Graflex.org

Les · Joined: 09 May 2001 Posts: 2682 Location: Detroit, MI

Does anybody know about James Millen of Malden Mass? (that's the only info stamped on the unit.)
Does anybody know of a company/person that can get me the specs of a Sylvania R4330 flash tube? I'd like to use the tube with modern (Norman 400B) battery case.

http://home.twmi.rr.com/lnphoto/jamesmillen.jpg

[ This Message was edited by: Les on 2003-12-07 06:20 ]

[ This Message was edited by: Les on 2003-12-07 06:21 ]

Graflite · Joined: 08 Nov 2001 Posts: 103 Location: Southeast US

Les:

Your flash unit looks identical to a Heiland strobe unit that I have, even down to the twin electrical connections on the tube (the lower one on mine is damaged) and the Sylvania flash tube appears to be identical to mine, but mine is packed away somewhere in a box and I don't remember the flash tube number.

Mine came with the two cables as shown in your photo's, and also, my unit has an older single Heiland type flash clamp on it with the Heiland name on the clamp.

Hope this helps and I can send some jpeg's of my unit if you need them.

graflite

Les · Joined: 09 May 2001 Posts: 2682 Location: Detroit, MI

clnfrd · Posted: Sun Dec 07, 2003 12:21 pm Post subject:

Just curious...is that small tube plugged into the power supply an OA2? If so, it's a "thyratron", used in some very sophisticated power supplies back in the dark ages. Fred.

Les · Joined: 09 May 2001 Posts: 2682 Location: Detroit, MI

;o FLASH!

Ah the lights just went off in my head.

You're close enough, its the OA2's cousin, the OA5.
In trying to find out when this was made (no serial number for Gandolf) I've come down to finding the answer to
When was the OA5 invented and or when did we go to baseless bulbs? I want to say this thing is pre-war, but don't think baseless bulbs were around then.

But I have a hard time believing somebody else's suggestion that the 1158 on the condenser is a date code of 11/58. By that time we they had moved to heads on top of dummy tubes.

_________________
"In order to invent, you need a good imagination and a lot of junk" Thomas Edison

[ This Message was edited by: Les on 2003-12-07 06:24 ]

jdman · Joined: 13 May 2001 Posts: 302 Location: Midwest

Les, if you go to Google, and type deja, and search the deja user net you will find a world of information about James Millen Co. Looks like they made a world of electronic items. Esp. Ham radio, and worked with RCA and GE and the Goverment in WW2. This does not solve your problem, but does give you a background of this company. Looks like everthing quit about 1970's. Russ

Les · Joined: 09 May 2001 Posts: 2682 Location: Detroit, MI

Russ,
I was up till 2 am reading from the web pages of the James Millen Society. I sent out a couple of feelers and 3 or the 4 wrote back saying they would foreward them to the president of the JMS.

His reply was that James Millen probably only made the tube lock assembly for somebody else. Combine that with Graflite's announcement that he has an HR like this and I have to agree with the JMS president.

Now I just have to find a guy that likes to restore old flash equipment and hasn't killed himself doing so.

Les

If your wondering I moved the photos to a clickable link so it wouldn't take so long to load or scroll through the post. They are still there however.

Graflite · Joined: 08 Nov 2001 Posts: 103 Location: Southeast US

Les:

Sadly my unit did not come with a power supply or instruction book, but I'm guessing from the size of the Sylvania flash tube and the components that I saw in your photo's that a Graflex Strob 500 power pack might possibly power it with an output at or near a Strob 500 lamphead.

I sent to you via your personal e-mail address some photo's of the unit that I have and hopefully I can find my unit again and perhaps work with it some more.

graflite

clnfrd · Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 2:31 am Post subject:

There goes that lousy memory again...OA5 is a thyratron...I think OA2 was a voltage regulator used in thyratron circuits. If all the parts are there for reference, how tough could re-building it be? I know the OA5 is still available...and so are capacitors. The resistors usually don't deteriorate with age. My old Heiland Strobonar's 2-ton

supply develops around 1kv, so this one may be somewhere in that neighborhood...depends on the size of the caps. Fred.

jdman · Joined: 13 May 2001 Posts: 302 Location: Midwest

0A5 Gas pentode trigger tube
Mil CV number 7047
7 pin Minature
$9.95(but not from me)
Russ

Graflite · Joined: 08 Nov 2001 Posts: 103 Location: Southeast US

I'm afraid I see another project looming on the horizon (as if I needed another one), so now I need to dig through my storage shed for my Heiland strobe unit and start tinkering with it (carefully of course).

graflite

Les · Joined: 09 May 2001 Posts: 2682 Location: Detroit, MI

clnfrd · Posted: Mon Dec 08, 2003 4:48 pm Post subject:

Oh. Didn't know you didn't have the original battery case. What you have there in the handle could very well be the trigger circuit. And, of course you know, just because a cap is rated at 1kv doesn't mean that's what it puts out. It charges to whatever DC voltage is applied...to its rated capacity. It's just that if you over-size a cap too much in the voltage department, lower voltages applied may not get you the rated capacitance. Sounds like a re-build next to impossible. My old Heiland IIa, a government issue, uses a 4-VDC wet cell...4 volt vibrator, just like the old car radios...a step-up transformer...and four 400 microfarad 450-volt caps, FWIW. It works after much re-forming of the caps, cleaning relay contacts, and cutting open and cleaning and adjusting the vibrator. Fred.

Graflite · Joined: 08 Nov 2001 Posts: 103 Location: Southeast US

Les:

I may be on the wrong track here (been there, done that) but when I first explored my unit I got the impression that the strobe perhaps tripped the shutter through a solenoid connection and the bulb in the bottom of the tube played a part.

In the 03.jpg photo that I sent you the metal circular connector in the far right of the photo appears to be the power connector to the battery pack and the push button switch next to it would be used to fire the strobe and then the shutter.

What stumped me (and I may be wrong here) was the cable that was hard wired into the tube was perhaps the synch cord to the solenoid, but I don't have the unit handy and don't remember what the connector on it was (more the reason to search for it now.)

graflite

Les · Joined: 09 May 2001 Posts: 2682 Location: Detroit, MI

I'm gonna have to agree with your first statement (I could be wrong)
The hard wired cord is sheilded, the internal wire goes to one end of the flash tube. That in and of itself tells me a whole lot of engery went through that wire, both current and voltage.

(the shield goes to the frame as does the other end of the flash tube--something that makes me very nervous!

The two sockets on the side are wired in parallel. On mine the wire in one socket has a bipost terminal on the other end suggesting that it went right to the shutter. With yours you had the "open flash" push button also attached.

From what I've been reading on the OA5, it acted as an electronic relay, allowing a small current to close a circuit carring a larger current. Notice I didn't say what the voltage of the low side was, cause I've lost my ability to understand electronic jargon.

http://www.mif.pg.gda.pl/homepages/frank/sheets/137/0/0A5.pdf and

http://208.190.133.201/tubes/oldsyl/" TARGET="_blank"> http://208.190.133.201/tubes/oldsyl/ this one you have to click on the '49 catalog and then the two pages for the 0A5

Also remember that a solenoid imparts a delay action between the flash and the shutter..something we don't want with elctronic flash.