1916 Antique Battery Charger France Manufacturing Vintage Magnetic Rectifier For Sale

Here is something you don't see everyday, especially in this condition. I have had this for quite a long time and had plans to restore it, but never got around to it. I'm sure you know how that goes!
This is quite an amazing piece of American History in that it shows what had to be done before the invention of the semiconductor. Since Edison lost his battle to put DC in our homes (in retrospect, he may have been right), we had to convert the AC in our homes to DC in order to charge our batteries. Without semiconductors, this was NOT easy. What the enterprising engineers did was design a brush and contact system to flip the AC wave to give you full wave rectification. The contacts vibrated at 60 cycles per second switching the center tap of the transformer back and forth. It made such a clamor (watch video)! I think if I had to listen to that all day I'd be out purchasing a 20 pound sledge hammer to smash the charger.
The charger appears to be complete (with no signs of sledge hammer damage) except for the alligator clips which are missing but readily available for a few dollars. I'm sure this goes without saying but this is NOT intended for any type of use! The way they designed these things in the early 1900's were NOT safe. Don't even think about plugging this in if you are not plugging it into a GFCI outlet.
The base of the charger is 7" x 5" and is about 6 1/2" tall at its tallest point.I find it quite very interesting to see how battery chargers progressed throughout the years! I very rarely see these types of units for sale, let alone in this condition.

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