What is this?

arthur · Veteran Member

What is this?

DeBe · Guru

Remains of very old 45V battery pack for valve radio. Yes im old enough to have actualy seen them.

Bryan · Guru

Could be a bit of internal ballast from an old fishing boat

oldbobsbus · Guru

DeBe wrote:
Remains of very old 45V battery pack for valve radio. Yes im old enough to have actualy seen them.

Thats my first thought as well..

A battery pack of some sort..

elliemike · Guru

Yep I will say a battery pack.

They were quite common at one time for running the radio.

We at home (Liverpool UK) we had no electricity till about 1950 or 52 We used to run the radio on "Glass Accumulator Batteries" The local bike shop used to charge the Glass Accumulators for us. Then these battery packs (slab) became available and cheaper to run probably. Cant find a picture of the Battery pack.

But here's a small Accumulator. The ones we used seemed a lot bigger than this.

Mike

dING · Senior Member

Ha to digress used to get my pocket money taking them there things

Down to the shop for all the old dears when they needed a charge

London late 40s

Legendts · Senior Member

Elliemike quote ~ But here's a small Accumulator. The ones we used seemed a lot bigger than this.

Maybe it was that your hands were smaller then Mike

03_troopy · Guru

aaahhh... that explains a lot Jeff.. ;)

Legendts · Senior Member

It does my lad, it does......

arthur · Veteran Member

thanks everyone-it had me baffled confuse

elliemike · Guru

Legendts wrote:
Elliemike quote ~ But here's a small Accumulator. The ones we used seemed a lot bigger than this.

Maybe it was that your hands were smaller then Mike

That would be the case I suppose.

I found it easier to take the Two of them on my "Trolley" (Billy Cart) as I could not manage them both at the same time.

Imagine, with those things filled with Acid, and a seven-eight year old being responsible for them.

Oh well I also had to Lay the fires (2 off) and Light them every day almost. You probably can get an "APP" to do this now.

I was impressed when me Dad got a new radio and it had those big battery packs. They just got tossed into the rubbish bin when dead.

Legendts · Senior Member

That's the only fun getting older I guess, being able to, "remember when we used to...." I can remember when I used to go down to the allotment where Dad used to grow veggies and I would ride in this massive handcart he used to drag behind him, well it wasn't so big when I went back to the UK. Seems like I got bigger and the cart got smaller. Apologies, way off topic, sorry.

PeterD · Guru

Definitely a radio "B" battery. The block is lying on its side. Common voltages for these batteries was 45 V (30 cells) or 67.5 V (45 cells.) The cylinder bits at the bottom are some of the cells 1.5 V carbon/zinc that have broken of from the main block. There would be 2 or 3 of these batteries in series to provide the plate voltage.

The battery that is picture in the reply by Mike & Ellie is the "A" battery that provided the heater current for the valves. Some sets also had a "C" battery of around 4.5 V for the grid bias on some of the audio valves.

We had a battery radio up until 1950 when we moved to a town with mains power. The A battery (sometimes called the accumulator) was charged each week. We had two batteries and took the one in use to town each Saturday on our shopping trip and swapped it over for the one left for recharging. The 3 x 45 V batteries would cost dad a weeks wages (teachers wages.) With careful use a set would last a year.

-- Edited by PeterD on Friday 25th of April 2014 12:00:01 AM