OK; I did not get get either tandem that was offered on e-bay, but by george I am getting this philco washer and no one is going to stop me.!!!

Cool! ;)

We used to have a gas engine from a washing machine. It had a very crude governor. It basically controlled the duty cycle of gas dripping into the intake. I'm not sure if my parents actually had a washer that they had used it with.

Too bad about the tandems.:tears:

John

A "porthole" Philco, now that's gotta be rare...

My grandparents in Oklahoma used a gasoline powered Maytag washer before they got electricity(in 1950). The washer was still in a storage building when I was very young. They also had a natural gas powered refrigerator and gas lighting then. (My aunt indicated that the lighting was not very good and very prone to failure).

However, they did not have a gas powered TV(as in the old He-Haw TV show joke). It was a 1953 Emerson, which I still have.

How about a coal-powered TV:

http://www.earlytelevision.org/coal_tv.html

Coal-powered TV's enabled the first TV dinners.

Actually, lots of TV's today are ultimately coal-powered if you follow the power line out of the house.

My brother actually has a Philco washer just like that which he still uses. In fact, I've used it and they're really good machines.

No coal in that part of Oklahoma. Plenty of natural gas though. In fact there is still two oil wells on the property.

The gas powered TV was a running joke on the 1960s/1970s He-Haw show that stared Buck Owens. My dad enjoyed this show for some reason, us kids(at that time) ignored it. The refrigerator was a Servel, which ran directly from natural gas.

The gas powered TV was a running joke on the 1960s/1970s He-Haw show that stared Buck Owens. My dad enjoyed this show for some reason, us kids(at that time) ignored it.

Sounds like I'm in the same generation as you, as my brother and I also ignored Hee Haw, but our father watched it. I do remember a mention of a gas powered radio, though...

Neat. I used to have that exact model of washer. Had to get rid of it due to a lack of space. It worked well. I hope you get it.

Check this out:

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2008/04/28/new-device-converts-flame-into-electricity-to-run-radio/

And see pix of a Transistor set:

jr

How about a coal-powered TV:

http://www.earlytelevision.org/coal_tv.html

Steve, if you get one of these sets for the museum, I'm pretty sure I can put a color wheel on it and drive it with a gear reduction transmission off the internal steam turbine.

Cliff

Sounds like I'm in the same generation as you, as my brother and I also ignored Hee Haw, but our father watched it.

Yeah, I hated having to sit through Hee Haw back when you had a FAMILY tv set, and most likely a FAMILY car. I doubt most folks today could handle that concept.... LOL

Anyway, NOW I like Hee Haw because I am older and it is nostalgic. Plus, when you get a little older you grow out of HATING everything NOT Rock and Roll.....:music:

We were luckier. Even back then, I was repairing TVs. I had some that were given to me that I had fixed. I was able to watch these instead of the family TV(and He-Haw). (In fact, the first color family TV that we had was a RCA roundie that had been given to me and I had fixed).

Grant Dixon (1916-2003)
http://taggart.glg.msu.edu/ich/ich.htm

told how, when a teenager (in England), his father took him to see a mechanical TV receiver. The experimenter at the time powered the electronics from batteries, having no electric service; however, he had municipal running water, so he powered the scanning disk from a small water turbine attached to the faucet. Dixon said that the image was OK until something caused the pressure to change.

Grant Dixon (1916-2003)
http://taggart.glg.msu.edu/ich/ich.htm

told how, when a teenager (in England), his father took him to see a mechanical TV receiver. The experimenter at the time powered the electronics from batteries, having no electric service; however, he had municipal running water, so he powered the scanning disk from a small water turbine attached to the faucet. Dixon said that the image was OK until something caused the pressure to change.

Who says electricity and water don't mix! :thmbsp:

That's pretty neat! How'd you ever run across that?

John

Steve, if you get one of these sets for the museum, I'm pretty sure I can put a color wheel on it and drive it with a gear reduction transmission off the internal steam turbine.

Cliff

Maybe you don't need the color wheel. Just three jets for the exiting steam (water vapor). In the right location you get a rainbow effect. You'll need really fast acting valves for the steam jets to select the colors. ;)

John

Who says electricity and water don't mix! :thmbsp:

That's pretty neat! How'd you ever run across that?

John

It's in an interview on the CD of mechanical TV signals sold by the Narrow Bandwidth TV Association. Years ago when I built a mechanical set, it was the best inexpensive way to test and demo the unit.

http://www.nbtv.org/

http://www.bretl.com/mechtvprogress/mechtvprogress.htm
http://www.bretl.com/mechtvprogress2/mechtvprogress2.htm

First time I've seen a Philco wringer-nice addition to the collection!

From hanging around washing machine collector websites I can tell you, they make us look like pikers!