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old telephone crank magneto

On our way back from her parents house Sunday in Houston, we decided to stop by a little antique mall somewhere between Houston and Austin. There I found an old Western Electric crank shaft telephone magneto still complete with the oak enclosure and in pretty nice condition. After testing it out on my stepson (he got a kick out of it), I decided I couldn't live without it and gave the lady $40.

We got it home and Joe, my stepson seemed more interested in it than me and was hooking it to all sorts of little FM/AM radios, light bulbs and other little appliances. I also hooked it to a little test meter and saw it generates up to around 100v AC with a really good wind.

I've been looking around the web for some ideas but haven't had much luck, so I thought I would drop this group a line. Does anyone know if this little novelty might have any practical use? If I were to rig up some sort to windmill or something to it to keep it spinning and connect it to a converter or some other power supply, is it possible to use one of these to power, say, a small ham radio?

- Matt

Reply to
Radio TexMex
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Hi Matt, You could power a lot of things with it. I don't know its limits but you could experiment to find out. Keep in mind, the more power you take from it the more power you need to put in. It will get harder to crank as the load increases. Have fun learning what it can do. Regards, Tom

Reply to
Tom Biasi 

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You can use it to "dig" earthworms.
Reply to
John Fields

I *did* find that application on the web for this lil' shocker. I might try that, but here in Austin, I don't think the ground has very many night crawlers. Its pretty rocky. I also saw some folks talking about using them on fishing trips to "stun" the fishies. Sounds like an invitation for a hefty fine, hehe.

Reply to
Radio TexMex 

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There are lots of \'em at my house...
Reply to
John Fields

That's because you keep replying to Rich. ;-)

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Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I\'ve got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Old fashioned meggers do that very well!

R

Reply to
Roger Dewhurst

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