RESTORATIONS
I've restored hundreds of machines.
These are two of the coolest!


Frank S. Betz Static Electric Machine:  Cost $4500.  Cost to ship:  $3500.  Cost to restore:  $10,000.
This machine needed 24 new glass plates cut.  Covered in shellac.  And pieces of tin foil meticulously glued in the correct places.
It also needed a new set of dischargers.  Wood grafted back into place and repaired.  The cabinet completely devoid of humidity.  New rubber and felt gaskets.
Every piece was hand-made.  Every piece was made according to the way they were made in 1900.


Daniel Cuscela bought the machine.  We restored it together.


These plates took months to make...because each one had many steps of coating, baking, recoating...  There are 24 plates total.
They weigh roughly 600 pounds.



That axle weighed about 650 pounds when all was said and done...and the plates had to be installed within millimeters of each other in the exact order and rotated at precise angles.
To make it more complicated, some were fixed to the axle and others are floating...  It took many hours and a lot of hard work...there were only two of us to lift the assembly.




That night Dan crashed about 1:30.  I had no rest until I got it working...
Some of the first spark photos taken that night, around 2am...we were exhausted.  But we made history.  It's the largest machine of that type in the US.


Sparks with Leyden Jars using an $6000 Ultraviolet Quartz-Lens Camera.


This is Frank S. Betz.  I think he would be proud.






This machine is now at RGF Environmental Group as part of the Electro-Mechanical Museum.  http://www.rgf.com/electro-museum/


This is an alternating current Kinraide Coil.  The oldest high frequency X-Ray machine in the USA.

Jeff's Photos 194
It was stolen from a school in Salem MA...


The coils needed completely rewound and each part had to be disassembled, repaired, and polished.


They were wound using handmade quadruple silk-coated wires according to Kinraide's original prototypes.


Solidworks drawings of each part were made.




The restoration was a success.


It made X-Rays using less energy than a light bulb.  Just like the original.
The machine was returned to the only surviving family of its original inventor.


This is Thomas Burton Kinraide.  I think he would be proud.

An accurate functioning replica is on display at RGF Environmental Group's Electro-Mechanical Museum http://www.rgf.com/electro-museum