With all this tubed equipment at this website, these come in handy:
With this emissions tester, I found a quick and dirty way to screen large piles of tubes. Separate them by heater voltage, and set the heater voltage selection accordingly.
Set the sensitivity control to around 35. After the tube warms up, rotate the selector switch thru all positions, and you should find the
cathodes or grids or plates. Most regular tubes should make a good reading. Tubes that seem weak should be
more carefully tested later.
The Weston VOM was my father's favorite meter for tube work.
A real antique power outlet. Combination tandem and parallel slots.
The parallel slots accept modern non-polarized line cords. The
tandem slots would accept a 250V 15A plug if you removed its
ground prong. I even found a Hubble tandem plug without ground of post-war
vintage that fits. Appears that back in the early days of electricity,
there were two different kinds of 120VAC plugs, parallel and tandem.
And this outlet was made to support both.
No UL seal of approval on the antique power outlet, UL
may not have existed a hundred + years
ago. A more modern tandem/parallel outlet is also pictured, alongside
the antique and a modern NEMA 6-15 250V 15A outlet. The tandem
plug will fit the NEMA 6-15 outlet, but if the tandem plug
feeds a 120V load, the load will blow up!
More antique outlets, these, above right, use the same pin pattern used in Australia. ↟ ➹ And this one below as well. ⤵
Other antiques:
Standard equipment in private eye offices in vintage movies:
I heard that ceramic dishes like this were given out at those vintage movies.
My grandmother had a set like these.
Back in around 1950, here is my grandma over at a friend's place. Note the Admiral
on the table.
And on the right is Christmas 1951 at my grandparents' house.
Note the Philco TV left of
the tree.
My mom and grandmom preparing Thanksgiving dinner in grandma's kitchen, near the Admiral AA5.