TESTING A 1903 VOLTMETER

[@WOFFY-qc9te]

Sexy meter, I have a few I salvaged from Ogdens Tobacco Liverpool founded in 1860 and others from power station but they are 1940's. Much more fun to use than digi. Some nice galvanometers are on Ebay fairly cheap and worth every penny. Thanks for demonstrating.

[@Coheteradio]

what a beauty!! Thanks for share.

[@clarencegreen3071]

Years ago I tested a number of military surplus meter movements, some of which were Weston. Every one I checked read low by about 10%. I attributed this to the magnets losing strength over the decades.

[@darrellstephen3085]

Electronics Art. Love it. Ron you always have the coolest stuff to show us.

[@nonyabeezwax6932]

I wish I had just a fraction your knowledge and skills. Thank you for taking the time to share with us .

[@GG-od2tr]

Only you stop you.

[@bblod4896]

Beautiful meter. The design has not changed in over one hundred years 😮. Thanks for the video Ron and Happy Holidays to you and your family.

[@repairitdontreplaceit]

i can smell that from here :) . i used to work in old power stations :)

[@dcallan812]

I worked in an old coal power station in the UK there was a distinct smell about the place. 👍

[@lwilton]

Central Scientific Company, also known CENCO, made laboratory equipment for use by chemistry and physics labs, notably in high schools and colleges, but also in actual industrial laboratories. They simply got industrial meters from reputable companies like Tripplet and Weston and put them in very heavy cast-iron meter cases with screw binding posts by the 1950s. Almost always all the binding posts were black, rather than red and black, as had long been common in the electrical industry by the 1950s. They typically included resistors and multiple binding posts for multiple ranges, but only had one nominal scale on the meter face, assuming you could use your slide rule to determine the actual value. As best I recall from catalogs of the time, the price for a Cenco meter was around 5 times the cost of the same meter directly from the meter manufacturer. Accuracy was nominally around 1-5%, which I guess was good enough for a high school chem lab.

[@ChuckKirchner-se6ib]

The meter MAY have been built to Central Scientific's specifications, which we probably will never know. Happy Holidays, Ron. Best wishes.

[@billd.8336]

No parallax mirror to ensure that you looked straight at the reading.. That came later.

[@roneycorrea]

I love your videos. Please keep posting!!!!

[@migsvensurfing6310]

Lovely old meter. Happy that it still works.

[@300poundbassman]

That's wicked. I had a similar Weston voltmeter mounted on my wall of my shop back in 2000, Sadly that was my dad shop and it and his house burned to the ground in 2006. Not electrical. Just Shit happened. Take care my friend. 🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎄🎂

[@DavidBerquist334]

Nice

[@sciencefollower]

Very nice electromechanical devices in the early stages of electricity. I have two such meters, one volt meter and other current meter, both hinjed together so when not in use can be folded together face to face. Lying in my store for the last, perhaps, 15 years. This video motivated me and I will check those meters working. They look unused and I hope they are in good working condition. Thanks and regards.

[@tretowntret7541]

JESTES PAN WSPANIALY MISTRZEM W SPRAWACH ELEKTRONIKI I MECHAMIKI SZKODA ZE NIEMASZ PAN NASTEPCOW ZYCZE DUZO ZDROWIA I SKLADAM ZYCZENIA BOZEGO NARODZENIA I SZCZESLIWEGO NOWEGO ROKU 2025 DLA PANA

[@dcallan812]

I served my time as an apprentice instrument artificer in the 80s.and much of the equipment we worked on weren't that different.

[@erikdenhouter]

This meter probably must be set horizontal to be more accurate. And I really think it was used as an early multi meter.

[@eddiekilby]

You have a gold mine of old equipment 👍👍👍👍

[@atmylab]

“Central Scientific Company” supplied many high school and college chemistry and physics labs; their competition was “Sargent-Welch”;

[@hestheMaster]

My dad worked at CENCO for a short time in the late 1960s. Had a bunch of science booklets from that time which he was given.

[@adrianrevill7686]

Merry Christmas Ron

[@ZeedijkMike]

I got myself a 30V voltmeter, (around 20cm/8" in diameter) on a flee market, here in Amsterdam, for 30 Euro - branded NIEAF. I think it's quite a bit younger than yours. It has probably been used for education (or some other smokefree environment) as the dial is still perfect and still brilliant white. It is mounted with two 4mm banana sockets that looks quite modern, so I think the voltmeter is quite a bit older than the mounting. Edit: Just Duck-Duck-Go'ed NIAF: It's a Dutch instrument manufactory "Nederlandse Instrumenten Fabriek". Further research (DuckDuckGo): The voltmeter seems to be from 1910, though I only base this on a very similar looking Amp meter also from NIEAF. I haven't got the slightest clue of the age of the wooden base, but it does reminds me of my school time physics lessons in the late 60ies - early 70'ies

[@supersolex]

Goeie vondst!

[@ZeedijkMike]

@@supersolex Gevonden op Waterlooplein. 1 Euro/Volt niet slecht 🙂

[@rupe53]

I have also stumbled on some items from my circa 1960s classes and my best guess is that stuff was already old in that era. We didn't have centralized schools prior to WWII so might have started out as gov or war surplus, or maybe even university hand-me-down. Most of it was set up as demonstration pieces for science classes so nice wood bases and brass name plates.

[@ZeedijkMike]

@@rupe53 The attic of our school was full of very old (school) lab equipment. WWII stuff but also way earlier (older) stuff. I always regret I didn't ask for some of the stuff. Most of it is now in some land field 😞 It's more than 50 years ago by now.

[@MisterTalkingMachine]

These meters usually can use a little tune up, I often find the bushings are either too loose or too tight, or just dirty causing weird motion. Some also have balancing screws that can be adjusted to improve linearity especially in vertical mount meters.

[@davidportch8837]

Many thanks Ron... Have a nice Christmas

[@phonotical]

I had a standard crocodile clip I tried to run 10 amps through, it got soft, flopped over before bursting into flames the same colour as the cord, always best to try and make your own in my experience, but a devil to get soldered onto properly, 4A might be a bit much for the wire gauge, and I've found prebought ones tend to go high resistance pretty quickly

[@polishsharpshooter2876]

I would totally have that mounted to my wall

[@brianatbtacprod1989]

Part of your problem with the Chinesium test leads, may be that most newer chineseium leads don't use copper wire, but steel. The fact that they are so thin doesn't help either. Still a very cool meter. Your channel is a blast to watch every time. Thanks for your work.

[@sometimesleela5947]

There don't seem to be any good alternatives to making your own lately. Silicone test lead wire, mueller or pomona clips.

[@sergeaudenaert]

Wonderful piece of work :-)

[@danl6634]

Check if that clip lead is magnetic. I've found a bunch of them that are basically steel wire & have really high resistance.

[@obsoleteprofessor2034]

I went back to school in my 30's to get an EE degree. We wired up a meter so it would work as ammeter, voltmeter and ohmmeter. I wish the class hadn't gone so fast...I can't remember what/how we did it. Ive collected a few vintage/quality meters over the years with the intention of wiring in monitoring all over the shop...and I'm afraid to fry them.

[@davida1hiwaaynet]

Oh yeah - lovely old meter! Thanks for sharing it with us. I've got an AC meter with a 0-100 scale which uses a 5A CT input and the scale is very easy to interpret. As for the test leads, those are horrible! Had some with one or two strands in the wire, which blew instantly. Total garbage.

[@electronixTech]

The older alligator hook up leads were better. They had more wire strands and were copper. The newer leads use stranded steel wire. You can test which is which with a magnet. Copper leads are not magnetic. Also I had to check the continuity of these leads as the poor crimping of the alligator clips caused intermittent connections which I remedied by soldering.

[@paulstubbs7678]

I wonder if it needs re-magnetising, I had a mate who worked in a lab where they rebuilt meters for a telco, often they redid the magnets. The way he talked made it sound like normal practice.

[@quinquiry]

100 years old meter ! OF COURSE the magnet should be assessed and re magnetized !!

[@erikdenhouter]

At 11:05 he measures on the 5 Volt full scale, and does that with 4.84 Volt connected. So enough deflection. Seems that the magnet is OK then.

[@quinquiry]

With time magnets lose some of their strenght ...100 years is a very long time . The magnet in this old meter sould be re -magnetized

[@ernestsmith3581]

Being a zero center meter, it was likely meant to be used as a Wheatstone Bridge null indicator. If that was the case, the numbers on the face would not be particularly relevant.

[@glasslinger]

This was old telegraph equipment where bridges were used to spot line problems. Good observation!

[@frankowalker4662]

That's a lovely meter. Totaly impracticle for everyday use. LOL. Like you say though, if they have a known voltage/current they need, it's perfect.

[@fillup40]

Work of art.

[@phonotical]

It's a galvanometer, you can still get them, though I have to wonder how many different voltages there really was to test in 1903 outside of a classroom setting Possibly it's been repaired in the past, being a different reading in either direction suggests either a winding is missing or is shorted somewhere in the coil

[@luminousfractal420]

it'll be that moth

[@phonotical]

@luminousfractal420 ?

[@nudebaboon4874]

Interesting piece of kit.

[@OverUnity7734]

Three decades ago I was working on private property that had a 20 foot by 20 foot room built on a dock over the water. Very dilapidated, floor had large holes rotted through and 1/3 of the roof had fallen in. The room had 4 or 5 rows of walls, each wall had about 45 meters, similar to the one you show. I always thought it was for electricity but now that you mention telegraph, that makes more sense. Even more so as the location was very near Washington, D.C.

[@johnwynne-qx6br]

What a lovely meter 👍

[@davidstacy8314]

Hi Ron your tech friend Dave here from up North amazing video on that old meter and you're so talented you explain it so everybody can understand can't wait to see more of your videos hope you have a nice safe Christmas may God bless you and keep you safe always your friend Dave😅😅

[@BlueSkyScholar]

I gave up on store bought clip leads years ago I'm either melting them with current or knocking holes in them with voltage. Not cheap but pomona silicone wire and clips or what ever ends I want on them.

[@adrinathegreat3095]

Very little of testing equipment from the first decade of the 20th century still around. Pre 1900 stuff is almost non existent except in museum's

[@TimHollingworth]

They don't mak 'em like they used to! I prefer an old analog meter over a digital display. They jump around too much for me. 😁

[@rustymotor]

Beautiful instrument! Years ago I worked in an old power station that was used as a standby station for a newer station. The old power station had early style Diesel engines driving alternators and beautiful old switchboards with lovely analog instruments. Sadly a snake intrusion resulted in a flash fire across the live busbars and burnt out much of the wiring. Anyway the place was boarded up and abandoned however all the equipment is still on site.

[@markgilbert9930]

Nice video. Looks like something you might find at EPO.

[@leetucker9938]

i like it

[@JamesRound-mj9on]

Hi there just wondering what make.is your soldering iron love from uk for vids

[@DavidHuber63]

Nice score

[@Denvermorgan2000]

Nice meter 😊

[@nanar13]

Super Bravo l'ami

[@trevorhaddox6884]

The original shunt may have been blown as there is no fuse and someone just replaced it with a piece of random metal/wire and thought that would work.

[@Zbigniewkrupka]

Pozdrawiam z Polski 👋🇵🇱👋

[@jimdonnelly5727]

Isn't telegraph DC voltage?

[@glasslinger]

Yes. They used banks of storage batteries.

[@mobilfone2234]

The wire may be el cheapo steel 😊😊😊

[@arnoldrimmer8008]

Copper coated aluminum.

[@dcallan812]

@@arnoldrimmer8008 thats just what I was about to say, they really are cr@p

[@mobilfone2234]

@arnoldrimmer8008 just tested one, it's magnetic wire.....🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮🤮

[@Tesla_Radio]

Ahoj 👍

[@hestheMaster]

Cheap Chinesium test leads are made with steel wire. Save the covered alligator clips then throw them out! Not good for anything. Make you own with 18 gauge stranded copper wire. Have a Merry Christmas Ron!

[@GG-od2tr]

Thank you for sharing @glasslinger can you make gas-discharge noise generator GSh-3?? or do you have any for sale? as these things are becoming as hens teeth. Since Russia is not trading with our country is makes it difficult.

[@hikewomeat]

I can imagine what device you mention. This is a neon lamp in a long glass case. Some time ago I wanted to buy one to create an original lantern. This lamp was sold inexpensively on the Avito website. I know that there are intermediaries who help to buy goods, for example, in the USA and send them to Russia. Perhaps there is also the opposite situation. The main difficulty is language. If many understand English, then understanding the site in Russian is more difficult.

[@PicaDelphon]

Nice Find, and I know you Going to Print a Test Mater Panel Decal..

[@spqr0a1]

Love seeing antique equipment in action, thanks for the video! You mentioned the cheap clip leads getting hot. Matthias Wandel did a video on that recently. They aren't just thin, the wire is iron instead of copper. kzbin.info/www/bejne/Z2bWfqKdgJipiqs

[@dennis8196]

That wire was good for being a fuse of unknown value!

[@ganko2240]

It's less of a meter, more like a roman emperor giving you an idea of his amusement of the gladiator battle, 👍👎

[@Beechnut985]

Yep

[@bussi7859]

Are you going to show some flintstone science soon?

[@jahmahrahdesafilli6268]

Hi, I have Just discovered You. I love all the old vintage electrical gear, so I will be watching You for many hours now! I wonder if You might be able to help Me, as I am just designing a valve amplifier for the first time, and I would welcome Your thoughts and advice please. I have just made a video about My idea so I hope it is ok to post it here. Best Wishes Jahmahrah. kzbin.info/www/bejne/pJTZoWOJhZxsm6csi=gAtzK9QxiKZ4bY2v