Post by Don Ricardo on Feb 13, 2007 22:10:48 GMT 10
When I posted the story on our Don a couple of weeks ago, Mark T asked me about the galley/kitchen light in our van in relation to a light he is trying to track down for his own Don caravan:
vintagecaravans.proboards30.com/index.cgi?board=photo&action=display&thread=1170069697&page=2
Unfortunately I don't have any spare lights to pass on, but I thought it might be helpful if I posted some photos of the light & switch.
The light in our 1949 van is shown below.
It appears to be identical to the light in Gentleman Jim's van which was shown in Mark's original post vintagecaravans.proboards30.com/index.cgi?board=forsale2&action=display&thread=1149423074
Our switch is metal and has a touch of Art Deco about it, similar to the light fitting itself. (Mental note - next time clean object of finger prints and grime before photographing!)
The switch is different in shape to Gentleman Jim's which I find interesting because the drawer handles and other fittings, etc in his van seem to be identical to ours, suggesting that the two vans were made fairly close together. Mark will know whether this is the case by comparing the build numbers.
The original globe in the light fitting was 6v to match up with the 6v electrical system of the original tow car, but at some stage we got a car with a 12v system and all the globes were changed over. (My father replaced his Buick in 1958 with an imported Dodge Royal - huge fins but not as big as the Desoto of the time! - so maybe that's when the van was converted to 12v). In any case I still have what I take is one of the original 6v globes. The globe has an intact filament but it is hard to see because of the reflection.
In his post I think Mark described the light as a fluro light, perhaps because of the shape of the light fitting, but in fact it uses ordinary incandescent globes.
When we had some rewiring done to our van in 1983, the sparky warned me that when our galley light blew we would be in trouble because we would not be able to replace it. As I said in a previous post, I assumed that meant that there was some sort of special globe in there that we could not replace, and for that reason I had not opened up the light from that day until this very week for fear of disturbing the globe. With my interest aroused by Mark's search for an original Don galley light - and with great trepidation - I took the light apart last Sunday. And what did I find? This:
The globe appears to be a pretty ordinary 12v auto light globe. I'm not sure whether the pin arrangement is different from the ordinary (my courage didn't take me that far), but otherwise it looks pretty ordinary (and replaceable). Maybe the sparky was telling me that if the light fitting itself burnt out I would be cooked, so to speak?
The amazing thing is (remember small things amaze me) that although the globe is up one end of the fitting, the frosted glass diffuser provides a reasonably even light right along its length. I had no idea that there wasn't a long globe in the fitting until I opened it up.
Are there any Art Deco experts out there that may know where Mark might be able to find a similar light fitting and switch? My guess is that they weren't only used in Don caravans - the Don drawer handles and door knobs are pretty standard for the time and used in many different settings, so I reckon that the galley light and switch may have been used in other settings as well.
Well there you have it...more info about the Don galley light than you ever wanted (or needed) to know!
Don Ricardo
vintagecaravans.proboards30.com/index.cgi?board=photo&action=display&thread=1170069697&page=2
Unfortunately I don't have any spare lights to pass on, but I thought it might be helpful if I posted some photos of the light & switch.
The light in our 1949 van is shown below.
It appears to be identical to the light in Gentleman Jim's van which was shown in Mark's original post vintagecaravans.proboards30.com/index.cgi?board=forsale2&action=display&thread=1149423074
Our switch is metal and has a touch of Art Deco about it, similar to the light fitting itself. (Mental note - next time clean object of finger prints and grime before photographing!)
The switch is different in shape to Gentleman Jim's which I find interesting because the drawer handles and other fittings, etc in his van seem to be identical to ours, suggesting that the two vans were made fairly close together. Mark will know whether this is the case by comparing the build numbers.
The original globe in the light fitting was 6v to match up with the 6v electrical system of the original tow car, but at some stage we got a car with a 12v system and all the globes were changed over. (My father replaced his Buick in 1958 with an imported Dodge Royal - huge fins but not as big as the Desoto of the time! - so maybe that's when the van was converted to 12v). In any case I still have what I take is one of the original 6v globes. The globe has an intact filament but it is hard to see because of the reflection.
In his post I think Mark described the light as a fluro light, perhaps because of the shape of the light fitting, but in fact it uses ordinary incandescent globes.
When we had some rewiring done to our van in 1983, the sparky warned me that when our galley light blew we would be in trouble because we would not be able to replace it. As I said in a previous post, I assumed that meant that there was some sort of special globe in there that we could not replace, and for that reason I had not opened up the light from that day until this very week for fear of disturbing the globe. With my interest aroused by Mark's search for an original Don galley light - and with great trepidation - I took the light apart last Sunday. And what did I find? This:
The globe appears to be a pretty ordinary 12v auto light globe. I'm not sure whether the pin arrangement is different from the ordinary (my courage didn't take me that far), but otherwise it looks pretty ordinary (and replaceable). Maybe the sparky was telling me that if the light fitting itself burnt out I would be cooked, so to speak?
The amazing thing is (remember small things amaze me) that although the globe is up one end of the fitting, the frosted glass diffuser provides a reasonably even light right along its length. I had no idea that there wasn't a long globe in the fitting until I opened it up.
Are there any Art Deco experts out there that may know where Mark might be able to find a similar light fitting and switch? My guess is that they weren't only used in Don caravans - the Don drawer handles and door knobs are pretty standard for the time and used in many different settings, so I reckon that the galley light and switch may have been used in other settings as well.
Well there you have it...more info about the Don galley light than you ever wanted (or needed) to know!
Don Ricardo
