Early electric fans
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Early electric fans
1–10 of 48 posts
Re: Early electric fans
#2Oh, I thought this was going to be about Tesla and Edison.
Re: Early electric fans
#3Would the blades being heavier/metal make these fans less efficient?
Re: Early electric fans
#4Wow, the combination of those heavy metal blades and the sparsely placed safety bars definitely doesn't look finger friendly!
Re: Early electric fans
#5It's amazing anyone from this era had all 10 fingers.
Re: Early electric fans
#6Would the blades being heavier/metal make these fans less efficient?
No. Heavier blades would make them accelerate slower, but once up to speed the weight would make no difference.
Thin blades can be less aerodynamically efficient than thicker ones, but plastic fans blades are not very efficient anyway.
The biggest disadvantages of metal blades are cost and safety.
Re: Early electric fans
#7It'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...
Re: Early electric fans
#8I 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 window, he even has a book which identifies various cap guns, their makers, their relative rarity etc. Why cap guns? Who knows. He has it significantly easier though since they were stamped out in the hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, during a similar period and were made so that kids could get them (ie very inexpensively).
It is a level of curiosity and dedication I can really respect.
Re: Early electric fans
#9Wow, the combination of those heavy metal blades and the sparsely placed safety bars definitely doesn't look finger friendly!
I'd suspect those early cages were to prevent accidentally bumping into it, rather than child-safety.
Child-safety is a pretty high bar, even if it's common today. You not only have to prevent someone accidentally hurting themselves, but more-or-less intentionally doing so.
Re: Early electric fans
#10If you're a fan of fans and of Technology Connections, there is an episode where he talks about older fans and why high is the first setting: