April 24, 2024
!!!!!*GENERAL ELECTRIC TUNGAR RADIO & AUTO BATTERY CHARGER & AUTO 1920'S+!!!!!
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This great antique is a necessary addition to your radio and vintage auto tool collections. The following description is from an early Popular Mechanics.Tungar Power Supp lies 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.Not sold as a working charger. The battery clamps are not as shown in the pictured advertisement. The ad clip is from the 1927 catalog from the Gibson Company of Indianapolis.
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