2 replies to this topic

[Ben_O]

Last week at work, we had a lovely old gentleman pop in for an MOT on his motorhome and whilst he was waiting, I demonstrated some wax products for him to use under his motorhome and we got talking about classic cars.

 

I showed him around the MG Midget I am restoring and he was recalling all of the old cars he has had through the years and some restoration work he had done himself.

 

Anyway, long story short, He popped back in yesterday with a curious item in his hands. He said he had been sorting out his garage and come across this item and thought i might like it.

 

He told me that they were used on Wolseley police cars back in the 50's and were bolted to the bulkhead, wired to the car and then could be plugged into the mains to charger the batteries.

 

He says it works fine but I can't find any information on it at all apart from some other items like coils and magnetos made by the same company 'Runbaken' of Manchester.

 

I wondered if anyone had any info on it as I would quite like to find out more.

Here are some pictures

 

 

 

Many thanks

 

Ben

[tiger99]

I am old enough to remember seeing those splendid devices advertised occasionlly. Just a particularly well made on-board battery charger. The oil filling meant that it could deliver quite a high current without overheating. I suspect that it was mainly for cooling the rectifier, either selenium or copper oxide, both of which were inefficient and easily damaged by overheating. Germanium diodes were not sufficiently advanced, and silicon semiconductors were probably still several years away when those were made.

I don't know where to find any more information. You could try the archives of magazines of the day, perhaps.

I would suggest that what you have is worthy of being exhibited in a motoring museum somewhere. Your choice of course, you could give them it on indefinite loan.

[Ben_O]

Thanks for the Info.

 

I quite like it so it's something I would like to keep hold of.

 

However, I would be happy for it to be displayed if there was ever any interest.

 

Thanks

 

Ben