Does anybody know what the heck this is? I found it years ago under a bench when cleaning up at a radio station I worked at. I though it must be some kind of test set...but what?

There are some more pictures in the Temporary gallery.
Thanks

I see a transformer, a variable resistor, and a tungar type rectifier. Must be some power supply of some sort.

2 Amp battery charger.

Hi
I have one of them bulbs ,so know I what its for.Thank you.
Bruce

Thanks for the enlightenment. Now I gotta figure out what to do with it. It's too heavy to ship to anybody...cost more than the thing is worth.

Plug it in and see what happens!! (just kidding)

I have one similar to your, but in place of the resistor, there is a old door spring. I aquired mine about 15 years ago and at that time was told that it was used to provide power to old tube radios, eliminating the need to buy batteries after the county went thru wiring up farms and towns with electrical power. I too have not pluged it in to see how much voltage it will put out. The tube has OS-F marked on it and it has the standard light bulb base. The fuse is stamped 10 Amps.

David S

I would clean it up and put it on the shelf.

These tungar bulbs have argon in them, right? Do they glow any color when in use?

here are two photos of my battery eliminator.





As you can see in the photo, there are two clips attached to two of the leads. The power cord is the old type two prong plug. The cords are covered in cloth.

David S

David-
Your "door spring" looks like a piece of a nichrome heating element, being used as a power resistor.

--Chuck

I think I'll have to clean it up and bring it up on a variac and see what happens. I had no idea, but a battery eliminator might be worthwhile to keep around.
Thanks...

Just be careful. On many old Tungar chargers, the transformer is actually a choke or an autotransformer, and there's no isolation from the AC line.

Alan Douglas wins the prize! I'm not sure what the prize is, but he was right. I carefully variac'ed the thing and found that it was indeed a 2 amp battery charger!! The bulb glows pretty brightly at full line voltage and the output, which is line isolated, is about 9 volts at about 2 amps. Good for charging a 6 Volt battery. I should put it in the trunk of my '36 Ford I guess...just in case.

Thanks guys!! Cool stuff.

Years ago I would find chargers like this lag screwed to the garage wall. Battery cables long enough to reach under the hood of the parked car. The charger was put on on cold nights so the battery would be warm for a fast AM start...

Some of the Tungar chargers were set up with a tapped auto transformer so that a bank of batteries were put in series to be charged. These can deliver some 7 amps at 115 D.C. or so volts so quite a few batteries were on the rack at one time.

Back in those days almost a necessity as car engines were much more of a bear to start than the nice little computerized fuel injected things we have today, and 6 volt electrical systems and starters hardly did the job on a warm morning none the less when it got much below freezing.

-Mark-

Hi guys,

This is simple.. You hook it up to an old AM tower and it removes all traces of pigeon droppings! One puff of smoke and the tower is ready to climb! Those old radio techs really had it swell! No Pita and EPA to worry about. Just get'er-done!

Buzz