My daughter and son-in law added to my collection with a massive battery set, measure 39 inches wide! Five tube( 4-01a's and a 200), my question is: there are two components that I can not identify.They are a glass tube about 1/4 inch in diameter with a copper wire .060 inch dia. inside with a copper tube on the outside that can slide back and forth along the glass tube. The ends of the inside wire are connected between the G terminals of the o1a's and the coils on the first two stages. Anyone know what these are? I am thinking they are some sort of vey small value home made capacitor, but I have never seen one of these before. Thanks for any help
Jon.

John,

From their location in the circuit, I would say they are grid-stopper resistors - typcially several hundred ohms to prevent oscillation. Measure their resistance. I can't visualize why a cap would go in that position.

Do these things look homemade? Could you possible post a photo on one of the freebie image sites, and link it here?

:My daughter and son-in law added to my collection with a massive battery set, measure 39 inches wide! Five tube( 4-01a's and a 200), my question is: there are two components that I can not identify.They are a glass tube about 1/4 inch in diameter with a copper wire .060 inch dia. inside with a copper tube on the outside that can slide back and forth along the glass tube. The ends of the inside wire are connected between the G terminals of the o1a's and the coils on the first two stages. Anyone know what these are? I am thinking they are some sort of vey small value home made capacitor, but I have never seen one of these before. Thanks for any help
:Jon.

Wait a minute. These are probably neutralizing caps. Tell us just exactly where they go in the ckt - what coils are you talking about for sure?

How long are those things? The ones I've seen are a couple of inches long.

:John,
:
:From their location in the circuit, I would say they are grid-stopper resistors - typcially several hundred ohms to prevent oscillation. Measure their resistance. I can't visualize why a cap would go in that position.
:
:Do these things look homemade? Could you possible post a photo on one of the freebie image sites, and link it here?
:
::My daughter and son-in law added to my collection with a massive battery set, measure 39 inches wide! Five tube( 4-01a's and a 200), my question is: there are two components that I can not identify.They are a glass tube about 1/4 inch in diameter with a copper wire .060 inch dia. inside with a copper tube on the outside that can slide back and forth along the glass tube. The ends of the inside wire are connected between the G terminals of the o1a's and the coils on the first two stages. Anyone know what these are? I am thinking they are some sort of vey small value home made capacitor, but I have never seen one of these before. Thanks for any help
::Jon.

:Wait a minute. These are probably neutralizing caps. Tell us just exactly where they go in the ckt - what coils are you talking about for sure?
:
:How long are those things? The ones I've seen are a couple of inches long.

Doug, They are 4.5 inches long and go between the first tube and second antenna coil, and the second tube and third coil. I get about 2 ohms across. They are mounted in knurled post mountings on some sort of very early plastic or hard rubber base. They do look home made. My new computer is incompatable with my old floppy disc type camera so I will try to post a pic on Monday and list it here. Many thanks for the info
:
:
::John,
::
::From their location in the circuit, I would say they are grid-stopper resistors - typcially several hundred ohms to prevent oscillation. Measure their resistance. I can't visualize why a cap would go in that position.
::
::Do these things look homemade? Could you possible post a photo on one of the freebie image sites, and link it here?
::
:::My daughter and son-in law added to my collection with a massive battery set, measure 39 inches wide! Five tube( 4-01a's and a 200), my question is: there are two components that I can not identify.They are a glass tube about 1/4 inch in diameter with a copper wire .060 inch dia. inside with a copper tube on the outside that can slide back and forth along the glass tube. The ends of the inside wire are connected between the G terminals of the o1a's and the coils on the first two stages. Anyone know what these are? I am thinking they are some sort of vey small value home made capacitor, but I have never seen one of these before. Thanks for any help
:::Jon.

I acquired an old battery powered radio a while back, and since it seems my most difficult project yet, I haven't even looked at it much. It's a Zenith AM Radio, with the octal tubes 1A5GT, 17Z6GT, 1N5GT, 1H5G, and 1A7G.
Almost all of the rubber wire has rotted, and there are some unusual power connectors, including a DPDT slide switch as the back of the chassis on a spring, which pops back when not held.
Just to the right & center front of the chassis, on top, there is a mystery component about 4" high, mounted vertically, T-shaped in form, crimped, and seems to have some sort of asbestos lining. My guess is that it's some sort of power resistor. It has a tap at the top, center, and bottom, and is riveted to the chassis.
The only markings on it seem to say "The Muier Co., Chicago Il.". Can anyone identify this part?

:I acquired an old battery powered radio a while back, and since it seems my most difficult project yet, I haven't even looked at it much. It's a Zenith AM Radio, with the octal tubes 1A5GT, 17Z6GT, 1N5GT, 1H5G, and 1A7G.
:Almost all of the rubber wire has rotted, and there are some unusual power connectors, including a DPDT slide switch as the back of the chassis on a spring, which pops back when not held.
:Just to the right & center front of the chassis, on top, there is a mystery component about 4" high, mounted vertically, T-shaped in form, crimped, and seems to have some sort of asbestos lining. My guess is that it's some sort of power resistor. It has a tap at the top, center, and bottom, and is riveted to the chassis.
:The only markings on it seem to say "The Muier Co., Chicago Il.". Can anyone identify this part?

I am digging way back into memeory, but I remember AC/Battery portables that had big power resistors when operating on AC, and a switch to configure from AC to BATT. to operate from battery, you plugged the line cord into the chassis, and that operated a switch to run on battery. Could your big resistor and spring loaded switch have anything to do with AC operation???

::I acquired an old battery powered radio a while back, and since it seems my most difficult project yet, I haven't even looked at it much. It's a Zenith AM Radio, with the octal tubes 1A5GT, 17Z6GT, 1N5GT, 1H5G, and 1A7G.
::Almost all of the rubber wire has rotted, and there are some unusual power connectors, including a DPDT slide switch as the back of the chassis on a spring, which pops back when not held.
::Just to the right & center front of the chassis, on top, there is a mystery component about 4" high, mounted vertically, T-shaped in form, crimped, and seems to have some sort of asbestos lining. My guess is that it's some sort of power resistor. It has a tap at the top, center, and bottom, and is riveted to the chassis.
::The only markings on it seem to say "The Muier Co., Chicago Il.". Can anyone identify this part?
:
:I am digging way back into memeory, but I remember AC/Battery portables that had big power resistors when operating on AC, and a switch to configure from AC to BATT. to operate from battery, you plugged the line cord into the chassis, and that operated a switch to run on battery. Could your big resistor and spring loaded switch have anything to do with AC operation???
:
:
:After another cup of coffee, I reread my posting and it didn't say exactly what I meant. First of all, a big power resistor and batteries don't seem right. Second, a switch on the chassis that is spring loaded doesn't compute either. But, if your spring loaded switch is held in place by one blade of the line cord when you place the other blade in a slot in the chassis, and the resistor drops the 120 Volts to 1.5 or 3 for the filaments, now this starts to make sense. But, the first question to ask is, does it have a line cord, or does it look like it ever did? Seems like it must have a line cord, because heating up a big resistor with batteries would be a tremendous waste of battery!
Lewis L.

:I acquired an old battery powered radio a while back, and since it seems my most difficult project yet, I haven't even looked at it much. It's a Zenith AM Radio, with the octal tubes 1A5GT, 17Z6GT, 1N5GT, 1H5G, and 1A7G.
:Almost all of the rubber wire has rotted, and there are some unusual power connectors, including a DPDT slide switch as the back of the chassis on a spring, which pops back when not held.
:Just to the right & center front of the chassis, on top, there is a mystery component about 4" high, mounted vertically, T-shaped in form, crimped, and seems to have some sort of asbestos lining. My guess is that it's some sort of power resistor. It has a tap at the top, center, and bottom, and is riveted to the chassis.
:The only markings on it seem to say "The Muier Co., Chicago Il.". Can anyone identify this part?

Frank,

The 17Z6GT tube is probably in reality a 117Z6GT rectifier tube. So there is probably or was once a line cord. The DPDT switch is probably the changeover switch which will place the radio on battery when the plug on the line cord is inserted. The mystery device mounted on the chassis with the hitemp insulation is most likely a high wattage resistor in the power supply.

Radiodoc

:I acquired an old battery powered radio a while back, and since it seems my most difficult project yet, I haven't even looked at it much. It's a Zenith AM Radio, with the octal tubes 1A5GT, 17Z6GT, 1N5GT, 1H5G, and 1A7G.
:Almost all of the rubber wire has rotted, and there are some unusual power connectors, including a DPDT slide switch as the back of the chassis on a spring, which pops back when not held.
:Just to the right & center front of the chassis, on top, there is a mystery component about 4" high, mounted vertically, T-shaped in form, crimped, and seems to have some sort of asbestos lining. My guess is that it's some sort of power resistor. It has a tap at the top, center, and bottom, and is riveted to the chassis.
:The only markings on it seem to say "The Muier Co., Chicago Il.". Can anyone identify this part?

And it's Muter. A zenith radio Do you have the model or chassis number?

Bill VA

:Frank,
:
:The 17Z6GT tube is probably in reality a 117Z6GT rectifier tube. So there is probably or was once a line cord. The DPDT switch is probably the changeover switch which will place the radio on battery when the plug on the line cord is inserted. The mystery device mounted on the chassis with the hitemp insulation is most likely a high wattage resistor in the power supply.
:
:Radiodoc
:
::I acquired an old battery powered radio a while back, and since it seems my most difficult project yet, I haven't even looked at it much. It's a Zenith AM Radio, with the octal tubes 1A5GT, 17Z6GT, 1N5GT, 1H5G, and 1A7G.
::Almost all of the rubber wire has rotted, and there are some unusual power connectors, including a DPDT slide switch as the back of the chassis on a spring, which pops back when not held.
::Just to the right & center front of the chassis, on top, there is a mystery component about 4" high, mounted vertically, T-shaped in form, crimped, and seems to have some sort of asbestos lining. My guess is that it's some sort of power resistor. It has a tap at the top, center, and bottom, and is riveted to the chassis.
::The only markings on it seem to say "The Muier Co., Chicago Il.". Can anyone identify this part?

Thanks for the info, the closest match I found was on this site here, a 5G401M, and chassis 5537
I haven't had time to look at it much, and it does have an AC power cord, but all the rubber has rotted off.

Frank, according to the schematic for the 5G401M you have a candohm resistor. Looks like this?

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2004-12/912127/candohm.JPG

The one in picture is just one resistor, yours like many others have multiple taps.

Bill VA

:Thanks for the info, the closest match I found was on this site here, a 5G401M, and chassis 5537
:I haven't had time to look at it much, and it does have an AC power cord, but all the rubber has rotted off.

Yes, thats exactly it, mine has connections at both ends & the center. If it tests ok I'll leave it, otherwise substitute some newer wirewounds.
Thanks