I have sent a listing of the 1937 situation to Brad (someone will be pleased)

Thanks! I hope Brad can publish it.

All upskies!

Radio Trade Annual 1937 (1).
Radio Trade Annual 1937 (2).
Radio Trade Annual 1937 (3).
Radio Trade Annual 1937 (4).
Radio Trade Annual 1937 (5).

Brad thanks for posting:

Hopefully this gives an insight into the shemozzle that existed at the time of this (1937) publication. This situation continued long after WWII and as I suggested we were using a battery set, right up to 1962.

Wangaratta had its first power distribution around 1929. Power was derived from the local Woollen Mill’s (1922) which was generating power (steam) for its machinery etc.

Marc

Yes, after reading those pages is it any wonder that each state set up an electricity supply department and compulsorily acquired all the generation assets. With such a wide range of voltages and frequencies it would have been horrendous trying to manufacture appliances.

Anything containing a motor such as an early fridge or washing machine would have had to be equipped with a universal motor to operate as an AC/DC appliance and the operation of those appliances would have been quite noisy, not to mention the requirement to have a spare set of brushes handy.

One can tell the youngsters & City folks. Quite a lot of the people did not have fridges, some stuff was kept cool either with a "Koolgardie safe", or it was lowered down the well.

One of our wells was 200ft, hand dug & brick lined, still have one brick lined one in service.

A large proportion of the "off mains" fridges were kerosene fueled, wholly gas ones work in a similar manner. No electricity required. Many in towns & citys used an "ice chest" & the ice for these was delivered in large blocks from an "ice works".

If there was a 32V lighting system it would be unlikely that there would be an electric fridge. Many farms only had the power connected, initially, to the dairy.


Marc

They seemed to be like most things. Just like coloured television, video recorders, home computers and mobile phones the wealthy buy them first and then in years to come when the price comes down the bloke with a Holden in his driveway then gets to buy one.

My ancestors managed to survive with the kero stove and icebox - one side of the family hails from Sydney and the other side from the bush. Not all parts of the bush waited for the capital cities to smoke-test new technologies either. Tamworth, NSW was the first place in Australia to generate electricity for municipal street lighting and parks. Power soon followed to homes and those living in Sydney lit their homes with coal gas for another ten to fifteen years.

Speaking of gas lamps, when I worked at Gladesville Hospital in Sydney in the 1990s there were still cottages in the grounds that had working gas lamps despite electricity being connected to them since the 1930s. It was an interesting case of preserved infrastructure from a time when gas was the only choice. The former butcher's shop there was also cooled by a very very large version of an evaporative air conditioner and the iron water tank is still in place as far as I remember.

Many thanks for posting those pages.

My earliest recollection of my grandparents' fridge was that it was essentially an ice box with some big cooling coils on the top, just like this:

http://www.vintagevending.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Squirt_Ad.jpg.

My grandparents always referred to the fridge as the ice box.

I also recall going to the ice works with my father to collect blocks of ice for a party my parents were having. He put coins (sixpence or shilling, can't recall) in the slot and the blocks slid down a chute. When he got then home he spent the next half an hour or so breaking them up with ice pick and hammer.

GE made fridges like that. Not sure about the other brands. I think by the time Kelvinator started out with the 'Silent Knights' they were putting the condenser coils down the bottom, often with pancake compressors.

At the Powerstation Museum in Tanmworth there is a display of all these appliances.

In my radio servicing days many of the battery/mains radios commonly used the AC/DC approach ie. one side of the mains connected to the chassis. This negated the need for a power transformer hence a saving of wieght and cost. When we worked on these sets we did not have isolating transformers so our practice was to connect a lead to ground via 100watt lamp an alligator clip, the clip was connected to the radio chassis if the lamp lit you simply reversed the plug to make sure the active was not connected to the chassis. No OH&S in those days!
Just one last comment, Bacchus Marsh (country Victoria) had power station which ran gas engines the gas was supplied by the local gas works, the supply was 230Vac 50htz.

Regards Phil