Vintage Battery Charger On Display At Syd’s Text Message Museum

Cool, and could get warm, even hot real fast

Today we have this beautiful battery charger. Oh! Just DO NOT PLUG it in. NO! Nope, don’t do it. Its for display only. But we are all tempted. Right? I mean you just want to see if it works? Right? Just once. I mean you could just kinda plug it in partially? See if it starts to melt down? Or worse melt all the wires in your garage. It will blast old current back into your system and destroy all your stuff. I mean maybe when its plugged in it will interfere with TV reception? And god forbid. WIFI!!!!!! Oh god.

Needs some splaining

Okay, okay, the good news its all in Syd’s hands now, and Syd is very safety conscious. But we sure are not, and far enough away to just enjoy watching Syd PLUG IT IN!

What could possibly go wrong?

So today,  I say PLUG IT IN!

PLUG IT IN!

PLUG IT IN!

Oh and take video. Make sure the audio portion is up. We all want to hear the sirens arriving.

PLUG IT IN!

PLUG IT IN!

PLUG IT IN!

PLUG IT IN!

PLUG IT IN!

PLUG IT IN!

PLUG IT IN!

PLUG IT IN!

PLUG IT IN!

 

7 replies
  1. Steve Anderson from Michigan
    Steve Anderson from Michigan says:

    OK this is very cool! Do you have the cable that plugs into the big socket? It looks like the top pops off, can we see inside?

    It looks like it has 6v output as well as 2/4V output, what was that used for?

    So many unanswered questions…

  2. Greg Lewandowski
    Greg Lewandowski says:

    Are you sure that’s a battery charger. I think Syd may have went to an auction in a state that eliminated the death penalty!

  3. Gary W Van Tassel
    Gary W Van Tassel says:

    Dear God don’t plug it in. It is very cool. These used a special bulb called a Tungar bulb mounted inside. The bulb behaves as a rectifier AC to DC.
    Be interested if it has the bulb inside. The socket on the one end is for a glass fuse. My Dad owned a radio repair shop pre-war II before he went to work for Sperry during the war. I remember seeing one of these in our basement growing up.

  4. briant
    briant says:

    Ok so you know how you take sketchy crap you want to wash, down to the local laundromat, instead of using your machines at home, so that their machines get skanked up rather than yours….

    Well, take this beast down to a Starbucks or someplace that provides outlets to charge up your phone, plug this baby in and then wait for the shitshow!

  5. Lee Wangstad
    Lee Wangstad says:

    No, what you need to do is take it to work and out in the shop (where you have higher amperage circuits) and plug it in and let the smoke out of it. Once all the smoke is out, then it should be safe for putting on display and you can answer, “yes, it works.” For my birthday a couple of years ago my brother gave me a pair of 20,000 volt gloves, used by linemen. I haven’t pushed them to their advertised limit yet, but you never know. I have a similar unit, this gives me the impetus to give it a try.

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