Bradley/Shefras Salectric shocker

gameswat · Post by **gameswat** » Sun Feb 05, 2017 2:11 pm

pennymachines wrote:Is it called "Salectric"?

Yes PM, can't see it on the photo Sweetmeat posted but shown on the face of my machine.

arrgee · Post by **arrgee** » Mon Feb 06, 2017 10:41 am

Little more tonic needed GM (or are you a beer man?)

gameswat · Post by **gameswat** » Mon Feb 06, 2017 11:13 am

To be clearer, the game in the Sweetmeat photo is only named by someone with a pen on the bottom of the photo, but nowhere on the faceplate of that game, which is why PM was asking if that's its actual name. Because I've never called the game that in any of the previous posts since Bradley shocker made more sense.

pennymachines · Post by **pennymachines** » Mon Feb 06, 2017 1:48 pm

I've rechristened the topic to celebrate the discovery.

pennymachines · Post by **pennymachines** » Tue Jan 02, 2018 4:05 pm

Lot 197 at the last EH auction was a Salectric. Unfortunately, with the two auctions on the same day I didn't have time to inspect it closely. I was curious to know if the wooden cabinet was original.

treefrog · Post by **treefrog** » Wed Jan 03, 2018 11:00 am

I ran out of time as well, but did have a quick look. Only took one other angle and did not open up, so not much help. Perhaps the buyer is on here.

burrows · Post by **burrows** » Wed Jan 03, 2018 11:21 am

Gameswat, I know I'm about twelve months behind on this topic but having just read it, I can't agree more with everyone else's praise for you and your work on this machine.
You have brought something of beauty back to life that had previously, well and truly expired.
Despite not knowing how it all worked or even how it was presented originally, you set about work and turned it around.
'ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT'. Well done Gameswat..!!

maestro66uk wrote: WOW!!!! I'm absolutely blown away with this restoration!
FANTASTIC!!

I love to see restoration jobs like this - going from absolute useless junk to a fully working new item again.

Keep up the good work, sir.

gameswat · Post by **gameswat** » Wed Jan 03, 2018 3:20 pm

Cheers Burrows. I looked back at this thread and see the complete machine recently auctioned at EH is the same example as once shown on Simon's website many years ago, and the only other surviving machine I ever came across.

pennymachines wrote: I was curious to know if the wooden cabinet was original.

PM, that cabinet has some age but I still believe this was a later conversion or restoration as the internal design of the front casting was definitely designed to fit over a cabinet and not into it, as shown by both period photos.

pennymachines · Post by **pennymachines** » Wed Jan 03, 2018 3:48 pm

I agree, this seems likely, based upon those two extant pictures, and the style of the front casting. The extra width and fluting give a heavy, disproportionately wide appearance. I hadn't twigged that this was the same one Simon owned.

gameswat · Post by **gameswat** » Sun Dec 30, 2018 11:15 am

Somebody recently asked for plans on this cabinet. I looked but no luck, then after re-reading these posts realised my plans were actually the pine mock-up case, which went into the bin afterward, not into my filing cabinet where the drawn plans go! This is about the only photo I can add that might be of help. Construction was based on exactly the same way the Bradley Challenger was built.

gameswat · Post by **gameswat** » Sun Mar 05, 2023 12:59 pm

Someone just asked me about the layout of the mech I restored, specifically the way the induction coil is set up. As they have restored an original machine and it uses the more common form of an iron core that is pulled out of the coil to raise voltage. While I used an induction coil I had spare that worked the opposite way. It had a constant iron core inside the coil, but then a brass sleeve was slid over the iron core to increase voltage. I was missing the whole induction coil and most of the armatures anyway so was not an issue to make my own levers that would push the sleeve in, instead of pulling the core out.

gameswat · Post by **gameswat** » Sun Mar 26, 2023 10:13 am

I've been calling this a Bradley shocker, but on closer reading of the face plate I had it says "Manufactured in England UNDER L.C. Bradley Patents. Registered Design." It doesn't actually say they made them. Then below states "Sole Distributors for United Kingdom - Shefras Automatics" And the machine was advertised by Shefras in the 02/05/1936 World's Fair according to the Braithwaite book, but Bradley gets no attribution in the book. The trade photo supplied by Sweetmeat clearly has the "UNDER L.C. Bradley Patents. etc" but no Salectric label on the faceplate nor does it name Shefras on the bottom? The style and casting manufacture does suggest Bradley did make them for Shefras, but I guess it might be more precise to rename this thread Shefras/Bradley Salectric shocker.