Identify WW2-era battery / power switch panel

[Lucien Nunes]

I'm not sure which section this really belongs in because the panel is not in itself electronic, although it might have been used for communications equipment. OTOH it could have been anything battery-related, but probably WW2-era War Dept issue. It is a panel maybe 18" wide, with four snap-action rotary switches, I think double-pole and probably rated at 15A, connected to various terminal studs. There's some kind of identification engraved at the top but none of my pics show it legibly. The switches seem to be marked 'Charge Batt No.1', 'Charge Batt No.2', 'Batt on charge from:' and 'Set supply from:' I originally thought that the word 'set' in the latter referred to a communication set or similar, but of course it could just mean 'Select supply from.' The only terminal markings I can read are the two in the middle marked '12V output.'

My experience of them has been through the electrical equipment of fairgrounds. Back in the 1970s there were probably hundreds in use by showmen as general-purpose switches for 110V DC. The one in the pic here is hung in a side stall, with the feeds to the lighting of adjacent stalls fed through it. There are not so many around now, particularly as 110V DC is in ever-decreasing use. Looking back at my pics of the fairground rides at Great Dorset Steam Fair 2018, I spotted three of them still in use although one partially dismantled, which piqued my curiosity as to their origin.

[Murphyv310]

Interesting.
I certainly have no idea of the manufacturer but years ago when I lived in Irvine there was a chap who sold items from government sales. I do remember these and he used them for switching, I've no clue as to what as it's back in the early to mid 70s.

[Stockden]

It's a "Switchboard Charging No. 5" used in military vehicle installations (such as WS12) during WW2. There's more information about it here: http://www.rcsigs.ca/index.php/Switchboa...5_Canadian

Hugh

[Lucien Nunes]

Brilliant, thank you Hugh. I've never been involved with WW2 comms so my limit is just about being able to recognise a WS 19 . I see there are some differences between the Canadian version in your link and the one in my post. However there is one other pic on the WWW that shows a British version that matches exactly. I expect most showmen modified the wiring on the back so that each switch fed one pair of terminals. If cable size is anything to go by, the one in my pic has the middle terminals as the input. As seen there, 4-core TRS cable was often used on fairs for 110V DC with pairs of cores paralleled, as this was always floating w.r.t. earth.

It will be interesting to investigate the route by which so many Switchboards Charging No.5 reached the fairs. It would only take one surplus dealer with a stock of a few hundred, to advertise them in 'World's Fair' newspaper, and they would be seen by most potential users. The biggest impact of war surplus electrical plant was the availability of redundant searchlight generators. These were exactly right for powering rides and they took over from showmen's steam road locos as the preferred source of mobile power. I have yet to research the main distribution channels for these surplus gensets but I would not be surprised if the switchboards, and possibly other items that I haven't yet identified as war surplus, came via the same route.

Two more pictures of typical applications - one in a cakewalk ride and one on the back of a striker.