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PC Group Relay
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Another Restore find. It's a 120v 30A pole mount group relay used to switch strings of streetlights. There were two there but the second one didn't have a integrated PC socket so it had a 4th lead for the relay control. That one has a 120v coil and a 120/240v contact rating so it could be used to switch a string of 240v streetlights with a 120v PC.
Anyway it seems to be from the 60s from the nameplate and the interior components. I also think it's NOS from how good condition everything is. It didn't come with a PC but I installed a used Fisher Pierce from 1982 for the shot.
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Not sure where I would install it though, I don't have a string of lights I need controlled but I do have some lights that don't have a built in PC I could control with this.
There's a vial of mercury inside the metal tube with one contact at the bottom and one around halfway up. There's a iron slug that's floating on the mercury. When the power is applied to the relay, the slug is attracted down into the mercury as causes the mercury to rise and reach the middle contact, completing the circuit.
I'd probably end up using this thing for stuff like landscape lighting or for wallpacks where having individual PCs aren't feasible or just use it as a overkill remote PC. I've yet to find one of those remote PC sockets anyways.