Montgomery Wards Airline 62 280 6 volt battery powered farm radio Vibrator Demo with a Strobe

This video I show how an old farm radio from the 30's used a mechanical vibrator to chop DC current from a 6 volt battery and was able to then run the power through a transformer to operate much like a normal wall socked AC powered radio of the time.

Being this is a purely mechanical device, I find it fascinating that it could have been made to work at all. In fact these radio vibrators work amazingly well, and would run for years before needing replacement.

I the video I demonstrate the running of the vibrator by rigging up a high speed strobe light to capture slow motion video.

Montgomery Wards Airline, Montgomery Wards Airline Miracle 62-280 Airline Miracle 62-280, Airline 62-280, Vacuum Tube, Vacuum Tube Radio, Mallory Vibrator, Oak Vibrator, Strobe light, Slow Motion, Mechanical Rectification, Mechanical Inverter

[coptertim]

Well done!! The strobe light was an outstanding way to demonstrate the operation of the vibrator circuit, great idea. If you ever go back to this project I would love to see the vibrator output displayed on an oscilloscope. I didn't have a clear idea of how they worked before your video, it is crystal clear now.

[aaww]

Beautifully presented demonstration of the vibrator radio power supply component. Thanks for a great presentation!

[phxmark]

Cool device. When I was in high school in the 80s, my Voc Ed teacher gave me a 12v - 120v mechanical inverter that didn't work. It had a 120Hz mechanical vibrator in it, that after it went through the transformer, put out a 60 Hz triangular wave. It had 3 capacitors in it that probably made the triangle waves. The rubber insulators that kept the vibrator from grounding to to the inverter frame were rotted out. I replaced them and they thing worked good. It only put out about 100 watts, so it was only good at powering small devices. It was made by Terado and is called a Trav-Electric.

BTW, your videos on the mechanical calculator helped me fix the one I bought at a thrift store. See my channel for the videos.