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Early electric fans

earlyfans.blogspot.com

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Re: Early electric fans

#31

Post by frosted-flakes »

everybodyknows wrote: post #27
ChuckMcM wrote: post #8

I love this: " My interests are with original and unrestored desk fans made prior to 1916. " Since they were invented in 1885 that is basically a 30 year window for a fairly expensive consumer good that probably sold in the neighborhood of a few thousand units. There is something wonderful about diving deeply into a particular kind of thing from a particular time. My Dad has a cap gun collection with a similar narrow…

> Why cap guns? Who knows. I know, because 11-year-old me owned one, back when selling them was legal. The reason is nostalgia, or a yearning for the brightness of the world we knew then. Artifacts bring the memories back, in a sweet flood. Experimentation revealed ways in which cap gun tech could be abused. We wanted a louder pop, so how about folding over the tape of caps to double up? Possible, but tends to jam. F…

Wait, they're illegal now? Where? I had those growing up in Canada in the early 2000s. If I remember right, we got them at the dollar store. And yes, I remember hitting a whole ring at once with a hammer.

Re: Early electric fans

#32

Post by C1sc0cat »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #12
freefal wrote: post #4

Wow, the combination of those heavy metal blades and the sparsely placed safety bars definitely doesn't look finger friendly!

The kids were already electrocuted by the Edison sockets.

The early home installations for electric power where mindbogglingly unsafe.

Re: Early electric fans

#33

Post by scottlocklin »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #8

I love this: " My interests are with original and unrestored desk fans made prior to 1916. " Since they were invented in 1885 that is basically a 30 year window for a fairly expensive consumer good that probably sold in the neighborhood of a few thousand units. There is something wonderful about diving deeply into a particular kind of thing from a particular time. My Dad has a cap gun collection with a similar narrow…

It's a fairly common interest believe it or not; I was very interested in this era of fans while I was in grad school. In fact I was interested in an even more specific variety of pancake motor 6 bladed fan that pretty much every other fan-fan also wants. Since they're so bloody expensive I ended up collecting radios from the 1920s instead, which kind of scratches the same itch.

https://antiquefanparts.com/1893-meston-series-aa-12-desk-fa...

https://antiquefanparts.com/circa-1888-edison-x-motor-fan/

https://antiquefanparts.com/1890-riker-electric-motor-compan...

https://antiquefanparts.com/circa-1894-edison-sixth-hp-slow-...

https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/antique-1901-general-...

My grail fan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZzkUC0TAhg http://www.hudsonscustommachining.com/images/1904emerson/lar...

They cost so bloody much, it's probably easier to just build a reproduction.

Re: Early electric fans

#34

Post by jroseman93 »

freefal wrote: post #4

Wow, the combination of those heavy metal blades and the sparsely placed safety bars definitely doesn't look finger friendly!

This was designed in an era when safety was seen as the responsibility of the user, not the manufacturer. It was your responsibility not to stick your fingers in there, not the manufacturer's responsibility to prevent you from doing so.

Re: Early electric fans

#35

Post by cat199 »

MrRadar wrote: post #30
joncrane wrote: post #29

Based on the scanned catalog page from 1911 and an inflation calculator, it looks like those fans set you back anywhere from the equivalent of $800-1000 in today's money. Is my math correct?

Not too surprising. Keep in mind that at the time electricity was a luxury and there were very few home appliances that made use of it. The radio, the first piece of electronics more complex than a simple motor or heater that you might find in the "average" home, wouldn't come into widespread use for another decade.

agree - the person who had this would be somewhat like the modern equivalent of a non-technical person with a fully IoT'ed smarthome running custom controllers and audiophile quality home theater room 15 years ago.. wealthy, and willing to spend to have the latest novelty

Re: Early electric fans

#36

Post by mattkrause »

scottlocklin wrote: post #33
ChuckMcM wrote: post #8

I love this: " My interests are with original and unrestored desk fans made prior to 1916. " Since they were invented in 1885 that is basically a 30 year window for a fairly expensive consumer good that probably sold in the neighborhood of a few thousand units. There is something wonderful about diving deeply into a particular kind of thing from a particular time. My Dad has a cap gun collection with a similar narrow…

It's a fairly common interest believe it or not; I was very interested in this era of fans while I was in grad school. In fact I was interested in an even more specific variety of pancake motor 6 bladed fan that pretty much every other fan-fan also wants. Since they're so bloody expensive I ended up collecting radios from the 1920s instead, which kind of scratches the same itch. https://antiquefanparts.com/1893-mesto…

The cheapest one is $20,000!

Re: Early electric fans

#37

Post by scottlocklin »

mattkrause wrote: post #36
scottlocklin wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a fairly common interest believe it or not; I was very interested in this era of fans while I was in grad school. In fact I was interested in an even more specific variety of pancake motor 6 bladed fan that pretty much every other fan-fan also wants. Since they're so bloody expensive I ended up collecting radios from the 1920s instead, which kind of scratches the same itch. https://antiquefanparts.com/1893-mesto…

The cheapest one is $20,000!

I thought they were too much when I was in grad school in the 90s and you could find them on ebay for $500.... $500 for a goddamned fan! Well, it's not like they made more of them since then, and many have been parted out or thrown away.

Those pancake fans are really cool!

Re: Early electric fans

#38

Post by Scoundreller »

MrRadar wrote: post #30
joncrane wrote: post #29

Based on the scanned catalog page from 1911 and an inflation calculator, it looks like those fans set you back anywhere from the equivalent of $800-1000 in today's money. Is my math correct?

Not too surprising. Keep in mind that at the time electricity was a luxury and there were very few home appliances that made use of it. The radio, the first piece of electronics more complex than a simple motor or heater that you might find in the "average" home, wouldn't come into widespread use for another decade.

The radio had more of a chicken and egg problem. Once there was a broadcaster, I’d assume there was suddenly a lot of radios.

Fans came more gradually because of the physics infrastructure behind electricity. And fans were more of a luxury than a radio that can be used all year.

Re: Early electric fans

#40

Post by Scoundreller »

blacksmith_tb wrote: post #7
fortran77 wrote: post #5

It's amazing anyone from this era had all 10 fingers.

I grew up in the early 70s with one of these in my bedroom, probably from the 40s or 50s but still going strong. I never stuck my fingers into the blades, but I did like to toss crayons in and watch the pieces fly...

I took some 120mm fans out of some old servers my brother brought home from his tobacco factory co-op job.

I’d wire them to weird voltages (e.g. 12V and -5V, or +5 and -5), cover my eyes with a jewel case and drop small screws in them to hear where it bounced around incredibly fast...

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