[AT] Update: '47 B - First starting attempt

[szabelski at wildblue.net]

Back in the late 1890’s, the entire city of Detroit was lighted with 31 “moon towers”. These were very tall towers that held six carbon arc lights each. The lights were so bright, and the towers were so strategically located, that nighttime did not exist when they were turned on, it looked like the middle of the day. At that time Detroit was called the best lit city in the world. They were expensive to operate, and people complained that they couldn’t sleep because it was always too bright. They were eventually taken down and replaced with standard street lights once incandescent lights were perfected by Edison. The towers were sold to other cities and 17 of them are still in use in Austin Texas, where they're considered part of the city’s heritage. I did an internet search on them a few years back and found plenty of references to them, even pictures taken at night when they were turned on. I also remember there being a u-tube video done by one our local Detroit news stations on them, I think it was when Detroit was celebrating an anniversary and everybody was doing historic stories about the city.

Carl


----- Original Message -----
From: Steve W. <swilliams268 at frontier.com>
To: Antique Tractor Email Discussion Group <at at lists.antique-tractor.com>
Sent: Wed, 16 Dec 2020 22:54:56 -0500 (EST)
Subject: Re: [AT] Update: '47 B - First starting attempt

szabelski at wildblue.net wrote:
> It’s a good welder for doing small jobs, like those done by somebody
> doing artsy craft things, which is what I believe it was probably
> intended for. You can’t really do a large deep weld since it doesn't
> have a lot of power, only about 50A. It also doesn’t do a good weld
> if you try to use too large of a stick. I went and took a look at it
> again and it indicates using a 1/16 stick for up to 1/4 inch thick
> metal and 3/32 stick for up to 1/16 thick metal. My primary welder is
> also a HFT welder that I purchased from them when they used to sell
> refurbished welders. Got it for about half price. I figured that if
> it was returned because something was wrong with it, that they had
> already fixed it and I wouldn’t have any further issues with it. It’s
> worked without any issues for over 15 years. The only thing I don’t
> do is use their wire. I found that it has a tendency to splatter a
> lot and not do that good of a job. I switched over to using something
> like Lincoln or some other name brand wire. The price difference
> isn’t really that much different.
> 
> Carl

That is a carbon arc torch. Have two of them. They still get used now 
and then for brazing and heating stuff. You can weld with them but they 
are touchy to get the "flame" just right. They are still around in other 
forms today as well. The old "arc lights" used in theater and movies are 
the same basic principle, as are modern vehicle HID lights and many 
other HID types as well.

-- 
Steve W.
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