Help with identifying this piece of electrical machinery from 1961?

It is an oscilloscope (the thing in front is much rarer now - it's an ashtray !)

Looks like a Cossor 339 from probably 1940s.

www.radiomuseum.org/.../cossor_double_beam_oscillograph.html

https://www.aef.se/Matteknik/Matteknikportal/Osc_historia/Oscilloskophistoria.htm

Cossor was a British company and made valves (electronic thermionic valves that is !).

Are you able to tell us where the picture came from ?

MK

Thank you very much!

The photo was taken in a workshop in Charlwood, Surrey in 1961 by a news reporter. There is a whole story around this but I wont bore you with the details as I'm afraid it has absolutely no connection with gadgets from the past. 

it does however help tell me a little bit more about one of the people I am researching.

Would  this have been an expensive item to have in the 1960's? He could well have had it for many years. His main business was as a market gardnener and a psychologist  but he seemed to be able to turn his hand to anything. He had a large 10 acre estate in Charlwood with several workshops on it and this is an image through the window of one of them.  He also had his own printing press in one of the other workshops.

This may be an odd question, but were oscilloscopes ever used in any  way in the area of stage magic and/or spiritualism? This is known to have been another area of  interest for him.

Thank you very much for identifying exactly which one it is.

All the best,

Melissa

£45 (scope price when new) in 1942  is worth £2259 in 2022 money.

The average weekly wage for a manual worker was £5.6 so the scope represents about 2 months wages - maybe a bit more than the inflation figure suggests.

I don't know how stage magicians or spiritualists may have abused oscilloscopes

MK

The primary use of 'scopes like that are to look at the detailed electrical signals over time. AKA what is the voltage level doing? In the US we have electricity that is AC (alternating current) which changes the flow direction 60 times per second (60 Hertz). The scope could be used to look at something like that and it will display a nice smooth sine wave (though you shouldn't probe mains wiring unless you know exactly what you're doing). They are used commonly also by radio enthusiasts; and probably TV repairmen back in the day (I'm guessing). I'd also expect to see a lot of electrical 'junk/treasures' in the photo but all I see are mason jars. I do see a pile of wire behind it - not sure what that is.

There's plenty of ways you can probe things and get the signal to change on the screen by moving your hand near or moving the probes around to different parts of a room; which may look supernatural. We've certainly got some 'power of suggestion' here but its possible. Ghost hunters also use thermal probes (temperature guns) to look for spirits and there's no real connection there either; but its common practice. 

The primary use of 'scopes like that are to look at the detailed electrical signals over time. AKA what is the voltage level doing? In the US we have electricity that is AC (alternating current) which changes the flow direction 60 times per second (60 Hertz). The scope could be used to look at something like that and it will display a nice smooth sine wave (though you shouldn't probe mains wiring unless you know exactly what you're doing). They are used commonly also by radio enthusiasts; and probably TV repairmen back in the day (I'm guessing). I'd also expect to see a lot of electrical 'junk/treasures' in the photo but all I see are mason jars. I do see a pile of wire behind it - not sure what that is.

There's plenty of ways you can probe things and get the signal to change on the screen by moving your hand near or moving the probes around to different parts of a room; which may look supernatural. We've certainly got some 'power of suggestion' here but its possible. Ghost hunters also use thermal probes (temperature guns) to look for spirits and there's no real connection there either; but its common practice. 

Thank you  very much for that expanded detail. 

Is it possible,  do you think, that this was being used in some way  in an agricultural underground heating system ? 

I do know the man in question grew gladioli to sell to Covent  garden and and had underground  heated fields! ( he got a government  grant in order to be bake to do this)  - think I’m the 1930s or 40s. 

Thats is a really good comment too on there being no other obvious electrical stuff - you would normally expect to see such wouldnt you. So this may suggest he was not a big electrical nerdy type but that this oscilloscope  had a very specific and dedicated  purpose. 

All the best,

Melissa

The mason jars and the spoons (behind the clock) might suggest sample testing.

There is a lab stand and safety glasses. Some stuff is sitting on boards / mats. The clock suggests some sort of crude timing going on.

In-between the clock and the oscilloscope are a couple of objects with three holes in them. They look like they may be related to an old UK 15A round pin electrical outlet.

The object in the foreground on the tray is perhaps of more interest as it is likely to indicate a recent activity. Looks like it has an upside down electrical plug sticking out of the side of it but no flex. It could also be a jar filled with something about to be tested.

Is this the only photo ?

Of this room /workspace, yes I'm afraid it is the only photo of it. 

Thank you for your sleuthing on it.  must say I quite like the safety specs sitting there, just soemthign about them...

He did also make potions and lotions from cold cream and herbs - but I wouldnt have thought that needed an oscilloscope and I suspect that was ina different workspace.

thank you,

Melissa

Yes, glasses often add a powerful human element to an old photo.

I recall the RHS having a bit of a clear-out recently of a horticultural laboratory, that had scientific equipment dated back to around 1907.

You might be able to find out what activities oscilloscopes were used for there. 

'Appeal to identify scientific curiosities of the past'
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-59562636