Early Admiral on Kijiji Toronto

[Penthode]

Some may recall my RCA CTC5 bought in Toronto was converted in Montreal for 25 Hz power. It had a separate chassis added underneath which sported a heavy B supply transformer and the original chassis mounted transformer was changed for filaments only. The modigivcation added about another 25 pounds to an already heavy set.

Old timers including my Dad remembered the flickering bulbs. Interestinglyly people got used to it: my Dad emigrated to Canada in 1948 and he said the flickering lamps in Toronto initially gave him a headache. But after a few months he got used to it. Note that even though the frequency is 25Hz, the bulb flicker rate was 50 Hz.

I believe Toronto switched to 60Hz around 1958 when there was a major 25Hz generator failure.

Incidently the Tesla standard was 60Hz and he had to face opposition at Niagara when the engineers there wanted 16Hz. The compromise was reached at 25Hz in 1893. The last 25 Hz William Rankine generation at Niagara closed only in 2009.

Terry