1904 Columbia Phaeton Electric Car - looking for some new electrical points and magneto and some other misc.

[Chadthelad]

I am looking for some new electrical points and magneto and some other misc. parts for this car.  

 

Thanks In advance! 🤙

 

 

[wayne sheldon]

A beautiful and wonderful automobile!

 

But a "magneto"?

[28 Chrysler]

Nice car but can you show some photos of the parts you need ?  They would help clear up some questions.

I have a pair of those paraffin lamps if you want high and low beams.

[Fargoguy]

WOW- what an impressive automobile.

 

[JV Puleo]

If it's an electric it never had a magneto and what do you mean by "points"?

[alsancle]

Chad has not returned in 3 days.

[wayne sheldon]

The original post piques my interest. Someone apparently with a recent acquisition, a really fine piece of automotive history, and also apparently and rightly proud of it. We of course want to know more, about the car, and about the new caretaker. What is his background? His level of knowledge about the car and its history? Those of us that have been in this hobby for a long time and are passionate about the cars and the history want to be helpful. We want other people to want to care for pieces of history. We want the cars to be cared about, understood, and appreciated.

 

The OP used a couple words that automatically bring up questions. Early "electric automobiles" did not of course have a magneto! They on the other hand might have used a battery charging station that mechanically generated its own electricity. Such systems were sometimes used outside of city areas where there was no local electric company to supply "ready made" electricity. Such mechanical generators might have used a magneto, or technically not a magneto but another type of dynamo that some people may incorrectly refer to as a magneto (few people today know the difference!).

 

As for "points"? Early electric automobiles used a number of batteries wired in combinations of "series" and "parallel". The various combinations altered the available voltage and the resultant "capacity" (or "amperage", or "current" if you prefer?) available to the electric motors. Different combinations of "series" and "parallel" batteries is how the speed was controlled, and affected how far the car would be able to travel on a given charge. 

Early electric automobiles used a high current "controller" to switch between the various combinations of series and parallel connections. Those "controllers" were a weak spot in early electric cars. A lot of power went through them, and at best when they were new if pushed too hard, could burn out the contacts inside. As the cars got old, all connections and contacts corroded somewhat. All corrosion in those connections add to the line resistance and in turn stresses all contacts even more. 

Getting an early electric automobile to run like it was supposed to is tough. And one should not try to run one hard at all without first checking and cleaning EVERY connection in the system. Antique "controllers" have been destroyed by trying to use them with corroded contacts and other bad connections. They can literally melt down! 

 

A person might use the word "points" for the contacts inside the controller? Just speculating here. There are several "points of contact" inside the controller box. Most early electric cars have been used beyond the point of corrosion causing problems. Most original controller boxes need significant repair if the car is to be driven more than a very little bit, and slowly (even by early electric car speed standards!).

 

The ability to communicate in common language is the single most important building block of any society! 

I sure would like to see the OP come back here and tell us more. Maybe keep a dialog going that we would enjoy and maybe help him to understand more about his wonderful automobile!

 

A long long time ago, I had a friend in one of the first local old car clubs I ever joined. He had an (1908 I think?) electric car. He drove that car a lot! There was a local "One and Two Cylinder Car" tour hosted by the local HCCA group nearly every year in those days, and the tour welcomed steam and electric pre 1915s as well as the one and two cylinder gasoline automobiles and motorcycles (all pre1915). He drove that electric car year after year after year. Nearly always, he would leave first, drive slow, and finish last with just enough charge to crawl in slowly. But he loved doing it!

I wonder where Lloyd's car is now?

[28 Chrysler]

Wayne

That is why I asked for photos. A new guy may not know the terms and uses the best terms he knows.

I hope he comes back on. I looked at a white 1903 Columbia a few years back and was tempted but at the time the car was just to tall.

[AHa]

It looks as though the original poster has an electric car but the car he recently purchased is not electric. If you look under the seat, you can just make out what looks to be a round aluminum crankcase. This guy obviously knows what he needs.

[modela28]

1 hour ago, AHa said:

It looks as though the original poster has an electric car but the car he recently purchased is not electric. If you look under the seat, you can just make out what looks to be a round aluminum crankcase. This guy obviously knows what he needs.

If you look at the OP's first picture, you can see a similar gauge on the dash as the picture below.  This car is obviously an electric.  I think the "round aluminum crankcase" is the electric motor.

[AHa]

I'm sorry, it seemed more reasonable to me that the car was actually gas and the new owner knew what he was looking for than the new owner was looking for a magneto for his new electric car. The parameters of my feeble brain can't conceive the latter.

[Terry Bond]

How bout we start setting a time limit for posters with questions to respond and engage in the conversation?  We keep asking people like this for more pics, more info or to clarify something and they just ignore the kind folks willng to assist. Its called a DISCUSSION FORUM for good reason!

I say no response in 7 days and delete them.

Terry

[wayne sheldon]

I personally would want the photos and any pertinent discussions preserved for future reference. And the whole thing could later become relevant in a future search as a segue for another newcomer.

Perhaps after several days of "deaf ears", such a thread could be temporarily locked and allowed to fall out of sight, and then unlocked for future reference. However, I tend to not want to impose too much on our fine moderators with extra requests.

 

We do not want to scare newcomers away. However those of us that have been active on forums such as this for many years (more than 25 years for me participating and answering questions on other antique automobile forums!), have seen this phenomenon getting much worse in recent years.

 

And nobody wants me to get going on a few diatribes over the socioeconomic and political forces behind this behavior.

 

Of course what we really want is for people interested to join in and add to the discussions about antique automobiles!

[John_S_in_Penna]

On 9/20/2023 at 2:50 PM, JV Puleo said:

If it's an electric it never had a magneto and what do you mean by "points"?

Is it possible that this user is from a foreign country

and doesn't know the English translation for certain

technical terms?

 

Though this is his first posting, he joined the forum in 2006.

[AHa]

I'd like to see a little more grace when it comes to outrageous posts. How about giving people the benefit of the doubt. It's no wonder some people don't respond to some posts the way they are treated. You have to have a thick skin to post here. There have been many times someone responded by private message because they were afraid of being raked over the coals for something they said.

[wayne sheldon]

6 hours ago, John_S_in_Penna said:

Is it possible that this user is from a foreign country

and doesn't know the English translation for certain

technical terms?

 

That is precisely why I earlier tried to tap-dance around some of the possible reasons for a misunderstanding of the words. I was trying to point out possible reasons for the words he used, as well as keep the door open for further comments from the OP. I do keep hoping. It looks like a really fine example of an early electric, I would like to see more photos of it! (Egregiously self-centered selfish reasons!)