Hartmann & Braun + Tinsley & Co. kit...

[Nick]

Anyone know anything about these (dates etc. would be a start! I estimate 1940-1950):

   

I was given the box - the condenser weight about 10 kg - it must be full of lead or pitchblend or 'summat.

There's a moving-mirror galvanometer under there too...

[camallison]

Regarding provenance, Hartmann & Braun (still) is a German process instrumentation company (now owned by ABB) and Tinsley manufactured thermocouples and resistance thermometers. It might be a calibration box with "standard" capacitance and resistance - hence wheatstone bridge?

Colin

[pwdrive]

1920's or earlier maybe?

Lawrence.

[Nick]

Yup - I'd looked up the basics but can't find the specific instruments - the Tinsley "condenser" seems to have no model number and is unlike any other Tinsley box I can find., including on sites like RadioMuseum.

Same for the Hartmann & Braun model 17 resistance box.

[pwdrive]

This might be the Tinsley jobbie? Tinsley still in business I think.

http://www.signa-uru.com/galeria/display...hp?album=9&pos=17

Lawrence.

[pwdrive]

This one might be an earlier version?

http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/17616/lot/316/

Lawrence.

[Nick]

This might be the Tinsley jobbie? Tinsley still in business I think.

http://www.signa-uru.com/galeria/display...hp?album=9&pos=17

That's the baby ! Mine isn't quite as clean but its not far off.

SWMBO will have a go at me if she sees it (it's a bit of a beast), so I'll probably have to sell it....

[Yorkie]

What amazes me is the low price that these beautifully made items tend to fetch - just a fraction of what they would originally have cost to make. The one at Bonham's went for just £36.00. Probably because they have little or no practical application in this day and age. At least curios such as 'electric shock machines' are functional items should anyone have the urge to inflict pain upon themselves, and crystal sets will still receive signals - several stations all at once, right across the band!

I have a very complex 'Cambridge Instruments' potentiometer which has no practical application and must have been very costly in its day - beautifully made, with many coils, switches, dials, mahogany cabinet and vulcanite front panel. Just an ornament of times gone by -probably used in a university lab I imagine. Really, it belongs in a museum, but where?