52.23.08: Distance Unkown
I know it says on the dial that the scale is calibrated in yards, and I believe that the little arrow above that label indicates that this ammeter was made for our armed forces, but what, I wonder, was it actually used to measure?
Despite having grown up surrounded by valves, capacitors, resistors, inductors, transformers, transistors and all manner of post-war, pre-millennial electronics, I have never previously seen, or heard of a meter such as this, which I found buried in a box of valves inherited from my old Dad. A vast quantity of such boxes have lain dormant in the loft here at No. 43 for the past decade or so, much to the mild vexation of Mrs 43.
It's fair to say that Dad was obsessed with radio. He and my uncle Roy, who emigrated to Australia in the early seventies, used to design and build their own transmitters, receivers and aerials, and there was a weekly broadcast (on a Sunday morning) during which they would bounce their signals off the ionosphere (or something like that) sharing news of life in Blighty and Oz. Afterwards there would be discussion on the merits, or otherwise, of their latest equipment designs and 'the conditions' of the atmosphere in relation to their transmissions.
They had official callsigns (Home Office issued, I think): Dad was G3SVT and uncle Roy was G3SML. Once in Australia, Roy became VK6MV if memory serves. And everything revolved around radio. Even holidays were chosen because the location might suit a particular transmitter, which was packed in the car along with all of the usual holiday accoutrements; various types of aerial would be bolted to the roof-rack, radio rigs mounted under the dashboard and then off we would go...
One particular holiday in the late sixties involved a bright yellow Mini, the doors, bonnet, boot and roof of which were covered in equally vibrant flowery wallpaper. Bolted to the roof rack was a three/four foot tall 'Halo' aerial. This type consisted of a tall pole with an 18 inch diameter circular rod at the top. I remember that practically everyone who saw the car just stopped in their tracks and pointed, but that's another story...
Anyway. Back to the question in hand: What might this meter actually be used for? A lengthy bit of Googling has lead to nothing but frustration, with no combination of words I can think of yielding anything of any use in identifying the type of equipment this instrument might belong to, or what it might have been used to measure. Even a 'reverse image search' has brought forth nothing. Nothing at all.
I did wonder if it might have been used with some sort of radar equipment, which I know Dad worked on, possibly in the fifties and sixties, but that's only a guess, and a maximum distance of 1500 yards does seem a little short for radar, don’t you think?
So, there we are then. That's that. For now at least...
--
Usual caveats etc.
52.23.08: Distance Unkown
I know it says on the dial that the scale is calibrated in yards, and I believe that the little arrow above that label indicates that this ammeter was made for our armed forces, but what, I wonder, was it actually used to measure?
Despite having grown up surrounded by valves, capacitors, resistors, inductors, transformers, transistors and all manner of post-war, pre-millennial electronics, I have never previously seen, or heard of a meter such as this, which I found buried in a box of valves inherited from my old Dad. A vast quantity of such boxes have lain dormant in the loft here at No. 43 for the past decade or so, much to the mild vexation of Mrs 43.
It's fair to say that Dad was obsessed with radio. He and my uncle Roy, who emigrated to Australia in the early seventies, used to design and build their own transmitters, receivers and aerials, and there was a weekly broadcast (on a Sunday morning) during which they would bounce their signals off the ionosphere (or something like that) sharing news of life in Blighty and Oz. Afterwards there would be discussion on the merits, or otherwise, of their latest equipment designs and 'the conditions' of the atmosphere in relation to their transmissions.
They had official callsigns (Home Office issued, I think): Dad was G3SVT and uncle Roy was G3SML. Once in Australia, Roy became VK6MV if memory serves. And everything revolved around radio. Even holidays were chosen because the location might suit a particular transmitter, which was packed in the car along with all of the usual holiday accoutrements; various types of aerial would be bolted to the roof-rack, radio rigs mounted under the dashboard and then off we would go...
One particular holiday in the late sixties involved a bright yellow Mini, the doors, bonnet, boot and roof of which were covered in equally vibrant flowery wallpaper. Bolted to the roof rack was a three/four foot tall 'Halo' aerial. This type consisted of a tall pole with an 18 inch diameter circular rod at the top. I remember that practically everyone who saw the car just stopped in their tracks and pointed, but that's another story...
Anyway. Back to the question in hand: What might this meter actually be used for? A lengthy bit of Googling has lead to nothing but frustration, with no combination of words I can think of yielding anything of any use in identifying the type of equipment this instrument might belong to, or what it might have been used to measure. Even a 'reverse image search' has brought forth nothing. Nothing at all.
I did wonder if it might have been used with some sort of radar equipment, which I know Dad worked on, possibly in the fifties and sixties, but that's only a guess, and a maximum distance of 1500 yards does seem a little short for radar, don’t you think?
So, there we are then. That's that. For now at least...
--
Usual caveats etc.