Monday, December 12, 2011

The Emerson 1010




I purchased this fan about a month ago from a fellow fan collector in Vancouver WA. The Emerson 1010 was made between 1902-1904 and was their second trunnion mount fan. It utilized the earlier style ribbed base before the bottom lip became ribbed, and has a sort of candlestick stem going up to the trunnion before Emerson used a wall mount adaptable ball in the base. The motor uses a centrifugal start switch and the fan has two speeds. This was the last series of fans along with the 910 stick mount to utilize a nickle plated brass motor tag. I paid $400 for it and if I had to rate it this would be the nicest original fan I own. It starts up and runs great on two speeds, with a distinct difference. It retains almost all of the original paint which is in quite nice shape. The cage and blade retain almost all of their original lacquer which is in great shape. It even has what's left of the original rubber feet and it retains it's wiring grommets. Even the head wire is original, although not in the best shape but still functional. And unlike most of these retains almost all of the gold lettering on the motor and the nickle plating on the tag.

The R&M gearback tank



This fan earns it's name quite well: The tank. It weighs in at near 35 lbs, that's a lot of weight for a 12 inch fan. R&M had previously been re branding Westinghouse tank fans for their line of AC fans. When Westinghouse switched from cast iron to stamped steel, R&M came out with their own line of tanks in 1911. Consequently in 1912 R&M re-collaborated with Westinghouse to develop the gearback oscillator, one of the first "standard" style gearbox oscillators with the oscillation wheel on the bottom. the first model, list 151174 had a start switch motor and a slightly different oscillation adjustment on top of the gearbox, along with utilizing a lollipop style cage. in 1913 R&M started using their own motors in the gearbacks, yet still utilizing the Westinghouse tank style motor castings. These were continued until 1915 when R&M switched to stamped steel. I bought mine (which is a 1914 model) at the fanfair auction with a broken front casting, and a later Clockwise blade, having had two of the motor leads swapped to run in the opposite direction. I got the casting from a fellow member as well as the blade, swapped the motor leads and it ran fine. The bearings however are somewhat worn and I'll get some re-machined at some point. It's also missing the flag badge in the middle of the cage, reproductions are made and I'll get one at some point.