✅ SOLVED Graphite rod?

[Deft Tones]

Not sure what this was for exactly...or what material it is.





Found at a coal mining camp from the turn of the 19th/20th century. Whites V3i VDI was/is a solid 3 and hits on all three frequencies pretty hard.

Was thinking a battery cell rod? Giant carbon arc light?

Does not mark paper very well and very light in weight.

If this is graphite would it make a good electrode for electrolysis?

Trash or treasure?

 

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[bill_wabo]

Think it's a battery cell rod too, so trash.

 

[Jason in Enid]

ferrite rod from an old radio frequency coil?

 

[Tpmetal]

ive found these as well, I was thinking they had something to do with early electricity set ups based on where i was finding them and all the really really old light bulb parts around them.

 

[Tpmetal]

they are graphite as far as i can tell, i work with all types of it and there are harder types that don't "Draw" like graphite in pencils.

 

[Tpmetal]

So in doing some reasearch i've found that early reliable electric lights were arc lamps. Using graphite rods. Usually light for stuff like street lights, other outdoor lights, stage spot lights, projector lights. Process was founded in 1800s. So if its not from a modern battery or something like that, im betting early lighting like some of the first in the us around 1870s!

 

[bill_wabo]

I also found many old lightbulbs when I found these in a old dump, but there was also an old car and thought those rods came from it. Even found the metal car crest, if I remember well it was written "Willys". Found afterwards the dump was near an hotel and bar, around 1880.

 

[ironhorse]

Think it's a battery cell rod too, so trash.

 

[Deft Tones]

That looks like a winner! Thank you, Ironhorse.

This thread is solved.

 

[gunsil]

Yup, being a curious kid in a time when large dry cell batteries were still used I opened one up after it "died" and there was the rod like yours. I dug a lot of bottle dumps back then and found hundreds of these things. A lot of door bells worked on these large dry cell batteries, and they were used in science classes in schools.