when she and I are tinkering around in her basement. I just look at stuff, drool and mutter "shiny".
Cool! *ANOTHER* "old electronics" person to follow!
Uhhh.....don't mean to say the _person_ is old....just the electronics!
Thanks for the tip, Brigid!
Did anyone else's dad bring home "junk" so that we could tear the stuff apart, and reassemble same? Do kids do this kind of thing anymore? My prized possession (I still have it) was a Gamewell Fire Alarm Box that I made into a lamp.
Hello Lass,
Wow even the Comments Page is instructive! Took apart a TV at age 12, and survived not being electrocuted! Who says there isn't someone watching over you?
I have been following BobbieX for a while. Just haven't posted anything. I will take a look at the new site.
Stay safe, and sleep well.
Hey, wow, that's a *real* Variac! --GR used to get very sniffy when anything like it other than theirs was referred to by the trademarked name, just like "Kleenex" or "Caterpillar."
Thank you very much for the big send-off; I figured a blog in which to indulge in unbridled geekery, while leaving my main blog for more mainstream things, was probably a good idea.
We used them in Organic Chemistry class to control the heat on mantles that warmed our round bottom flasks for distillation procedures.
Ham radio people also use them to control the voltage going into radios under test.
Handy gadgets.
My Dad helped me build my first electronics shop when I was about 13 years old, right next to my darkroom. I had several variacs and bridge rectifiers to supply the various voltages I needed. Back then, almost everything was tubes... although transistor radios were just starting to hit the market... We're talking the dark ages here!
PeterT
I used one to power an old train set I found some years ago. One variac, a few parts and DING! it was running. Daughter has it now for her kids.
Aanoosh,
My dad worked at Bell Aerospace in the 60's , and brought home airplane "stuff" for my brothers and I to play with.Sometimes electronics , sometimes actuators with little gears and levers.(Brigid would have known the correct names of all the gadgets)I'm sure that those days are what made me a mechanic and engineer.
Bill
Old school - like "graduate school" where safety and education were far apart and grad students were expendable. We had one of these in the laser lab where I did my graduate work. Three notable things about that particular design:
1. They get hot after extended use, and;
2. Graduate students with certain electrical acumen can rig it as a step-UP transformer, and;
3. Given enough beers at "Nick's Pub" one can easily electrocute themselves on the instrument: I never saw one in graduate school that had an intact cover on it.
"Hey guys, watch this!"
Fun with Physical Chemistry!
H the IH
It is indeed a Variac, We used a similar model in a photo-lab years (1958) ago to control the intensity of the lamps in a very large contact printer, for printing black & white aerial photographs.
I prefer the more sinister explanation.
Old tech is fun. I'm an optics guy, not an electronics guy, so my collecting runs to old cameras and old engineering books.
I do have a 1941 edition of the Radio Engineering Handbook that I got at a library book sale, though.
Yep- a Variac- I used to use one for testing DC power supplies.
That was back in the days when we used to fix such things...
I *still* use a variac. They're almost essential when powering up old equipment that hasn't been used in years.
Helps keep the Magic Smoke inside!
Yes it is a real Variac. Yes they still make them. I use them at work and have one at home for fun. They are very tough and will take tons of abuse. I like them better than the switching dimmers in use nowdays.
another blog to add to my must read list
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