Office of Steam Forum for Model & Toy Steam Gas & Hot Air Engines

Last week I received a pretty rare Doll 922 steam gadget.



Part of it is, of course, driven bij a steam engine, hot air engine, gas engine or electrical motor, what ever your choice is.
But originally it also needs a 4,5V flat flashlight batterie to be fully functional.


And that made me really exited, for those of us who had toys in the 60’s and later, we couldn’t get around batterie operated toys.
But to have a battery operated toy in the 20’s and 30’s that was rare.
I’ve got two pre war toys in my collection now that needed a 4,5 volt batterie.

One is a Bing station clock from 1929 where the battery is used to power the lamp in the clock for 0 gauge trains scenery.

And now I got a Doll baker working at a baking house.
To make the hole thing more exiting, they build in a lamp on the underside that shines trough a red sheet making it look like the baker is pushing the bread into a red hot oven.



So this made me research the net a bit on how battery use, in toy and common household smals, came into existence.
And why in both cases the choice fell for this flat 4,5V battery.

And with some research, I find out that the German Paul Schmidt (1868-1948) Is behind it.
Most of you will think by the name, who is he?
Well he’s the inventor of the batterie operate flash light 1896.
And by 1901 he introduces the Flat 4,5 battery for his flash lights.
A 4,5V battery is actually no more than a smart pack of 3x 1,5V single batteries.



So at the time, this battery was well known, from the flash lights, and widely available,  it’s obvious that the toymakers used that technologie and transferred into their toys.

This bakery with its baker it still in very good condition, even the strange original  flat lamp is still there and operational.
As I not collect only toys to put on a shelf, but I also want to see them running.
I decided to be on the safe side and spare the lamp a bit and still being functional.
So a combination of two 1,5V AA batteries (3V)is more than enough, , only a bit les bright.
For this I ordered a  modern battery holder with a on/off switch, and I attached two crocodile clamps to it, so I can clamp it on the bakery connexions without doing any harm to the original toy itself.

Again a curiosity  with an interesting history.
Strange how we take things we use for granted, and all forgot where it came from…

And here is the video enjoy…


Cheers,
Danny

Hi Jason,
Thanks for your reply, I grew up with these type of batteries, I always thought these where world wide known, it's only recently that I found out that this is a typical European model of battery.
We use to cut them open when I was a child, when the where worn off, to see what's inside.
This was before we heard of health and safety
all we saw was this was a hard outer case with 3 AA type of batteries in them, connected in series…

Hi Jason,
Thanks for your reply, I grew up with these type of batteries, I always thought these where world wide known, it's only recently that I found out that this is a typical European model of battery.
We use to cut them open when I was a child, when the where worn off, to see what's inside.
This was before we heard of health and safety
all we saw was this was a hard outer case with 3 AA type of batteries in them, connected in series…

Hello Danny,

We did the exact same thing when we were kids. Although we were told that the contents of a battery is toxic. The curiosity was just too great.