Early 1900’s generators etc

[Alan]

There was a discussion a while ago re equipment made in Sydney in the early 1900's and especially WW1. This stirred my ageing memory about a unit rescued from a Sydney tip that I briefly owned 30 or so yrs ago. Then Kev came to my mental rescue and sent the attached pics of the actual 1916 generator unit. A query...would the engine have been a special batch order from the UK and Sydney assembled or manufactured in Sydney including the castings ?

[Alan]

Pics of the actual unit

[Hutch]

Great Pictures Alan,

Is this the discussion you were referring to?

https://www.douglasmotorcycles.net/index.php?topic=8389.0

I'm erring towards the castings being made at the Randwick works.

Cheers

Hutch

[EW-Ron]

I'm erring towards the castings being made at the Randwick works.

Ditto.

Interesting.
Is there a pic of the actual generator unit ?
It doesn't list a voltage there ?
It seems to be different to the spark generator for radio use of the previous discussion. ?

Of which Marconi were apparently nosing about during/after the war, with a view towards patent infringement.
To which the RAN gave them the silent treatment, it would seem.
There was also a scandal in Parliament about how much the Navy had paid for the whole shebang,
without any official ? approval or valuation ?

May we assume this Kevin still has this unit ?
I enquired of the Powerhouse Museum and the Navy History Unit about these (radio spark) generators,
and while they had some (scant ?) knowledge of them they certainly didn't have any actual generators or blueprints etc.
Certainly an interesting part of early Australian radio history.