Featured Mystery electric telechron box. What is it? (with video)

I've asked around on some forums and still searching for knowledge about what this might be. Built in the 20s-50s?

 

Was this your device on reddit? And are you still looking for a better answer?

"It's a demonstration kit for power draw on DC generators. The belt drive on the right connects to the power source. Each gear-driven generator can be set to draw power (lighting up the little light on the front) thru the use of those pull-switches (?) at the top of the box. As each generator is turned on, you'd be able to hear and see the drive motor strain against the current draw.
Source: I built something very similar but not nearly as nice in my 9th grade shop class."
https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisthis...id_20th_century_device_with_telechron_motors/

 

Interesting, I wasn't aware of it being posted on reddit a while ago. That was not me but appears to be from the previous owner.

That description must be the most correct, but I had a retired electrical engineer convinced it was some sort of Turing machine but they couldn't make sense of it. Thanks for the link!

 

Do you have to push the buttons to see the lights, or do they automatically cycle?

It's my understanding that motors and generators are essentially the same thing. If you put energy in and get motion out, it's a motor. Motion in and energy out is a generator. So it looks to me like you have one motor and two generators, even though all three look to be the same thing. This contraption could be designed to demonstrate that and to demonstrate the effects of using more than one element in a series circuit.

 

You have to press the buttons for the lights to turn on

 

Decorating the Christmas tree back in the '50s always started with an involved process to get the series wired lights to work. In a series circuit, if one bulb is bad, the whole string goes out. Often the strings wouldn't light, and finding the culprit(s) was trial and error. It wasn't necessarily a bulb that was bad; it might simply have been loose.

 

Can anyone decipher a manufacture date from this photo?

Since it is probably too blurry, there are 5 patent dates listed, 1916, 22, 23, 24, 25.

Serial number is 265745 A(rest covered by screw)

 

Does pressing the buttons in differing configurations affect the intensity of the lights?

 

Isn't this in your possession? From what I can see in the photograph... It has patent dates '16, '22, '23, '24, and '25. I don't see a patent number but, if there is one, you can look it up on line.

Debora

 

No, just which lights turn on and off. There appears to be only one light intensity consistent across all 3. This might be able to be seen in the video I posted

 

I see $200 worth of rotors
These would not generate electricity in reverse
The Mfg date would only be on the rotors case. The aluminum ones would be 1940s or later.

 

Hi Debora, I edited my post above while you were posting this. Yes it is in my possession. You have the 5 patent years correct but I don't see a patent #.

Correction...I found a patent# visible on one of the motors/generators. It appears to be patent #1768386 but the writing is darn tiny.

 

That was easy. I hope this link works. It's a pretty neat writeup of the patent. It is a self-starting synchronized motor. Warren's business is 2 towns away from where I grew up in Ashland, Massachusetts

https://ppubs.uspto.gov/dirsearch-public/print/downloadPdf/1768386

 

Not finding my bookmark anymore but someone used to have a list of who the M number was made for
I think the 487 on this is a date code but I don't remember how it reads.
If the upper left number on yours B3?

 

Yes. B-3

 

I think it could be somekind of a tech school/college electrical lab kit used to experiment on mini electrical motors and drives.

TTA