Re: Why Three Rails?

Jim Stewart wrote: 
Refrigerators. (Crosley)

Jim Stewart
"Daniel A. Mitchell" <danmitch@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message news:V09Ge.622$Ut5.80@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

harrym wrote:

The only electricity in our neighborhood during WWII was 32 volts supplied by a windcharger, with large storage batteries. But I don't remember any electric appliances being used -- just house lighting. Did they make 32 volt appliances?

Daniel A. Mitchell wrote:


There were lots of low voltage systems around in rural areas. Many were only 12 or so volts. 32 Volts was also in use. 

Wow, this post got dredged up from a while back.

Keep in mind that there were very few appliances of any type back then. I don't know what may have been commercially available. I suspect there was some low voltage apparatus available, as there still are.

Think mostly lighting, perhaps a washing machine, and maybe an electric fan. That was about it.

Purely resistance units like lights, toasters, heaters, etc. would need no modification, other than getting an appropriate resistance match for the input voltage. This was do-able by either changing heating elements, or varying the series/parallel arrangement of existing elements.

Motorized apparatus of the period was normally driven by a belt. Thus, modifying such a device would only mean substituting a different motor.

Radios and such of the period normally operated from batteries anyway. Normally, such an apparatus used several voltages, and needed several batteries to provide this needed electricity. If any of these were similar in voltage to the farm's 'mains' battery, then that portion could be connected to the available supply. Such connection was likely more bother than it was worth, however. 



That's interesting! Thanks for the info.

I'm mildly surprised that low voltage refrigerators were available, as even 110 volt ones were not all that common in that time frame. Even in the 'big city', electric household sized refrigerators weren't the norm until about 1950. I can remember the local ice men making daily deliveries to many homes until perhaps 1955 or so. On the other hand, rural customers would have LESS access to ice than city dwellers, so perhaps the market for a mechanical refrigerator was proportionately greater there.

Large commercial operations used mechanical refrigeration much earlier.

Dan Mitchell
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