Brilliant, I have not seen one of these working since I worked as an Electrician for London Country Buses / Green Line Coaches (formerly London Transport). Every garage used to have one of these (some had two) and they were used as as battery chargers. We could charge many batteries at the same time and could adjust the output voltage and current independently .
When we used to have have groups of school children visit the garage, I use to fire it up. It is now in the LT Depot Museum in Acton.
And for those who are wondering, the wire hanging above the pool of mercury in the bottom is for ignition: a magnet is used to draw the wire into the pool momentarily to strike an arc.
Those handle massive amounts of current, & run many x's longer than a bank of silicon would,..but are a toxic hazard if dropped, the bad part...
They are the electronic version of those ancient steam traction engines..like the original ones by Watt himself, or those water pumps built in the 1700's still operating today!
I saw one of these when I was about 4 years old in NZ @ Motat, a tram rectifyer it made me get into electronics and physics etc for the rest of my life!
@Pilotgeek really? if that was so I'd have one for my collection and one for my power supply experiment... However if you know where one can be bought in the US I'd love to know..seriously
The windmill pattern is created by the blades of an antique wooden fan. As a tram goes past the substation, the four fans all spin faster to cool the bulbs. They make a deafening racket.
I seen one of these working in a FS (Italian railway company) substation in mid 1970's, when I was a kid. It was used to provide 3000 Vdc for the railway. That was very impressive, and has been permanently stamped in my memory! If I remeber correct, it was located at Arona, Italy, but I'm not 100% sure of that, I was less than 10 years old, so I was a child but I already loved these glass electric things as I currently love today! A lot more fascinating than silicon devices!
They are uncomfortably noisy; but mainly they are impossible to maintain. If one goes down it has to be replaced, and they are difficult to handle - being fragile and full of mercury. Surprisingly there are lots of spares available from de-commissioned rectifiers.
Being pretty to look at does not compensate in the minds of maintenance staff.
These things are awesome. Not only the sights and sound, but the raw amount of power and the fact that some of these have been in continuous service for over 50 years is absolutely amazing!
I love old MARs. Deadly voltages/currents, toxic mercury vapour. and glass; what more could you want? Except perhaps for the name to be changed to 'Super Danger Bulbs....peow peow!'.
Nice video, however I think there really are lots of these still in service, quietly(?) doing their job and forgotten about :)
ollyk22 1 month ago
i could fall asleep to that sound
YummyMercury 5 months ago
素晴らしい！ 貴重な水銀ランプ整流器の動画だ
avonsearider 7 months ago
Brilliant, I have not seen one of these working since I worked as an Electrician for London Country Buses / Green Line Coaches (formerly London Transport). Every garage used to have one of these (some had two) and they were used as as battery chargers. We could charge many batteries at the same time and could adjust the output voltage and current independently .
When we used to have have groups of school children visit the garage, I use to fire it up. It is now in the LT Depot Museum in Acton.
fartingvicar 8 months ago
Are these things that hard to maintain?
And for those who are wondering, the wire hanging above the pool of mercury in the bottom is for ignition: a magnet is used to draw the wire into the pool momentarily to strike an arc.
douro20 9 months ago
@douro20
Thanx for the comment.
The tramways basically don't maintain them; there are apparently lots of spares from de-commissioned units.
JennaDDDD 9 months ago
Hypno-Octopus.
FelixTheHouseFreak 10 months ago
Good day
Those handle massive amounts of current, & run many x's longer than a bank of silicon would,..but are a toxic hazard if dropped, the bad part...
They are the electronic version of those ancient steam traction engines..like the original ones by Watt himself, or those water pumps built in the 1700's still operating today!
Things built today wont last THAT long,.eh...IMO
RetroCaptain 11 months ago 2
@RetroCaptain
Thx for the comment. It's the glow that gets me.
JennaDDDD 11 months ago
tony stark will be calling you up in a bit bro..
iJameez 1 year ago
That is a six phase model, probably about 25kVA rating. I recall four this size at the Newcastle Paramount Cinema made by Hewittic.
delicolor 1 year ago
IT LOOKS LIKE A JELLYFISH!
gastoid44 1 year ago
thx for the the comment
JennaDDDD 1 year ago
NIKOLA TESLA invented AC curent not Edison !!! Edison stole Tesla Patent of Bulb
Edison was a moron
NIKOLA TESLA WAS THE GENIUS
netiks1000 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
@netiks1000 "NIKOLA TESLA invented AC curent not Edison !!! Edison stole Tesla Patent of Bulb
Edison was a moron
NIKOLA TESLA WAS THE GENIUS"
If i could give this a dozen more thumbs up, it wouldnt be enough.
Tzunamii777 1 year ago
Who Knew Such Beauty could come from Converting Alternating Current to Direct Current.....
Solid State Rectifiers are Boring....Mercury Vapor Rectifiers Rock!
form109 1 year ago 6
looks more like amercury bong rectifire to me, jk
windoes98se 1 year ago
looks like some strandge bong contraption , but is that a singel phase rectifire or is it 3 phase? i cant tell, it has so many wires coming out of it
windoes98se 1 year ago
I saw one of these when I was about 4 years old in NZ @ Motat, a tram rectifyer it made me get into electronics and physics etc for the rest of my life!
NICE post - thanks
xmlisnotaprotocol 1 year ago
xrays
Thetruthishere11 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
oh my fucking god this is one of the coolest things i ever seen !!
snuffying 1 year ago
oh my fucking god this is one of the coolest things i fucking ever seen !!
snuffying 1 year ago
oh my fucking god this is one of the coolest things i fucking ever seen !!!!!!!!!
snuffying 1 year ago
SCIENCE!
Darvon 1 year ago
@Darvon ENGINEERING!
MAL6000 1 year ago
There are quite a few of these still in existence...
Pilotgeek 1 year ago
@Pilotgeek
So it would seem, after the comments I get.
But not too many in commercial service, I think.
JennaDDDD 1 year ago 2
@JennaDDDD I have 6 of them in operation and service. 700 KW made by Brown Boveri in 1964.
DutchFord86 1 year ago
@Pilotgeek really? if that was so I'd have one for my collection and one for my power supply experiment... However if you know where one can be bought in the US I'd love to know..seriously
Sergi762 11 months ago
@Sergi762 You really can't just go buy one.... there's a few leftover in facilities but I'm sure they're either being used or in museums.
Pilotgeek 11 months ago
Looks incredible! But I guess you've heard that a million times. I love the windmill pattern it's generating on the floor
lexichronicle 1 year ago
@lexichronicle
Thanx for your comment.
The windmill pattern is created by the blades of an antique wooden fan. As a tram goes past the substation, the four fans all spin faster to cool the bulbs. They make a deafening racket.
JennaDDDD 1 year ago
@JennaDDDD :D I guess as the tram approaches the load is shifted to the closest rectifier?
lexichronicle 1 year ago
I was 16 when I last saw this, thanks for posting, it brings back memories
gnikiv 1 year ago
Looks like a Mad Scientist experament but simply AMAZING how this piece of technology works!
RailRoadWorker18 2 years ago
this rocks like AC/DC
hlnio 2 years ago 11
Where is this one located? I had the pleasure to watch two of there operating at Laxey on the Manx Electric Railway, Isle of Man. I love them!
hgaarder 2 years ago
I seen one of these working in a FS (Italian railway company) substation in mid 1970's, when I was a kid. It was used to provide 3000 Vdc for the railway. That was very impressive, and has been permanently stamped in my memory! If I remeber correct, it was located at Arona, Italy, but I'm not 100% sure of that, I was less than 10 years old, so I was a child but I already loved these glass electric things as I currently love today! A lot more fascinating than silicon devices!
tetrodobeam 2 years ago 2
What is it that the staff hates about it?
bonecrime 2 years ago
They are uncomfortably noisy; but mainly they are impossible to maintain. If one goes down it has to be replaced, and they are difficult to handle - being fragile and full of mercury. Surprisingly there are lots of spares available from de-commissioned rectifiers.
Being pretty to look at does not compensate in the minds of maintenance staff.
JennaDDDD 2 years ago
Those are some pretty good reasons! :) At least the part with them beeing fragile and full of mercury. :)
bonecrime 2 years ago
These things are awesome. Not only the sights and sound, but the raw amount of power and the fact that some of these have been in continuous service for over 50 years is absolutely amazing!
TehMG 2 years ago 2
It's simply just AMAZING.
avenged06x 2 years ago
waaa nice XXDD
xXxmidgexXx 2 years ago
Oh YES!!! I LIKE THAT!!!!!!! This IS IT!!!!!
SteveTheCart 3 years ago
I've seen mercury vapor rectifier tubes but I've never seen one like this... looks like something from a science fiction novel!
Erzahler 3 years ago
Great video! Can you believe that people collect these things? Thanks but no thanks!
Geoff.
mowerofdoom 3 years ago
I love old MARs. Deadly voltages/currents, toxic mercury vapour. and glass; what more could you want? Except perhaps for the name to be changed to 'Super Danger Bulbs....peow peow!'.
UncleSqualid 3 years ago