I was very fortunate to decide to look at E-bay 6-13-19 at approx. 5:06 pm, right there on the top of new listings was this 1935'ish unrestored Jensen #15 generator for $99.99 BIN, with fingers trembling a little bit I pushed the buy it now button & then with even more nervousness the "confirm bid" button....OK ,take a breath now....it went through, now to go back & really read the description & make sure I wasn't just buying a box for said generator, OK good...it was the real deal. now to send the seller a message to "please" package carefully....no response from seller, he packaged it & took it down to the post office before closing at 5:56pm,same day (thank you) still no reply . I waited patiently for it to arrive, hopefully intact, I decided to send another message , here is exactly what I said "Regarding the Jensen generator , thank you for the quick shipping , I'm always interested in knowing the history of any steam piece I buy, so anything you could share with me would be greatly appreciated. And if you have anything else like this I would be interested.
Thank you, Bruce"
he replied "estate sale find"....yup , that was it
it arrived with bullet proof packaging & in the condition you now see.
here is the same model in the Jensen museum archives, obviously restored.
here is the attached text from the Jensen archive
"It's rare, it's old and it's the only one we've seen offered as a stand alone. This Model #15 is the oldest known example of a free standing Jensen generator set. We've estimated it to have been built between 1935 and 1937, when this particular shade of blue was used. The horseshoe magnet is a sure sign your engine or generator is both rare and valuable."
in operation
I believe it could do with a magnetic recharge....but that would be it.