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Old 18th Sep 2016, 10:59 am   #21
Lucien Nunes
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Default Re: Mercury Arc Rectifier

There is an MAR on display at Internal Fire in Wales, another that hopefully will be brought back into operation at Amberley in Sussex (with its fascinating charge control panel for a substation tripping battery), plus soon a large Hewittic to come on-line in the electric pumphouse under reconstruction at the London Museum of Water and Steam. There will also be a bulb or two at Electrokinetica. It is a pity that the Science Museum in Kensington no longer displays one (which was also the first one I saw in operation) and that the Laxey substation of the Manx Electric Railway was given the all-clear to de-bulb.

I must get around to ROSEMARIE - the Register Of Serviceable or Extant Mercury Arc Rectifier Installations & Exhibits.
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Old 18th Sep 2016, 8:04 pm   #22
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Default Re: Mercury Arc Rectifier

Quote:
Originally Posted by kalee20 View Post
Yes, LHP pressurised water was used by many passenger lifts, curtains at the Odeon, Marble Arch. But not the Tower Bridge bascules - these used local steam engines to generate locally pressurised water to operate the bascules. (Now, they use electric motors to pump oil to operate the bascules, which strictly isn't proper hydraulics of course!)
Tower Bridge was normally operated by high pressure water stored in massive hydraulic accumulators. These were charged by pumps operated by three steam engines. Two of these were Victorian originals and the third was supplied by Vickers in 1941 (if I remember correctly what I was told on a visit around 1966). However Tower Bridge was also connected to the LHPC main although I don't know how much use was made of that supply. The main use of hydraulic power in that area was to operate the dock cranes.

Edward
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Old 18th Sep 2016, 10:39 pm   #23
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Default Re: Mercury Arc Rectifier

Hi Lucien, I tried to send you a PM but I got an error message saying that your inbox is full. It was about Electrokinetica.
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Old 18th Sep 2016, 11:05 pm   #24
Lucien Nunes
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Default Re: Mercury Arc Rectifier

Sorry - sorted... try again!
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Old 19th Sep 2016, 7:03 am   #25
Dave Moll
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Default Re: Mercury Arc Rectifier

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Originally Posted by Lucien Nunes View Post
It is a pity that ... the Laxey substation of the Manx Electric Railway was given the all-clear to de-bulb.
What a shame I didn't get a chance to see that when I was there earlier this year!
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Old 19th Sep 2016, 8:07 am   #26
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Default Re: Mercury Arc Rectifier

Why is the Manx railway de-bulbing? I'd have thought, these days the tourist attraction factor would kick in. And disturbing and handling Mercury-containing devices would have H&S issues. What fix something that ain't broke!
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Old 19th Sep 2016, 8:52 am   #27
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Default Re: Mercury Arc Rectifier

Yes I was in Laxey last June. Wish I had known about the mercury arc rectifier. Only one I've seen was in the Birmingham Science Museum (building now demolished) in the 1950s.
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Old 19th Sep 2016, 8:57 am   #28
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Default Re: Mercury Arc Rectifier

Ah, the splendid Birmingham Science Museum, now replaced by the childishly-named 'Think Tank'...........enough said.

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Old 19th Sep 2016, 3:00 pm   #29
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Default Re: Mercury Arc Rectifier

A couple of years ago the Laxey Mines Research Group were trying to save and re house a mercury arc setup, not sure how far they got, I seem to remember signing a petition to try and save it.

A good forum for enquiring/finding out about mining history electrical stuff would be aditnow, link below, a wealth of general info on that site with some of the best photo's in the country:

http://www.aditnow.co.uk/

Needless to say being an old tin and gold miner I'm a member.

Lawrence.
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Old 19th Sep 2016, 3:07 pm   #30
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Default Re: Mercury Arc Rectifier

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Originally Posted by M0FYA Andy View Post
Ah, the splendid Birmingham Science Museum
Which was free of charge to go in which I did in those bygone days many times.

Jim
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Old 19th Sep 2016, 3:30 pm   #31
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Default Re: Mercury Arc Rectifier

Here's the Manx beast in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4Es2Umuv1I

Lawrence.
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Old 19th Sep 2016, 5:44 pm   #32
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Default Re: Mercury Arc Rectifier

I don't know how many times I visited the Birmingham Science Museum back in the 60s. Was always fascinated by the Rectifier and many of the other exhibits especially when they were running.

Keith
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Old 21st Sep 2016, 2:52 pm   #33
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Default Re: Mercury Arc Rectifier

I, too, used to visit as a schoolboy. Saturday morning trips "up town" to buy chemical apparatus at Philip Harris and a trip to The Parade, where a pharmacist sold small quantities of chemicals at 6 pence a pop. After that, the museum, which I think was called the Museum of Science and Industry. It held some wonderful stuff such as the Railton Mobil Special, a restored Birmingham tram and the "Shackled Giant", which was the "City of Birmingham" locomotive which had been restored. Great days...

Sorry about going off-topic somewhat, but I do remember the MAR and wondering what the ... it was.
Colin.

Last edited by ColinTheAmpMan1; 21st Sep 2016 at 2:53 pm. Reason: Missing "h" on "which".
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Old 21st Sep 2016, 4:23 pm   #34
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Default Re: Mercury Arc Rectifier

I joined Thorn Automation at Rugeley in 1971 and as part of my apprenticeship I spent some time in the service department visiting factories with service engineers. One visit was to a site - I'm not sure where now - where a MAR was being used in the control system. The Thorn (actually Lancashire Dynamo) cubicles were grey in colour and this huge alien spider thing sat there pumping out a very erie looking blue purple light. I was transfixed. Lancashire Dynamo also made rectifiers for use by London Underground and many others who needed DC power. Back in the works, during my time in the 'base' service department I also saw spare MARs on shelves in the stores. We could repair pretty much anything the company had made going back to the 50s. But yes, my young eyes never forgot those frightening big glass octopuses pulsing out their devil light like something out of an early Frankenstein film.

Lancashire Dynamo became part of Metal Industries then later part of the Thorn group as Thorn Automation. Out of interest, in the early 60s, the company won an order from the Rustyfa tyre company of Russia to automate a whole tyre factory and the order was worth a million pounds - a huge amount in those days. Nothing to do with me - I swear - but the company's decline began in the early 70s when it kind of lost its way with many changes of MD, a lack of investment in its core business, automation, and wasted time and money assembling and testing touch control cooker hobs for sister brands in the Thorn group. The company joined forces with EMI as Thorn EMI Electronics in the late 70s and 80s and later became Ultra Electronics and is now doing well again. I spent 20 happy years there firstly as a test engineer, then field sales, internal sales and contracts and finally as their PR officer, an area that I then stayed in apart from a couple of redundancies and subsequent 'whatever I could get' jobs, until I took early retirement in 2010. I've gone off topic, sorry..
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Old 22nd Sep 2016, 10:17 am   #35
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Default Re: Mercury Arc Rectifier

Not sure if anyone has hear this tale, when the radio tx at the edge of Bodmin / Goss moor (Victoria on the old a30) was stripped a Dutch fella acquired an enormous one that filled a large van, he then managed to smuggle it back over to Holland ! rather dangerous cargo one would think, to drive 500 miles with !!!
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Old 22nd Sep 2016, 12:40 pm   #36
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Default Re: Mercury Arc Rectifier

Sandtoft trolleybus museum had one installed some years ago to replace a jury-rigged diesel-electric set.
They wisely placed it in view through a window in the sub-station, where it attracts attention in its own right.
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Old 22nd Sep 2016, 4:55 pm   #37
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Default Another Mercury Arc Rectrfier

Hi watching the Antiques Road Trip & Philip Serrell has just walked in to a shop & there is another M A R in a shop on a shelf
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Old 22nd Sep 2016, 7:45 pm   #38
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Default Re: Another Mercury Arc Rectrfier

Yes, I spotted that one - in Marazion (where I spent a rainy day in August 1999 watching the sky go dark).
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Old 22nd Sep 2016, 8:26 pm   #39
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Smile Re: Mercury Arc Rectifier

I think there is a MAR setup at the Midland Railway Centre at Butterley. There are a number of small museums together (a forklift truck museum as well!!)

One of these little museums has several vintage stationary engines with a few generators and there is a cubicle with a rectifier there. I have no idea if it is operational.

Christopher Capener
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Old 23rd Sep 2016, 10:03 am   #40
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Default Re: Mercury Arc Rectifier

Here's a shot of the plant room at Belsize Park WW2 deep shelter, taken on a visit by Subterranea Britannica. The shelter is nowadays used as a document store but the london underground lifts are still needed. On the left is the substation transformer and on the right are a pair of 1942 variable speed DC drives for the ventilation system.
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