Mercury Arc Rectifier - 600 Volts DC from 20 Amps to 400 Amps

Brisbane Tramway Museum - Mercury Arc Rectifiers powering the trams on 13th April 2018 during the twice yearly night operations. These units were de-commissioned on 29th June 2018 to enable them to be fully restored to original 1930’s condition. A 600 volt 700 amp diode rectifier unit is currently supplying power for the trams during these MAR restoration works. Turn up the volume as the glass rectifiers can be seen, and heard, to increase output as the tram driver “notches up“ on the controller and the tram draws more power from the substation. The noise of the tram on the track can be heard in the latter part of the audio background. (The noise at 1:26 on the video is an incoming text on my mobile phone). This is a British Thomson Houston (BTH) rectifier manufactured at Rugby, England in 1939.