| Hello. I am selling my entire collection of Antique Electrostatic Devices. There are dozens of pieces, that range from the early 1800s to early 1900s. I am also including the pieces that I have made for reproduction/reenactment work.The collection can be seen here: http://www1.assumption.edu:80/users/emhowe/electrostatics/Site/Welcome.htmlThis is truly a one-of-a-kind sale. First, please read the following: 1. This will be a pick-up-only sale. Shipment would be many thousands of dollars, so I will not ship. 2. I am not taking international buyers, unless they can arrange for pick up. 3. Only serious buyers send me questions, please. I have a high reserve, and I anticipate being contacted to conclude the transaction separately. Please feel free to contact me. General information: I have been collecting for many years. These devices I have used during my own reenactments. Nearly all of them have needed some form of restoration or another. Nearly all of them work. Many have original glass, etc. I have also used acrylic in many pieces (wimshursts, etc.). If you are interested in untouched, pristine pieces from the 19th century, please do not contact me. Some of my pieces are still original. Most have been restored. Still, these are beautiful machines. Why am I selling these? I have taken my study with them as far as I want to go. I want to move on to another hobby, and I am no longer interested in doing electrostatics reenactments. I can give extensive advice on how to get these machines to work properly, for those who may be ignorant of getting these type of machines to optimally work. They are tempermental, which is what makes them unique. I am an honest seller and buyer. Please check my feedback. Please do not hesitate to ask me questions or to request supplemental photos. I will post relevant questions and answers here, unless I am directed not to do so. If you are curious about value, a single, well maintained Wimshurst machine can sell for between $300 to $1000 depending on several factors. My friction machines are even more rare. Still, I want to be clear that several of them have been restored, which devalues them from what would be original condition. That being said, I know these are still quite valuable. Again, please only contact me if you are a serious potential buyer. Feel free to contact me via EBAY or directly as given on my web site. I will charge a nominal PayPal fee as a deposit. This can be arranged, depending. I anticipate the auction canceling early.Finally, I will NOT split this collection in any way. It goes as a single unit. You will need a large truck with significant padding, boxes, etc. to make sure they are safe for transport. Trust me, if you are a collector you will want to pick this up yourself any way. Good luck.On Mar-08-10 at 08:02:37 PST, seller added the following information:I have been asked “why” I am parting with my collection. Two reasons. One I already mentioned in the full listing. I am simply “tired” of electrostatics and want to move on to another project. I have truly enjoyed my study, both from the instrumental side and from the history of science / nature of science aspects that it afforded. A second reason: I recently had the pleasure of visiting the museum of science in Boston, which is incidentally a tremendous joy. There is a well-known electricity room therein, which has as its center piece a large Van de Graaf and several Tesla Coils. Naturally, I was interested in the presentation of the history of electricity, yet I was surprised that the museum had virtually no presentation of this. Yes, there was a singular rather small and insignificant (and poorly maintained) friction generator. There were no influence machines at all! No Leydens! No presentation of the Effluvial Theories, the Dual and Single Electrical Theories, etc. I was shocked (pun intended). I kept thinking to myself that this should be part of the museum, and I kept thinking that I have an extensive collection, and apart from my reenactment presentations, the devices are locked away. They should be shared. I hope an interested party shares them. If my collection doesn’t sell, this is fine with me. I will keep them longer and continue to do reenactments. On Mar-11-10 at 10:47:28 PST, seller added the following information:I have been contact by numerous individuals regarding my reserve. In the spirit of being open, my reserve is 14,000. This is firm, with no exceptions. How did I arrive at this figure? I simply estimated the worth of my pieces, both original and my own creations. I did this based on my own experience in buying and selling. I think that this is a very fair value, and I will go further to claim that it is a “good bargain.” There is no doubt that I could “do better” if I split the collection, selling individual pieces. Frankly, this is a pain, and I’d rather that this all go to a singular home. Several people have contacted me about donating the collection to a museum. While this is a laudable thing to do, at the end of the day I simply have to recoup some of my investment. I am not independently wealthy, such that a donation would be the best thing. As I stated before, if the collection doesn’t sell this first round, I will relist it one more time. If after that, it still doesn’t sell, then I will keep it secure until some time in the future when I will relist. Please, do not hesitate to ask me any questions about the collection pieces. I am happy to answer. |
