HAND PEDAL GENERATOR Mk810A, 1950's

The Mk810A generator also known as 'Generating set AC 45W 110V, hand or pedal driven, No1 Mk1' was intended for powering AC powered equipment such as receiver Mk122 or Mk123. The unit can be pedal or hand operated, and is supplied with all the suitable accessories, on the top of the main unit is a meter indicating up to 150V with two red marks between which the needle should be held whilst turning the pedals. The base plate comes with a chain so it can be attached to a tree trunk or other similar object, also supplied are two clamps for table mounting. The whole unit and parts pack into the box supplied.

This item can be demonstrated.

Your comments:

• Along with others of 602 signal troop special comms I used this generator all over east africa in the early 1960.s. The best way to keep it stable was to nail it to a tree or post and we carried the necessary hammer and nails to do this
  .......... Jake Wade, Sheffield England, 28th of May 2014
  
  
• I used this many times with a Mk 122 set and it was a beast. Very heavy and required a specific technique to keep the voltage stable. Technique is to find your strongest guy in the patrol. Strap the Genny to a tree using the claws - lay on your back, peddle steadily and think of the Tour de France.
  .......... Bill, UK, 16th of November 2011
  
  
• I recently had one of these and sold it to a gentleman who was very knowledgeable about them.
  He said they were known as "spy generator sets" as every British Embassy in the world had a radio with one of these generator sets in case of any emergencies where the Embassy needed to send out an emergency signal, the generator set provided power to run the radio unit.
  He also said most of the generators where destroyed because the gauge unit was aluminous and contained a chemical which made it glow, but was radioactive! (But only very low amounts!) Hence the reason they were destroyed.
  .......... Colin Murray, Andover, 13th of March 2011
  
  

A1461