# WWII and pre WWII Electronics



## Anonymous (May 10, 2010)

Ive just got a bunch of oddball electronics that are USN WWII and pre WWII era.Some things I know have collector value.What I dont know about is what should I be looking in for Platinum wire or tips? Also theres alot of things that are clearly silver or silver plated-like silver buttons on brass pieces..I do have telecommunications stuff-no switchboards but small parts-what does the platinum look like and what has platinum from this era?Ill try to attach pics of an old relay and some switches.Any photos out there of what to look for?
okay I dont know how to post pics-ill figure it out.the relay is GE 115 volts 1930s.Just any info about stuff from this era w precious metal content would be great.


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## Chumbawamba (May 21, 2010)

Talking to a friend of mine recently who scraps out tonnes of surplus military hardware, he informed me that a lot of WWII gear uses silver in places where copper normally would have been used because copper was more important strategically than silver. He used the example of a coil that he once found that turned out to be silver wired instead of copper. So of the units that have no collector/historic value, scratch off the insulation of various pieces and see what you find underneath.

I don't have anything any more specific for you, other than to spend the time and do the research yourself.


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## Anonymous (Jun 14, 2010)

swampfox said:


> Ive just got a bunch of oddball electronics that are USN WWII and pre WWII era.Some things I know have collector value.What I dont know about is what should I be looking in for Platinum wire or tips? Also theres alot of things that are clearly silver or silver plated-like silver buttons on brass pieces..I do have telecommunications stuff-no switchboards but small parts-what does the platinum look like and what has platinum from this era?Ill try to attach pics of an old relay and some switches.Any photos out there of what to look for?
> okay I dont know how to post pics-ill figure it out.the relay is GE 115 volts 1930s.Just any info about stuff from this era w precious metal content would be great.



Silver contact buttons in the picture came off a brassy bolt from WWII ships radar The weight is 111.5 dwt or 6.120 toz, the buttons are solid not wafered onto tungsten and test positive for gold.


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## lazersteve (Jun 14, 2010)

Sweet!

Do you have a photo of the source material?

Steve


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## Anonymous (Jun 14, 2010)

lazersteve said:


> Sweet!
> 
> Do you have a photo of the source material?
> 
> Steve



Steve if you mean the cabinets that housed the radar no, but they had some huge vacuum tubes inside that were about 10" tall. I tried to save them but the sockets were loose from the weather.

I can give you a picture of the brassy bolt and the copper buss, I'm still going to file off the remaining silver before discarding them.

The brassy bolt confuses me, it does not look like any brass I have ever come across in my years as a junkman.

Best Regards
Gill


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## Anonymous (Jun 14, 2010)

The test solutions in the tray are from the contacts shown below, a couple of wipes with a file gave me some metal for the acids.

You can see a distinctive purple in one compartment which is only diluted nitric, the yellow solution is AR and I'm not getting a stannous reaction. Time to knuckle down and learn the proper procedures.

I added some table salt to the yellow solution with out any reaction for silver.


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## lazersteve (Jun 14, 2010)

The purple tray resembles silver chloride that has been exposed to light to my eye. Any chance you had some chlorides in the nitric, tray, or water ?

Steve


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## Anonymous (Jun 15, 2010)

lazersteve said:


> The purple tray resembles silver chloride that has been exposed to light to my eye. Any chance you had some chlorides in the nitric, tray, or water ?
> 
> Steve



The water I'm using I get from a mountain creek because our well water has sodium, also this was the first time that dish has been used by me. I'll cook the contacts later in the week then post the results from fresh stannous tests.

Gill


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## goldsilverpro (Jun 15, 2010)

The best pins I have ever seen were WWII era. They had a heavy plated layer of silver under the gold. The gold ran 1.0 troy oz/pound. No BS. Took forever to strip in cyanide.


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## qst42know (Jun 15, 2010)

> Steve if you mean the cabinets that housed the radar no, but they had some huge vacuum tubes inside that were about 10" tall. I tried to save them but the sockets were loose from the weather.



Do you have any numbers from these vacuum tubes? Loose bases are a forgivable repairable defect and some working tubes are worth their weight in gold. There are even some vacuum tubes that have considerable value as non-working specimens.


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## Anonymous (Jun 15, 2010)

qst42know said:


> > Steve if you mean the cabinets that housed the radar no, but they had some huge vacuum tubes inside that were about 10" tall. I tried to save them but the sockets were loose from the weather.
> 
> 
> 
> Do you have any numbers from these vacuum tubes? Loose bases are a forgivable repairable defect and some working tubes are worth their weight in gold. There are even some vacuum tubes that have considerable value as non-working specimens.



No numbers or tubes, I'm well aware of the potential value there may have been in saving those tubes. One time at the scrap yard there was a Boeing Flight simulator inside the nose there were hundreds of vacuum tubes that I pulled and sold on ebay.

Those radar cabinets are long gone, this was two years past and the owner did a RM ordered yard clean up. The working conditions were not ideal for me as they were clumped into a pile making it very difficult to at get anything inside.

There was another pile of old telex terminals that had some relays inside ( ice cubes ) the contact points from these had a visible gold tinge, and yet another mountain of Square "D" breaker box's full of circuit breakers I spent the best part of the day pulling what ever goods I could salvage, those large silver contacts below were removed then stored under my workbench. Cleaning out my shop to make room for the Massey 35 project found the long forgotten tin.

I've had hardware disease from a very early age, finding the Internet in 1998 opened up my world and found that people have strange ideas if what is collectible and what they'll pay money for.

Gill


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## lazersteve (Jun 15, 2010)

gustavus said:


> lazersteve said:
> 
> 
> > The purple tray resembles silver chloride that has been exposed to light to my eye. Any chance you had some chlorides in the nitric, tray, or water ?
> ...



If it is silver chloride the stannous may have been the source of your chlorides. Separate a small amount of the purple out (if possible) and add ammonia hydroxide, filter then add HCl to the filtered liquid. A white curd that turns purple in daylight indicates silver chloride.

Very nice scrap. 

I've really getting into silver now days since I'm finishing up my Silver Refining DVD. I hope the spot price sky rockets as predicted by some.

Steve


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