You Can't Google This One--WKY's Power

[Clara Listensprechen]

Clara - what you saw was an electrolytic rectifier.  One plate was lead, the other aluminum, in a borax solution.  These were pretty common in ham radio stations through the Depression, until rectifier tubes became cheap. 
73 -

The diagram showed it as a power source, though. I suppose it could be used as a rectifier; they used some very strange stuff as rectifiers back then (a razor blade comes to mind).

[maw2432]

You're welcome!

Nice to see that someone here has been to OKC.   I spent many years growing up just a few miles south of Tulsa, in a little town called Okmulgee.   

Best wishes.

Bill

[Clara Listensprechen]

I'm in Enid at present. I get to OKC occasionally. Pleased to meet you.

[sm0ky2]

borax / boric acid / sassolite was commonly used as an electrolyte as early as the late 1700's - early 1800's when batteries were first being discovered. Although the design and size of the devices described from OK meuseum sound more like leyden jars.

boric acid (and its salts) were often used as electrolytes for jar-capaticors, which were simply boric acid and water, with one electrode in the center, and another metal on the outside of the jar. Or with both electrodes inside the water on opposite sides of the jar, depending on the application.

it can store a charge, but as an electrolyte, its only slightly better than tablesalt, so i dont see this as being a great power source.
Volta quickly swept boric acid under the table by using nitric, and hydrochloric acids. Which is why modern batteries use stronger acids, rather than weak ones.

The use of lead is interesting, only because it indicates an electrochemical process. Assuming of course that the other electrode is not, also made of lead.

It may be worth experimenting with, if for no other reason than knowledge that is rarely written about.
I only find it in very old writings, virtually nothing on the internet at all..
And in those days it was mentioned as a procedure, not much if anything about its functionality compared to what we use today, because that was all they had to work with back then.