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Well, it's been quite a while ....
... since I've bored youse dufes with my estate sale finds, but this one is pretty dang cool! I went to a sale recently and it was obvious the old guy had been a tinkerer. He had a "shop" set up in a shed beside his garage. He wasn't much of an organizational type, obviously, as crap was scattered everywhere and the place was generally a total mess, but those are actually the kinds of places I like. The "hunt" is half the fun for me. Anyway, I start digging through piles of junk and realize this guy was a "project" guy. "Projects" were all over the place. He was VERY good at taking stuff apart, but seemed to lose interest when it came to putting stuff back together. I'd find boxes of parts and pieces, but unless you were an expert on a particular item, it was like a used jig-saw puzzle and who knows what or how many parts are missing, OR what was wrong with the item to begin with to make him disassemble it. The chaos carried over to his tool chest also, he had LOTS of tools, but the tool chest was practically empty. Why? There were a bazillion tools scattered all over the shop. He not only wasn't good at finishing projects, but he was also lousy with putting tools away once he finished with them. That's an interesting thing about some of these estate sales, you can kind of "get to know" the people by the way they lived and operated. I got the feeling he just enjoyed spending time in the shop "tinkering" and could care less if he really accomplished anything.
Ok, enough of that! I love discovering old electric fans. Of course, who in Florida didn't have fans back in the days before a/c? So, this area is a bit of a goldmine, but they're getting harder and harder to find these days as there's a huge collector market .... ESPECIALLY for the old brass era fans (brass blades and sometimes cages as well). The brass era ended with WWII due to all the brass going to the war effort. I've probably sold 50-75 old fans over the years. My biggest sales have been a few Emersons in the $400-$500 range and an old 13" General Electric for $750! The others have been all over the map price-wise, depending on the piece. I probably have 25-30 fans here as we speak, I just need to get around to doing something with them as I tend to push the higher priced items out first.
Anyway back to the subject of this post. As I was digging through the cluttered shop, I started finding bits and pieces of an old Westinghouse Rotaire. These are super cool old fans and were mostly used in the retail market back in the pre-a/c days. Department stores, barber shops, retail outlets, etc. They were suspended from the ceiling and rotated 360-degrees. Pieces of this thing were scattered everywhere throughout this shop. I just grabbed a box and started throwing parts in it whenever I came across one. Once I found all the parts I could, I asked the guy how much he wanted for the "pile of junk" and he asked if I'd pay $3.00 for it. I shelled out the cash and brought it all home. Well, I've completed laying the pieces out and believe it or not, EVERYTHING is here! Today, I'll be wiring the motor up to see if it works, then put it together for some pics. It won't take much as they are large pieces and the parts themselves (like the motor) have not been disassembled. Heck, it even has the down rod and mounting hardware. The real bonus is, it has the original switch! Many of the original switches were broken or replaced over the years and these are very hard to find. I just checked and found where one (switch only) sold for $125.00 FOUR years ago. I plan on putting this one back together (fairly simple task) and hopefully it'll be in working condition, then throw it up on "The Bay". I've seen these fans sell for $1800. All-in-all, not a bad deal for $3.00!
Here are a few pics of these fans in some old phone company photos - Notice the "egg shaped" switches hanging from the fans (pic 3 is the most noticeable):
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