Uncreative Labs

Joined: 30 Oct 2004 Posts: 22

Quote:

In nyc and other places that adapted electricity early,. some places only had dc power.
on the early 1950's radios and tv sets were "transformerless" if intended for use in these areas.

Imagine the RF noise from a refrigerator with a brusg type motor 20 years old?

in october 1963? when they had the big power outage
elevators still were operated by dc power.

i wonder what voltage was used for dc back then... i had no idea that dc in house installations had survived the "war of the currents" (i meant to post this earlier but forgot to)

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

I remember stories if refrigerators with BRUSC motors
Like an oid electric drill with a universal motor. and complaints about noise on AM radios.
we in NJ had a GE tv set with no transformer in the 1950's tho we lived in NJ ( an ac power area) it had selenium rectiriers to create a voltage dopubler or tripler. The tubes were a series string. all had the same current rating so that could be run in series.
but the voltage varies,
the equivalent tubes for a Transformer-type tv mostly had 6.3 volt tubes. and the current for some of the bigger tubes was higher.
Most were 0.3 to 0.6a but a horizontal sweep tube would still be 6.3v but had a 1.2a filament.
the 12v tubes like a 12au7 had a center tab so that could be used on both kinds of tv sets.
the radios ac/dc had 150ma )0.140a) trings and the tubes varies between 12v 35v and 50v. that all had the sabe 150ma current.
some old sets had a ballast tube ( a resistor) and some even had a resistance in the line cord. ( pre ww2)
some things were strange then.
walter kearnan an old " homespun philosopher" on radio station WOR NY during the power outage of nov 1963?
was stuck in the studio because after the power was restored
\" the elevators were still DC" and needed a tech to reset them.
I remmber a man , out of breath bringing up gasoline for the generator in the WOR studio. he had driven over from NJ where the power did NOT go out. with a can of gasoline.
they needed power for the Line amplifiers, so that could sent speech to the transmitter located in NJ.
Try doing that today, walking into a high rise with a can of gasoline?

I was working in NJ and at 5 pm left work and tuned my car radio to wor-am. I heard several people sitting around casually talking, not the usual program. I drove to the Top of first mountain ( west orange /cedar grove)
so I could see NYC all dark.
One of my neighbors used rabbit ears to watch TV ( snowy) from Philadelphia. ny was 2.4,5,7,9.11
philly was 100 miles away on 3,6,10

Joined: 19 Apr 2006 Posts: 261 Location: WisConSin

Actually I believe my grandparents were not electrified until the 50's and prior to that they have a 30v system (I think it was 30v FLA) in big glass jars to run lighting and farm dairy equipment, they had a 30v generator as well to match.

I think their system was quite old by the time they scrapped it, likely from the 20's anyway lookup the "battery bible"

It has a lot of historical whatnot on old battery systems.

Joined: 03 Feb 2006 Posts: 488 Location: pennsylvanai

the farm where my wife grew up
had a delco system. and a tower with a "wincharger"
the wiring was knob and tube.
some kind likely like the 30 volt system
I have photos of the farm and the tower.
by the time I met my wife in the fall of 1954, they had ac power at the farm. They used many of the same wires for the 120v ac system.

Our farm in the center of the county , was a 200 year old house. but had regular ac power 220volt motors
in the house and barn.