6 Volt christmas lights

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Elektro
Posts: 11
Joined: Wed Dec 20, 2023 9:25 pm
Location: Alberta, Canada

6 Volt christmas lights

Post by Elektro »

Merry Christmas everybody, I thought you all would like to see something else that was powered by the wind chargers and small gas engine plants... Christmas lights! I have heard from several people about the existence of battery Christmas lights, and final did find an example in an 1942 catalog, Image below: (top right corner, click image to see full size)
Screenshot 2024-05-14 145527.jpg
The possibility of finding a real set is slim, so instead I went ahead a made two "8 lite" sets from parts of standard 110 volt outfits (the parts are the same, just wired different). :D For 6 or 12 volt plants the string is wired with 8 sockets in parallel (110 volt sets are 8 15v lamps in series). For 6 volt sets they used special 6 volt lamps, for 12 volt sets you used the standard 15 volt lamps at the reduced voltage (lamps would have significantly longer life). The sets were equipped with battery clips to attach to a wet cell battery, or those without a charger could use the battery from a car or tractor, or buy a large dry cell battery (the dry cells would have only a few hours of current, so they might only be used a couple hours Christmas eve, a couple hours Christmas morning and during Christmas dinner). Also in the catalog was special 4 volt lamps, these were used in "8 lite" sets with 8 4-volt lamps in series to make up the 32 volts. It would be pretty cool to find some 4 volt lamps and make or find a couple 32 volt sets as well but they seem to be quite difficult to find.
12 volt christmas lights.jpg
One of the two 12 volt sets I made in a non-matching box, right now I have both sets strung on a small tree with tinsel and decorations. 8-)
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mtblah
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Joined: Thu Mar 26, 2020 12:09 pm
Location: new braunfels TX

Re: 6 Volt christmas lights

Post by mtblah »

Gaberal , thank you for the history lesson . the hunting camp my father used had a Maytag engine belted to a 6 volt car generator to light the single bulb , put just enough gas in the tank to run till "lights out " time .
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PaulV
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Re: 6 Volt christmas lights

Post by PaulV »

That's really neat!
PaulV
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