I recently picked up this Weston Ammeter on CL. It had been listed a few months ago and expired, then showed up again.
I'm in downsize mode so I kept telling myself, don't call....don't call. Then I thought, “I'll let it go through the weekend", surely it will be gone by then, (it was only $25). It was still there so I figured it must be fate. It was pretty dirty but cleaned up very nicely. The seller had gotten it years ago from where he worked, SD Warren Paper Mill in Westbrook Maine. It was part of a phone system, (he thinks), and had been in storage for years. They were going to scrap the system so he saved this ammeter and a matching volt meter. He sold the voltmeter a while back.
It's really very beautiful and that got me thinking what a great job that would have been designing things in a time when the visual seemed just as important as functionality. This meter is about 7" OD. The face has a pebbled background with raised scroll work and stylized letters, and must weigh 8 or 9 lbs. The raised parts are all nickel plated. The body may be porcelain covered. It seems like cost was no factor in producing it.
I guess anything electrical in the 1890's would have been so new and exciting that a company would want to show it off in the best way. I don't know, I should have asked the seller, but I can envision a large quarter sawn oak console with matching gauges, meters, switches, and dials.
I have absolutely no practical use for this but as with a lot of my additions, I just like to look at it.
If anyone else has any early aesthetically pleasing electrical devices please share.
To keep this machine related, but doesn't have to be, a picture has been posted here before of an early lathe with a round lattice work cast iron motor on top, I'll see if I can find that.
I'm in downsize mode so I kept telling myself, don't call....don't call. Then I thought, “I'll let it go through the weekend", surely it will be gone by then, (it was only $25). It was still there so I figured it must be fate. It was pretty dirty but cleaned up very nicely. The seller had gotten it years ago from where he worked, SD Warren Paper Mill in Westbrook Maine. It was part of a phone system, (he thinks), and had been in storage for years. They were going to scrap the system so he saved this ammeter and a matching volt meter. He sold the voltmeter a while back.
It's really very beautiful and that got me thinking what a great job that would have been designing things in a time when the visual seemed just as important as functionality. This meter is about 7" OD. The face has a pebbled background with raised scroll work and stylized letters, and must weigh 8 or 9 lbs. The raised parts are all nickel plated. The body may be porcelain covered. It seems like cost was no factor in producing it.
I guess anything electrical in the 1890's would have been so new and exciting that a company would want to show it off in the best way. I don't know, I should have asked the seller, but I can envision a large quarter sawn oak console with matching gauges, meters, switches, and dials.
I have absolutely no practical use for this but as with a lot of my additions, I just like to look at it.
If anyone else has any early aesthetically pleasing electrical devices please share.
To keep this machine related, but doesn't have to be, a picture has been posted here before of an early lathe with a round lattice work cast iron motor on top, I'll see if I can find that.