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Help identifing brass era car light switch


Panza

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can anyone identify the car that the light switch shown in the attached picture belong to?
It seems to be an integrated unit with two switches, one with "one and off" the other with "on, dim , heads, off"


any help help would be appreciate it
thanks

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An exact I.D. is tough. I would say it is slightly newer than a true " Brass era "  { 1915 and older }  part. More likely late teens, early 1920's. What is often referred to as the " Nickel era ".  It looks like the broken face plate is made of die cast zinc alloy. The use of zinc castings is more common on parts starting from the early 1920's. Prior to that if a small casting was used it was generally aluminum , and they don't get brittle with age like zinc tends to do.  I would very gently clean the back of the switches and see if there is a manufacturers name anywhere.

 

Greg

 

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Thank you for your prompt reply. The switch was among a lot of parts that came with a 1914 Jeffery car I purchased. The lot included many parts for Buick, model T and others.

The Jeffery has a similar switch but it is a single unit, see photo . I noticed that some parts of the Jeffery are indeed made out of Zinc alloy, impossible to repair!!!.

I cleaned it but couldn't find any markings, I have attached another picture after cleaned

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I Googled 1916 Jeffery and 1917 and 1918 Nash but all three appear to use Delco switches. The Nash's for sure , but probably the Jeffery as well. Jeffery built a few different models in 1915 didn't they ,possibly even some trucks. Perhaps your mystery switch comes from one of those.

 

Greg

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The Jeffery 1914 dash is different than the 1916 model, see photo, in fact they are many notable difference between 1914 and +1916

I have  a copy of the Jeffery 1914 four part list book, and it shows one leverage to turn the lights on , dim , heads and off,  similar to the one on my original photo, but just one switch,  not two

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