Older Miscellaneous Stuff

These soldering irons were heated over a flame. The original cordless irons.

Old Ford spark coils.

This military switch box was made by Fada. Of all the tons of military surplus dad bought, this was the last piece new in the box. Dad had bought a tank turret when I was very young. All I remember of it was the large aluminum frame with a huge bearing in the top. Dad made a swivel stool out of it.

I don't know what model Ford this ammeter & switch came from.

In the days of long ago, the volume on a radio was controlled by varying the filament voltage. This drum type rheostat was the latest thing.

Not everything transistorized is small. This hearing aid from Zenith uses some very old transistors.

Surplus electronics has been around a long time, but has passed it's peak.

This electronic blanket control had a good collection of parts. Dad bought several of these to use as Conelrad adaptors.

The purpose of Conelrad was to have radio stations across the country change to 640 or 1240 during an emergency. Think about it - if war breaks out, who wants to retune a 50,000 watt transmitter?

The monitor comes in where local stations are shut down in case of trouble. The monitor would watch the AVC voltage in a radio, and if the station went off the air, the AVC voltage went away, and an alarm of some sort would let you know that you'd better duck & cover. Dad had one of these monitors installed in our Philco 610, and he ran some wires upstairs to an indicator light. It never lit except when it was tested.

I have a couple Cold War items listed under Miscellaneous Non-Electric Stuff.

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