Thursday, January 7, 2016

The Hertner TransVerter

EnerSys is closing the Cleveland plant that was once the Hertner Electric Co. in a couple months. Hertner was an early electric supply manufacturer that made a variety of items from motors to storage batteries for mine locomotives. Their big claim to fame was the TransVerter, a motor-generator which supplied clean DC power for projection lamps (arc lights). Basically the transverter is what took the flicker out of pictures. I remember these were in the Allen booth, in the little room off the large room behind the main booth.
John Hertner, from Motion Picture Herald, May 30, 1936.
From The Moving Picture World, October 23, 1915.
From The Moving Picture World, December 4, 1915.
From Richardson's Handbook of Projection, 5th ed, 1927.
From Motion Picture Projectionist, January 1928.
From Exhibitors Herald and Moving Picture World January 21, 1928.
New plant at 12690 Elmwood Avenue, from Motion Picture Projectionist, December 1928.
From Motion Picture Projectionist, June 1931.
From Motion Picture Herald, October 19, 1946.
John Hertner, a bit of background and a look towards the future, from Motion Picture Herald, May 30, 1936.
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5 comments:

  1. UnknownMay 18, 2016 at 7:59 AM

    I just came across what I believe to be a control panel for the TransVerter. It has a tag that says TransVerter for Motion picture projection The Hertner Electric Company. It has a knob on it that indicates "Raise Speed" & "Raise Voltage". There is also 2 gauges and another voltage knob on the bottom. I'm curious to know what era this is from.

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  2. JimmydeanOctober 2, 2016 at 8:47 AM

    I have a friend who bought an old movie theatre. In the old projection room is an actual hertner transverter.i have pics of the in tact motor tags. Any idea if there is a market for something like this?

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  3. Frank DuttonOctober 3, 2016 at 4:27 AM

    I have no idea if the TransVerter has any value to collectors.

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  4. Galen HandySeptember 16, 2023 at 6:39 PM

    The Hertner Electric Company made the motors and controllers for Rauch & Lang electric cars. Rauch & Lang bought Hertner in 1907, and john Hertner, with his chief engineer De Witt Cookingham, ran the electrical and mechanical parts of the company. They became one of the six largest electric car companies in the world.
    After the Company broke up in 1919 Hertner returned to independence, after which they made your TransVerter, which was basically the same as the motor/generator unit they had been making to charge the electric car batteries from AC mains.

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  5. CarlOctober 28, 2023 at 1:35 PM

    I worked at Hertner electric building and testing ferroresonant (transformer) type battery chargers. I started at age 17 because I had two years of electronics classes at my highschool nearby. The job add said, “must read wiring diagrams and follow assembly direction carefully”. It was a half shift 5-9 pm mostly college students. We were all in the Allied Industrial Workers AFCIO local.

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