UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Powered By Google Custom Search Vintage Radio and TV Service Data

Go Back   UK Vintage Radio Repair and Restoration Discussion Forum > General Vintage Technology > General Vintage Technology Discussions

Notices

General Vintage Technology Discussions For general discussions about vintage radio and other vintage electronics etc.

Closed Thread
 
Thread Tools
Old 5th Aug 2013, 12:30 pm   #21
russell_w_b
Dekatron
 
russell_w_b's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Penrith, Cumbria, UK.
Posts: 3,684
Default Re: Mercury-arc rectifier station under threat!

That's me on at No:699.
__________________
Regds,

Russell W. B.
G4YLI.
russell_w_b is offline  
Old 5th Aug 2013, 12:53 pm   #22
FIXITNOW
Octode
 
FIXITNOW's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2007
Location: Ely, Cambridgeshire, UK.
Posts: 1,967
Default Re: Mercury-arc rectifier station under threat!

and me at 704
FIXITNOW is offline  
Old 5th Aug 2013, 1:01 pm   #23
kalee99
Rest in Peace
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: Newcastle Upon Tyne, Tyneside, UK.
Posts: 420
Default Re: Mercury-arc rectifier station under threat!

I have signed as well. Had some Mercury arc rectifiers at the cinema I ran. Never let us down once.
Paul.
kalee99 is offline  
Old 5th Aug 2013, 9:06 pm   #24
govjohn
Pentode
 
Join Date: May 2011
Location: Cardigan, Ceredigion, UK.
Posts: 100
Default Re: Mercury-arc rectifier station under threat!

Done .
John
govjohn is offline  
Old 6th Aug 2013, 9:05 am   #25
MotorBikeLes
Nonode
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Kirk Michael, Isle of Man
Posts: 2,346
Default Re: Mercury-arc rectifier station under threat!

Well, my pal Joe O'H has now contacted a railway enthusiast he knows in UK, and as he says "started another snowflake". I believe quite a few on my list have also signed it now.
Lucien, power to your elbow.
Les.
MotorBikeLes is offline  
Old 6th Aug 2013, 2:17 pm   #26
broadgage
Nonode
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: North Somerset, UK.
Posts: 2,129
Default Re: Mercury-arc rectifier station under threat!

Also signed.
broadgage is offline  
Old 7th Aug 2013, 10:14 am   #27
Paul Stenning
Administrator
 
Paul Stenning's Avatar
 
Join Date: Dec 2002
Location: Cardiff
Posts: 9,060
Default Re: Mercury-arc rectifier station under threat!

764
__________________

Paul Stenning
Forum Admin/Owner and BVWS Webmaster
Paul Stenning is offline  
Old 7th Aug 2013, 10:41 pm   #28
Alf Fisher
Hexode
 
Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Potton, Bedfordshire, UK.
Posts: 292
Default Re: Mercury-arc rectifier station under threat!

777

Alf
Alf Fisher is offline  
Old 8th Aug 2013, 1:05 pm   #29
coil1234
Pentode
 
Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Almeria, Spain
Posts: 221
Default Re: Mercury-arc rectifier station under threat!

Signed No 789

Mike A
coil1234 is offline  
Old 8th Aug 2013, 7:21 pm   #30
techiesteve
Pentode
 
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Aylesbury, Bucks, UK.
Posts: 161
Default Re: Mercury-arc rectifier station under threat!

Just signed, No. 793
__________________
Steve M0SVB
techiesteve is offline  
Old 8th Aug 2013, 7:59 pm   #31
Redders03
Pentode
 
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Bromley UK.
Posts: 161
Default Re: Mercury-arc rectifier station under threat!

Signed -NO 794!
__________________
Alex
Redders03 is offline  
Old 8th Aug 2013, 10:01 pm   #32
Station X
Moderator
 
Station X's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Ipswich, Suffolk, IP4, UK.
Posts: 21,192
Default Re: Mercury-arc rectifier station under threat!

#795
__________________
Graham. Forum Moderator

Reach for your meter before you reach for your soldering iron.
Station X is offline  
Old 8th Aug 2013, 10:03 pm   #33
woodchips
Octode
 
Join Date: May 2010
Location: Grantham, Lincolnshire, UK.
Posts: 1,172
Default Re: Mercury-arc rectifier station under threat!

At the risk of spoiling the party, why do we, anyone, want to keep this rectifier station?

It is interesting, for about 3 seconds, to the average person, who won't actually get anything more from it than a decent video. You can't actually use it for anything, cost of the electricity, and if you really want to preserve it then the scrap value must be almost nothing.

It seems to me it is just another piece of old technology, obviously useful because it wouldn't otherwise have been used. But it is no more valuable than a diesel locomotive, telex exchange, 220kV switchgear, relay controlled traffic lights, fax machine or a million other things.

It demonstrates no important fundamental principles or design, and the average person will not find it of any interest at all.

Not signed!
woodchips is offline  
Old 8th Aug 2013, 10:15 pm   #34
Sean Williams
Dekatron
 
Sean Williams's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: St.Ippolyts, Hitchin, Hertfordshire QRA IO91UW
Posts: 3,517
Default Re: Mercury-arc rectifier station under threat!

It is a bit like saying why save the Cutty Sark, or why preserve Stonehenge - both are similarly useless, and of little relevance other than a photo opportunity.

So much of our history has been lost or destroyed because people just didn't care enough to save it.

Sure, might be of limited appeal to the majority, but that alone isn't a good reason not to save part of our industrial heritage.
__________________
Engineers make things work and have spare bits when finished
Sean Williams is offline  
Old 9th Aug 2013, 6:21 am   #35
Brian R Pateman
Nonode
 
Brian R Pateman's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Western Lake District, Cumbria (CA20) - UK
Posts: 2,136
Default Re: Mercury-arc rectifier station under threat!

798
__________________
Brian
Brian R Pateman is offline  
Old 9th Aug 2013, 8:05 am   #36
Michael Maurice
Moderator
 
Michael Maurice's Avatar
 
Join Date: Feb 2006
Location: Wembley, Middlesex
Posts: 7,219
Default Re: Mercury-arc rectifier station under threat!

797
__________________
Forum Moderator

http://www.michaelmauricerepairs.co.uk/
Michael Maurice is offline  
Old 9th Aug 2013, 8:33 am   #37
Mike Phelan
Dekatron
 
Mike Phelan's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Near Leeds, West Yorkshire, UK
Posts: 4,609
Default Re: Mercury-arc rectifier station under threat!

#799 (having just been there t'other week.)
__________________
Mike.
Mike Phelan is offline  
Old 9th Aug 2013, 9:40 am   #38
Lucien Nunes
Rest in Peace
 
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: London, UK.
Posts: 2,508
Default Re: Mercury-arc rectifier station under threat!

A mercury-arc might only be interesting to the average man for 3 seconds but in those 3 seconds the unusual sight of the glowing bulb makes him think about electrical technology and inspires him to ask questions and maybe learn something in the process. I had one permanently on display at the workshop, which prompted a steady stream of enquiry and informative dialogue. They are especially good at imparting the idea that electronic equipment can be durable, not disposable. To the more percipient viewer they demonstrate some fundamental principles rather well, especially ionisation and the nature of current flow.

If you are saying all old technology is redundant, then you just wrote off all our hobbies and some of our businesses. If you mean some old technology is worthy of conservation and exhibition but not mercury arc rectifiers, consider the relative costs and merits of various projects and the number of surviving examples. There are probably 100 times as many old diesel locos being saved as MARs, some at an individual cost higher than that of conserving all the MARs put together. But while most of the locos sit static in sheds, the Laxey substation MARs can keep switching people on to electrical ideas that play a much bigger part in their lives than a Deltic diesel ever did.

Lucien
Lucien Nunes is offline  
Old 9th Aug 2013, 10:05 am   #39
AC/HL
Dekatron
 
AC/HL's Avatar
 
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Heckmondwike, West Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 9,637
Default Re: Mercury-arc rectifier station under threat!

I remember being fascinated by one in a telephone exchange, when I first started work in the dim and distant past. It charged a room full of lead acid batteries each the size of a bath! 801.
AC/HL is offline  
Old 9th Aug 2013, 12:39 pm   #40
MotorBikeLes
Nonode
 
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Kirk Michael, Isle of Man
Posts: 2,346
Default Re: Mercury-arc rectifier station under threat!

Why keep it?
Well, you could take a group of students in, show it to them, and then explain how it works, with the possibility of arousing long term interest in technology.
Perhaps you would like to show them a chip, and explain that?
Almost 25 years ago, I found myself having to repair compact disc players.
Compared with more recent chips, the service manuals generally provided a function diagram of the internals of the various chips. Bit by bit, I managed to get a rough idea of each section, and even fathom out how the different sections worked together, but never a complete understanding. OK, maybe I am a bit thick, but people (TV engineers) started regarding me as an expert.
Now, Woodchips, maybe you can understand a Sanyo LC7860N DSP chip, but can you understand an old 80486 (Pentium 4) processor, and then explain it to those students.
There is just about NOTHING today with which you can do that, but there is the mercury arc rectifier station.
We still have our steam trains here on the island (1879) and they are in regular use, and a big tourist draw. (They were very useful during a recent bus strike). We have many such tourist attractions here (camera obscura for example) and this WOULD become one such if preserved, with it extra interest. Then EVERYBODY could see and understand.
Time to sign Woodchips?
Les.
MotorBikeLes is offline  
Closed Thread

Thread Tools



All times are GMT +1. The time now is 3:11 am.


All information and advice on this forum is subject to the WARNING AND DISCLAIMER located at https://www.vintage-radio.net/rules.html.
Failure to heed this warning may result in death or serious injury to yourself and/or others.


Powered by vBulletin®
Copyright ©2000 - 2024, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Copyright ©2002 - 2023, Paul Stenning.