Dating Lundell Fans by Serial Number.

[Sean Campbell]

Hello All!

 

I’ve stumbled onto something intriguing. Looking at the IC Lundell Chad sold last night, it had a serial number of “16857”. Steve Stevens IC Lundell bears the serial number “15423”. HOWEVER, Darryl Hudson’s IC Lundell has no serial number. Neither does the fan that was inscribed as having been at Niagara Falls in 1896.

So this begs the question: when did IC Lundells start and stop having serial numbers? I know I have never seen a serial number on an 1899 Type A Sprague Lundell. Would this infer the serial number Lundells predate 1896? And then Serial #s were brought back in in 1900? My Sprague Lundell Type C is numbered “50257”. 

 

What are your thoughts?

[Russ Huber]

42 minutes ago, Sean Campbell said:

What are your thoughts?

With all due respects, who in the IC or Sprague concerns of past are we going to bring back from the dead to explain their serial number system. Fortunately, the IC/Sprague Lundell fan motor design and components evolved over time and dated electrical trade does share details of these changes. some electrical trade images are accurate based on the dated electrical trade descriptions. We now have a fairly good idea of a time slot for the Lundell fan motors. 

Thanks to dudes like Steve Rockwell and his willingness to share and learn you can now see one of the very earliest Lundell desk fans. 93 electrical trade announces the new Lundell desk fan with oil cups and sleeved self-adjusting bearings. 

Nobody has come forward with this model pictured below left hand side. It had sealed ball bearings which in time would make a h ell of a racket when they wore, and the lubricant dried up.  I doubt IC were making replacement ball bearing for it to far down the road. The chances of one surfacing are very poor IMHO.

Edited September 6, 2022 by Russ Huber

[Sean Campbell]

Thanks for the response Russ. 

I know about the ball bearing motor of 1892 and the “Black Japaned” guard and blade of the 1893 model. I also see the switch of the model pictured above is out the side rather than the front, which calls into question how reliable the Electrical Trade images really are. 

Anyway, I guess what I’m getting at is asking if we have any way to date the Ballmotor Lundells made from 1894 and 1897, the last year they would have read “Interior Conduit”?  

[Russ Huber]

23 minutes ago, Sean Campbell said:

Thanks for the response Russ. 

I know about the ball bearing motor of 1892 and the “Black Japaned” guard and blade of the 1893 model. I also see the switch of the model pictured above is out the side rather than the front, which calls into question how reliable the Electrical Trade images really are. 

Anyway, I guess what I’m getting at is asking if we have any way to date the Ballmotor Lundells made from 1894 and 1897, the last year they would have read “Interior Conduit”?  

It's good to know you're up on information shared in past posts. And yes, we can't put faith in electrical trade images, or for that matter company catalogue images back in that time period. Steve's image of the early Lundell threw a wrench in the 92 models all or any models having the front switch lever protrusion. What I did emphasize was there are some dated electrical trade articles with description that support the images shown.

What I did just try to say in more or less words is good luck making sense of the serials. There is no one alive to validate the serial number system they used. 

[Sean Campbell]

I get what you’re saying Russ, and that’s totally understandable. I guess we’ll just have to live with saying the “typical” IC Lundell was made sometime 1894-1897.

 

Unless someone polished up an 1893. 😁