Early Western Electric Fan on eBay

[Fabius]

http://tinyurl.com/hxbb3er

[HarrySmith]

"Perfect working condition" but does not oscillate. Also has "pattens" ??

[Ktownphoneco]

Kind of an odd situation.    I ran the patent, ( U.S. Patent No. : 0723994 issued March 31st, 1903 ) and it was invented and registered to a Charles, A., ECK, of Belleville, NJ., but states he's a citizen of Sweden, or, in the terms of the day, " a subject of the King of Sweden".     The patent number refers to his invention which pertains primarily to the mechanism which causes the fan to oscillate back and forth.   I'm assuming Western produced the fan, which by itself, would or should, have a different patent number, using Mr. Eck's oscillating mechanism, which would account for the words above the patent number, " manufactured by owner of patent No. -  "      Not sure where Victor A.C. Oscillator comes into the scheme of things.

Jeff Lamb

[LarryInMichigan]

I don't think that Western Electric actually manufactured fans or many of the other appliances that they marketed.  I have a Graybar fan from shortly after WE started using the "Graybar" name.  It was made by GE.

Larry

[Ktownphoneco]

I have a Northern Electric General products catalog ( No. 3, printed - 1917 ) which has a page showing a fan reportedly made by Western Electric, which is called a "Western Electric Six Inch Universal Fan".     It states that the fan operates on either A.C. or D.C. at 105 to 115 volts.    Motor frequency limits are indicated at 25 to 60 cycles.    It further indicates that wattage consumption at 110 Volts D.C. is 22 watts, and at 110 Volts A.C. at 60 cycles, is 14 watts.    Fan speed at 110 Volts D.C., is 2800 RPM, and at 110 Volts A.C., 60 cycles, it's 1800 RPM.    Price of the fan :  $12.85.
I think this fan could run on ring voltage at 20 cycles. :-)

Jeff

[Fabius]

Shorty before the Western Electric Hawthorn plant closed in 1983 I was able to tour the building that housed their museum. One of the things I remember seeing were pictures of assembly lines in the past. One of which was assembling fans. Various references state that fans and refrigerators were produced here.

Morton College has a museum about Hawthorn.

http://www.morton.edu/hawthorne_museum/

[LarryInMichigan]

I may be wrong then.  I do know that my Graybar fan was made by GE.  The "GE" logo is molded into some of the metal parts.  Perhaps WE manufactured their own appliances before creating the Graybar division.

Larry

[poplar1]

Some of the fans marked Western Electric were made by Robbins and Myers.