by Dan Wiswell
When people see some of the equipment that I’ve been tucking away over the years, the first question that most ask is: “How old is it?” We also hear this question at our lab when a customer receives a repair quote for an old piece of equipment. Armed with this information, some people enter a sort-of anthropomorphic logic state to determine whether the equipment owes them anything anymore. There are many reasons for determining when to junk, repair, or buy new equipment. As we know, obsolescence happens fast. In our own lab there are a few pieces of equipment that have been lovingly shepherded through the past few decades because for whatever reason we just don’t want to part with them. The rate of change must appear to be moving forward at an ever-accelerating rate to anyone that has ever lived in the past few hundred years. A consequence of society’s urge to move forward is the steady stream of equipment that becomes relegated to the scrap heap of time. Unless of course, someone cherry-picks from the pile and puts them on display.
Back in the 1970s, I would often hear the older metrologists in labs that I work in use the terms “High-Tech” or “State-of-the-Art.” They seemed to have a fascination with the subject, but as I was just starting out, I remember being confused by it. Why was it called the State of the Art? Shouldn’t it be more accurately described as the State of the Science? How, or even more to the point, why would they be confused with each other? I wondered if there was some defining attribute that separated the two. I reasoned that the scientific equipment that surrounded me each day was rather anonymous, whereas artwork was more-or-less a personal creation. Artwork gains provenance when the artist adds a signature to the piece; even better, a signature with a date or some other hallmark that can affix a work of art to a specific moment in time. Art historians can then describe them in the context of the contemporaneous events occurring at the time of their creation.
My perspective on this apparent dichotomy between art and science was completely upended one day when I watched a talented metrologist as he repaired an old piece of equipment. It was an analog phase-angle meter that had extensive wear in the pivots and jewels of its meter movement. As he worked, he seemed to speak of the instrument in front of us with a sort of reverence that drew me in, and I began taking notes. He broke the meter movement down and polished its pivots and jewels. Next, he removed iron filings from its airgap and then quickly reassembled it. I remember his satisfaction during testing when he said, “Good as new.” I asked him why he thought this unit was so special. He looked at me for a moment and said that he considered it to be a work of art, because it had been built during a time when electrical instruments were all hand-made.
As a work of art, he told me that there was a strong probability that he could also show me how old it was. That’s when he had me, and what he showed me next literally cemented me onto the path that I am still on forty-five years after this conversation occurred. Fortunately, years later I was lucky enough to be in the right place at exactly the right time, because now I own this specific instrument. It has a very special spot in my personal collection and is pictured here.
The metrologist training me that day was John Ribeiro. He was the Quality Manager at the Mancib Company, located in Burlington, Massachusetts. The year was 1978. Just before his demonstration began, he came to my bench in the value-added production department and said with a smile, “You do good work. Not much, but good.” Then he invited me to join the group of metrologists that worked in the repair department. I was thrilled. I was less than half the age of anyone else in that department. Mr. Ribeiro removed the scale from the meter that he was working on and showed me its obverse side. Pictured below is that specific instrument and the information that was written on the back of its scale, which includes the signature of the person that drew its scale and the date that it was made. That date is October 27, 1941.
On October 27, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt made his “Navy Day Address” to the American people, in which he informed us of the German attack on the Destroyer Kearney that had happened ten days prior to his address. It was the second time an American naval ship had been attacked during the war, the first of which occurred on September 4th, a few weeks before. This phase-angle meter was calibrated and “standardized” two days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
In other instances, determining the age of a piece of equipment follows the quality control process of the manufacturer. Such is the case with the Weston Model One pictured on the following page. In the earliest days of the twentieth century, the Weston Electrical Instrument Corporation often provided date-of-manufacture information on the back of their meter scales. However, date stamps strategically placed at various locations inside a product will also reveal its age. These dates correspond to the day that the instrument passed its quality control testing after final assembly. This particular instrument passed its quality control inspection on May 2, 1904.
The day before this instrument was date stamped, The Battle of Yalu River occurred during the Russo-Japanese War. This was the first land battle of the war. It ended with a decisive Japanese victory.
Sometimes, it isn’t necessary to open an instrument to discover its age. Such is the case with the very stylish Weston Model One depicted below. This meter is housed in a protective wooden case. It was previously owned by the Boston Edison Company and was probably bought when it was brand new. It was last calibrated on April 27, 1981. By simply removing the meter from its outer case we can see the familiar purple-ink date stamp that identifies its date of manufacture as February 28, 1912.
There was a lot going on in the world during 1912. A few weeks prior to the creation of this meter, Hsian T’ung, the last emperor of China, was forced to abdicate following Sun Yat-sen’s republican revolution. This ended two hundred-and-sixty-seven years of Manchu rule and two thousand years of imperial rule in China.
Less than a month and a half after this meter was made, the Titanic struck an iceberg and sank. This meter shares its birthday with Clara Petacci, who was also born on February 28, 1912. She became the mistress of Benito Mussolini and shared his fate on April 28, 1945.
As we can see, examining antique test instruments to find their dates of manufacture can reveal other interesting aspects of the times in which they were made. For example, let’s look at an extremely old DC Volt-Ammeter. Pictured here is a Model 540, manufactured by the Weston Electrical Instrument Corporation in Newark, New Jersey. This small, portable instrument is literally packed with historical information. By opening a compartment in the back of the instrument, we can see that this is where a fuse compartment is located. Fortunately, some of the fuses are still in place. These fuses are the kind of ephemera that are often separated from a product and lost over time. It is amazing to me that a modern and common device like these replaceable fuses has changed so little in nearly one hundred and thirty years. By removing this instrument from its case, we can see other aspects of its historical importance. It is based on Dr. Weston’s patented meter movement. This meter movement was patented only seven years before the creation of this specific instrument. By removing the meter scale, we can see that this unit is serial number 1663. It was manufactured in 1895.
1895 is the year that American abolitionist, orator, and statesman Fredrick Douglass died. In 1895, H.G. Wells published his book The Time Machine. It was also the year that Shemp Howard was born.
This is why I have always loved the work that I do. I’m not sure that I could have found a better career path. Just as we ground electrical circuits, this work grounds me personally. I often think of the challenges that faced the men and women that worked in our industry in years gone by.
In the last few months, I have purchased many new standards for our laboratory. I have also been fortunate to be able to add a few new metrologists to our team. Just as it was in days of old, it’s now my job to continuously push the frontiers of our abilities as we move into the future. To me, it is just as important to know where we have come from. Only then can we truly understand and define where we are today.
Dan Wiswell is a self-described Philosopher of Metrology. He is President/CEO of Amblyonix Industrial Instrument Company, North Billerica, Massachusetts.
