Posted 6 years ago
AnythingOb…
(1778 items)
Here's one more favorite from my 'industrial electrical box' collection. ;-) This thing, commonly known as a "motor starter/contactor" is (electrically speaking) basically just a big relay which ends up being operated via a separate relatively small, usually remotely located pushbutton on/off switchbox (-es) to in turn actually control the 'heavy duty' power supply to a large motor or other high-voltage/current device of some sort.
This particular example was made by the ALLEN-BRADLEY COMPANY of Milwaukee, WI and dates to approx. 1926, when it was first installed on a wall in a small town church basement to control the motor of a pipe organ blower. It remained 'in service' there working perfectly until I recovered it (~15-20yrs ago) as it was being replaced by a similar "new" unit.
Its black (baked paint?) exterior finish remains in excellent condition after only a superficial cleaning to lose ~75+yrs of 'basement crud'...its white interior finish and paper labels are "as-found". It measures about 8" x 6" x 4", and the embossed aluminum nameplate on its front cover is about 2-1/4" across.
Pretty cool!! Looks like the overloads have been jumped across. I guess they weren't too worried about the motor failing:)
Thanks SO VERY MUCH to:
clockerman
Irishcollector
jscott0363
Anik
Caperkid
MyCountry
&
buckethead
for tapping the <love it> button for yet one more of my 'weird elec-tricial boxes'?!! :-) :-) :-)
jscott, is that what those two little red wires are...come to think of it, they *do* look somewhat out of place...? (but I haven't studied the wiring diagram) And FWIW, I don't suppose they actually were -- the actual motor this box controlled had been there many decades already when this contactor was replaced, and is still there to this very day... ;-)
More THANKS going out to blunderbuss2, Brunswick, fortapache, elanski, & iggy for your <love-it>s! :-) :-) :-)