Repro WS No 19 Cdn battery box

[Johnny Canuck]

Pictures of Accumulators and batteries.

An accumulator is a single cell, a battery is a series of cells in English parlance.

It is sort of hilarious, as research should be done before commencing a project; not when it is nearly finished. But I'm the idiot that wanted $300 to make an exact copy. Hinges are unobtainium and will have to be custom made, same for the catches. $400!

Anyways here goes.

I took a battery box into work and had the boss look at it, he knows his woods much better than I do. He identified beech, oak and mahogany in the one box I had brought in. It would appear that in wartime Britain they used whatever was around that day.

PS Grant I'm not a Visual Collector, I actually acquire the real thing, two of the wooden boxes I have are the ones David Gordon had on his site.

First, a page from WFTW Appendix 9-2



6 Volt 100-125 AH Mk.IV







6 Volt 72 AH No.2






6 Volt 72 AH No.2






End of Part 1

[Johnny Canuck]

Batteries and Accumulators Part 2

I think this is a Canadian item, what it was for.................. I don't know, possibly a R103.

Pattern 5344









Unknown, possibly a homebrew.








End of Part 2

[Johnny Canuck]

Batteries and Accumulators Part 3

Shipping/Transit Case for a 6 Volt 85 AH Mk.II ZB 0102(Lid) Side 6 Volt 85 AH Mk.ILXX ZB C10 (Canadian??). Screw holes in the top seem to match so who knows which is correct or both?










Steel Battery Boxes

6 Volt 85 AH ZB 12716 1953










End of Part 3

[Johnny Canuck]

Batteries and Accumulators Part 4

12 Volt 22 AH






Misc metal battery boxes.



WS58 Battery Box.


UC 6/10 Switchboard Telephone Exchange Internal Battery Box.


Portable lamp, battery box and battery.


No.12 1.5 Volt Cells British on the left, Swedish on the right.


No.12 1.5 Volt British


BA 300/U Canadian


Everready 1.5 Volt


End of Part 4

[Johnny Canuck]

Batteries and Accumulators Part 5

1.5 Volt Cells smaller than the previous 1.5's


Misc batteries.


End

Geoff

[Bob Carriere]

Hi Jeff
\
Thanks for contributing to our visual collection. From the excerpt from the WFTW it would seem that only one would be proper as listed for 19 set....the larger 170 A.H. Although in a front line situation one would use what he had....


Merry Xmas and All the Best for the New Year

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Bob C

[Johnny Canuck]

Put a forward slash after the first ending bracket in the end thingy ma jigger, remove =red , haven't figured how to make it flash, yet.

[color=red]..........[/color]

Merry Christmas from us all

Geoff aka Geoffrey aka JC aka Johnny Canuck



Take a moment to think about those that are away, some never too return.
Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night.
http://s105.photobucket.com/user/Joh...anTro.mp4.html

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by Bob Carriere

Hi Jeff
\
Thanks for contributing to our visual collection. From the excerpt from the WFTW it would seem that only one would be proper as listed for 19 set....the larger 170 A.H.

I don't know where you got that idea from.

The standard power supply for the WS19 Truck & Ground station was the 6 Volt 85 Amp hour battery, issued in two pairs along with Switchboard, Charging, No.5 and a 300 watt charging set so that one pair could be recharged while the other was in use. This was standard for Jeeps and small vehicles (plus Land Rovers later on) and some trailer mounted installations.

Larger vehicle installations (LCV, ACV, etc.) used the 6V 170Ah batteries as size/weight was not such a problem. (Also, the various command vehicles would be making rather more use of the transmitter, with an associated increase in power drain.)

Anything with the WS19HP fitted required 170Ah batteries since the RF Amplifier No.2 drew 24 Amps (Mk.1 or Mk.2) or 18 Amps (Mk.3) on transmit and this would be far too much (especially when you add the 10 - 12 Amps drawn by the WS19 driving it) for an 85Ah battery - it's discharging at around the 3 hour rate which is a very bad idea.

Units near the front line (where noise was a problem and charging sets could not be used, plus the WS19HP Jeep install where there was no room for a second set of batteries and a charging set) would rely on central charging of batteries and daily delivery of replacements along with ammunition, POL and rations, etc. (That was what the 1260 Watt charging sets were used for.)

Chris.

[Jordan Baker]

I think these are the drawings that were mentioned at the start of the thread.

Not sure who made them up or where they came from.

[Ron Pier]

I have sent these drawings to a couple of forum members and also posted on here. I got them some years ago from Mike Kelly in Oz. Ron

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Jordan Baker

I think these are the drawings that were mentioned at the start of the thread.

Not sure who made them up or where they came from.

Me. I scribbled those drawings on some scrap paper. The batteries were found in the Sydney road Coburg yard.

There were Aust. pattern wireless battery boxes which look . A ham I was on air with one night, he was a signaler in Syria . He said they rebuilt the wireless batteries every three months , they used a kero blow lamp to melt the tar sealer out, install new plates , fill with fresh acid .

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by Johnny Canuck

Batteries and Accumulators Part 5

1.5 Volt Cells smaller than the previous 1.5's

Geoff

That's a lot of cells and batteries!

Does anyone have an example of a military cycle lamp battery (the "800" one shown)?

They were used in the standard "Lamp, Electric, No.1" with red filter and blackout shutter (which is NOT a signalling lamp, despite the optimists on eBay), as well as the Lantern. Electric, Traffic, No.2 and a lot of other lamps and torches, not to mention the "bomb disposal" hands-free intercom - a wooden box that took the battery and had a chest strap and fittings to turn a switchboard head/breast set into an intercom for the people with the REALLY nasty job of defusing dropped stuff.

It's annoying that this battery is no longer manufactured, though it should be possible to build one using the cells from the large (996) lantern battery that is still available.

I'll see if I can set up and photograph some of my batteries and cells for the forum.

Seasons Greetings!

Chris.

[Grant Bowker]

The photos already posted give a good idea of the construction of the sides and top of the boxes but are not clear on how the base is attached. Some photos seem to show the base as a simple slab the full size of the case, somehow attached to the sides (possibly multiple screws vertically up into the sides?). Other views seem to show the long sides as reaching to the bottom of the case with the base sitting between the long sides and overlapping the short sides (apparantly screwed horizontally through the long sides and vertically on the short sides). Also, is there any information on whether the base panels were simple square edged panels or was a rabbet (or other formed joint) used to support part of the load?

I'm also puzzled about the metal reinforcing on the box corners. Many boxes, but not all, are reinforced on the vertical corners but I don't recall seeing images of any boxes reinforced around the base. Has anyone noticed a pattern to relate the presence of reinforcing to battery case size, year of manufacture, manufacturer etc.?

[Tim Bell]

Originally Posted by Chris Suslowicz

That's a lot of cells and batteries!

Does anyone have an example of a military cycle lamp battery (the "800" one shown)?

Chris.

I have one somewhere - just moved house though and have no idea which box it is in - suspect it will be many months before it reappears - but when it does, I'll pop some pics here.

Tim

[Tim Bell]

Having heard nothing on the progress of these repro boxes am now investigating myself...

Am asking one local company today to quote me to produce the following which are being modelled from box type "P&G and E.S.P Co Ltd - 1945 - 6v 100/125AH MK IV" which is correct for the WS9 and WS19:

1) Strap Hinges
2) Bump straps
3) Branding stamps (Caution notice and manufacturer details)

NB - The Manufacturer details will be a ficticious company, the date of manufacture as 1944.

Handles of a similar design are still available commercially so I will not bother with these.

Am also discussing the box construction with a local carpenter to determine basic cost to have the timber cut to required dimensions - these will be hardwood of a timber similar to the originals

Then I should have an idea of cost price and be able to determine if the manufacture of reproductions is likely to be viable.

Drop me a PM if subject to price you'd be interested in any repros.

Thanks

Tim

[Tim Bell]

All the quotes I had back to accurately repro these boxes have made it a better bet for me to simply get originals... I only need 4...

Here are two I picked up recently... both are empty, bar the pair of labels inside the lids.

Battery6v-1.jpg

Battery6v-2.jpg

Now I need to start thinking about the Battery Carrier No 18... anyone got one of these they can measure please... Drawings in the manual are fairly basic and I guess I can work it out based on the dimensions of the batteries... but would be better to have dimensions from an original if someone has one, just in case there is some detail not shown in the drawing.

Pics of the battery carrier from the WSC WS19 manual.

Battery6v-Carrier-No18-3.jpg

Battery6v-Carrier-No18-4.jpg

Pic of a similar carrier - though I think for a single battery, so not the carrier no 18 - from a post Geoff put up a while ago...

Battery6v-Carrier-No18-2.jpg



Tim

[kevin powles]

Hi, I picked up this 1944 6 volt ZB 11676 battery box 72 ampere hour. It's complete with all fittings and cells inside. I got it for my 11 set to go in the back of the Bren carrier. I will fit in the summer. If anyone needs dimensions or pics, let me know.

[Bob Carriere]

That is a museum piece........ everything should be documented from all angles with dimension of ID/OD and the same for the seemingly original accumulator.

Lucky find.

Cheers

[Chris Suslowicz]

Originally Posted by Johnny Canuck

Batteries and Accumulators Part 2

I think this is a Canadian item, what it was for.................. I don't know, possibly a R103.

Pattern 5344


Unknown, possibly a homebrew.

Hmm... "Pattern xxxx" sounds more like Naval than army use, might possibly be air force, but that's a fairly small 12V battery pack intended to be hand carried by the look of the strap fixing for a leather shoulder strap. Possibly a signalling lamp?

I think the "homebrew" one is just that, and made from a surplus headset case (they were issued with switchboards to carry the operators headset and breast microphone.) This is probably to run a doorbell.

Best,
Chris