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1920s Westinghouse Portable Watthour Meter type OB

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    Posted 3 years ago

    dav2no1
    (836 items)

    1920s Westinghouse Portable Watthour Meter type OB

    Anyone who's seen more than one of my posts, know I have a diverse collection. I find and buy some unusual items. Here's another great example.

    This is a 1920s portable watthour meter. This meter would be used to check the accuracy of a house's electric meter. As the power grid was expanding, companies were looking for ways to accurately bill customers. Electric meters were fairly new and they needed to be calibrated regularly.

    From my research, I found that the Westinghouse OB meter was introduced in 1924.

    Inside the box lid, there is a clip that holds the paperwork. There's a manual, showing how to connect the box with calibration paperwork and other information. There's also a double sided chart with different calibration numbers for testing meters. Additionally someone included a hand drawn schematic and some other information.

    Under the paper work on the box lid is a date of 11-17-27. And in the calibration paperwork there's a date of 1931. The bottom of the paperwork is signed, but the pencil is faded. It can be seen with a uv light, but hard to read.

    WESTINGHOUSE
    In 1886, George Westinghouse founded Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company. (This name can be seen on the serial number badge on my box)

    The company started developing electric infrastructure throughout the United States. Amongst other things, they made turbines, generators, motors, and switch gear for the generation, transmission, and use of electricity.

    In the early days, Westinghouse was a rival to Thomas Edison's electric company. In 1892, Edison merged with Westinghouse's main AC rival, the Thomson-Houston Electric Company. The merger created an even bigger rival to Westinghouse... General Electric.

    In 1945, Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company changed its name to Westinghouse Electric Corporation.

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    Comments

    1. dav2no1 dav2no1, 3 years ago
      ***Links to Westinghouse and Meter history***

      https://www.mainememory.net/sitebuilder/site/2134/slideshow/1265/display?format=list&prev_object_id=3535&prev_object=page

      https://www.thehenryford.org/collections-and-research/digital-collections/artifact/64863/#slide=gs-366593

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Westinghouse_Electric_Corporation
    2. jscott0363 jscott0363, 3 years ago
      Nice one Dave!! I love old meters like this one. This is the first of it's kind I've ever seen.
    3. dav2no1 dav2no1, 3 years ago
      Thanks Scott! It is a very early one. There seems to be a couple on ebay for a bunch of money...

      The box and craftsmanship is amazing..all stainless trim. Cleaned up easy. After posting, I used some mineral spirits to clean it and applied a light coat of new stain. I like to find items and then learn the history of it.
    4. jscott0363 jscott0363, 3 years ago
      I agree Dave. Finding the history on an item can be even more gratifying than the find itself!
    5. dav2no1 dav2no1, 3 years ago
      I got lucky because I was there buying a set of vintage nesting tables for my sister.

      I remember seeing the meter on his offerup page, but it was gone. So I asked if he sold it..he had a big price on it..like $80 if I remember correctly. He was getting ready for a garage sale, and had a $25 price on it..I bought it for $20. He buys storage units, so he just wanted to move it. There's a few on ebay and etsy, with sellers asking $150-250+. He even mentioned some on ebay, but said he doesn't like ebay.
    6. jscott0363 jscott0363, 3 years ago
      Wow!! Talk about being in the right place at the right time!!!
    7. keramikos, 3 years ago
      dav2no1, Cool. :-)

      Here are all of the patents listed on that label. They range from 1911 to 1919 (the first two have to do with methods of mounting jewels, but the rest clearly have to do with meters and electrical instruments):

      https://patents.google.com/patent/US1007372

      https://patents.google.com/patent/US1049354

      https://patents.google.com/patent/US1116472

      https://patents.google.com/patent/US1194129

      https://patents.google.com/patent/US1289102

      https://patents.google.com/patent/US1290500
    8. dav2no1 dav2no1, 3 years ago
      Keramikos..Thank you! Great work as always...and helps solidify the dating.
    9. sowefly sowefly, 2 years ago
      So happy to have found this page and it was just 9 months ago written! So I have one of these Meters and had no idea it had this history. Mine has a hand ledger dated 11/16/1920 and looks very similar mine may be older? Anyway thnk you for such a great history on Westinghouse!
    10. dav2no1 dav2no1, 2 years ago
      Thanks for your comments. We'd love to see your meter.
    11. sowefly sowefly, 2 years ago
      I just posted it on my new profile. Thank you for asking. You have inspired me to share for 1st time ever on any site!

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