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Page 1: Tungar Bulbs and Chargers (BELOW)
Page 2: Vintage Recording Electronics: RECORDING ELECTRONICS
Page 3: Phonographs: PHONOGRAPHS
Page 4: Vintage Electric Items: SMALL ELECTRIC ITEMS FOR HOME
Page 5: Vintage Technology Light Bulbs: VINTAGE LIGHT BULBS
Page 1:
Page 1:
Tungar Bulbs and Chargers- An Unusual Piece of Vintage Electronics
Tungar Bulbs and Chargers- An Unusual Piece of Vintage Electronics
Tungar Power Supplies and Chargers use an very interesting vacuum tube called the Tungar Bulb or Tungar Rectifier. Invented in 1914 by General Electric by G. S. Meikle. In some respects it looks like a light bulb with a plate over the filament. When you turn on a Tungar Charger, the bulb does light up like a bulb. Tungar is an acronym for Tungsten Argon (Tungsten filament filled with Argon gas). The Tungar Bulb has the ability to handle large amount of current and was relatively immune to shorted battery cells which makes it the ideal battery charger. Tungar chargers were used to charge radio storage A batteries and car batteries. The Tungar Bulbs were used in many high current applications until the late 1940's, when selenium rectifiers became practical. Today battery chargers use silicon rectifiers with short circuit protection and voltage regulation circuit that in many ways work like Tungar Chargers, but a lot smaller, lighter weight and more efficient. If you want to see a Tungar Bulb operate see the video below.
SAMPLES of Tungar Bulbs >>>>>>>>>
SAMPLES of Tungar Bulbs >>>>>>>>>
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Sample of Tungar Bulbs
General Electric ARGON Tungar 21728315 Ampere typical service
Westinghouse ARGON Rectigon 289141 (LEFT)General Electric ARGON Tungar 1890496 Ampere typical service
Tungar and Similar Charger Tube Boxes
Sample Storage Cartons
Westinghouse Rectigon S-289
WOLK W-83 Tungar, WOLK, Chicago ILSimilar to GE 217283 15A Tungar
General Electric ARGON Tungar 12X2852 Ampere maximum service
General Electric Full Wave MERCURY VAPOR Tungar 16X8972 Ampere maximum full wave service
GE CAT# 277153 (1921) Radio A Storage Battery Charger2A for 3 Cells and 0.25A for 48 CellsUses 277469 Tungar Bulb
A Look Inside
GE CAT# 3049481 Tungar Trickle A Charger. Uses 277465 GE Tungar Bulb. 3 Cells at 0.5 A rate
Watch a Tungar Charger and Bulb Demo. GE 277153 Tungar Radio A Battery Charger and car battery trickle charger.
Tungar Bulb DEMO (convert-video-online.com).movGE CAT# 6RB33132 1930's Auto Shop High Capacity Tungar Car Battery Charger
1-12 6Volt Car Batteries at 6A. Uses 189049 Tungar BulbMinimum no load voltage output 9V and maximum no load voltage output is 36V
1-12 6Volt Car Batteries at 6A. Uses 189049 Tungar BulbMinimum no load voltage output 9V and maximum no load voltage output is 36V
Turned ON- The Tungar Bulb is glowing like an incandescent bulb.
Look inside- multiple tap secondary transformer, Tungar Bulb, screw on fuse and large high current switches.
Compare 1930's 6BR33132 GE Tungar Charger to 1990's Schumacher SE-1010-2 Chargerwith same rating
GE CAT #3043996 Tungar Trickle Charger. Uses GE Tungar Bulb 289881 and can charge up to 3 Cells from 0.1 to 0.5 A rate.
BELOW: Four taps determine the charging rate.
In operation: About 6.2 V no load from ground to Tap 1
BELOW: Inside the 289881 Tungar Bulb. Plate is on the left ans filament on the right. Notice that the filament is relatively straight, which indicates moderate used charger.
SHOWCASE
SHOWCASE
Life of a Tungar Bulb and any Incandescent Bulb
Life of a Tungar Bulb and any Incandescent Bulb
Any new of low hour use Light Bulb and Tungar Bulb has a straight filament, while a heavily used bulb or limited life bulb shows a sagging filament.
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