How old do we think this is?

[Contract Killer]

A customer gave me this yesterday, he found it in a cupboard of the house he bought.

Its clearly a very old multi-meter, but have no idea how old, other than much before my time!

It even has a rather nice leather case!
(I wish i got one with my £1K Megger!)

Anyone any ideas?

[bluesmoke2stroke]

not sure which model but looks early.1923 onwards,they did 8 models and only ceased about 10yrs ago
avometer
www.richardsradios.co.uk/avo8.html

[Last Visit]

Looks like a model 8 Mk IV to me.

[wolfracesonic]

Have you tried comparing it for accuracy against your Megger, if it's still working?

[Neil H]

It has a wikipedia page

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avometer

and some info on the company

https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Automatic_Coil_Winde...

[R5YUP]

Nice Les Paul

[V8FGO]

I remember my dad having one back in the 60's. No idea if it was the latest model at the time though.

[soad]

Does it work?

[glenrobbo]

It's perhaps a Model 8 Mk. III. It definitely predates the Mk IV, which had a positive /common screw terminal post coloured red. ( Bottom LH )

There should be a date code somewhere on the meter and / or the leather case.
Plus a Serial No. which was usually heat- branded into the casing.
If it was ex-services issue, it would also have the WD broad arrow crowfoot mark.

I used this type at school in the 1950's

Still a very handy test instrument, even if a little on the large side compared to modern digital meters.

Edited by glenrobbo on Sunday 11th March 18:17

[motco]

glenrobbo said:

It's quite an early Avometer perhaps a Model 8 Mk. III. It definitely predates the Mk IV, which had a positive /common screw terminal coloured red. ( Bottom LH )
It is most likely a WW2 or just post-war example.

There should be a date code somewhere on the meter and /or the leather case.
Plus a Serial No. which was usually heat- branded into the casing.
If it was ex-services issue, it would also have the WD broad arrow crowfoot mark.

I used this type at school in the 1950's

Still a very handy test instrument, even if a little on the large side compared to modern digital meters.

We had one like that kicking around in a factory attached to where I worked in the 1960s along with a 'Wee Megger'. AVO Meters like those are good for electrical use but not so much for electronics because their voltage sensitivity (Ohms per Volt) isn't anywhere near as high as electronic meters such as Fluke. When that was made a valve voltmeter would have been needed in an electronics lab because the AVO would seriously affect readings of volts on high impedence souces by the current they draw to move the needle.

[ColinM50]

Well I'll give you a tenner for it since it's a standing joke between me and my brother.

He had one that he "liberated" from the tool stores at Belling and Lee when he was an apprentice in the late 60's. I borrowed it on one occasion and kept it for a few years, then he nicked it back out of my garage and promptly sold it via an ad in Exchange and Mart. And ever since, it's been a bit of a joke, i.e. where's my Avo. Would love to buy it so I can wind him up.

BTW no real idea how old it is, but does it matter? It works or doesn't is all that's important

[Perik Omo]

I've got one of those that I still use, liberated from an ICL engineer in South Africa when he moved jobs. My one was manufactured in the mid-1960's but one of the prongs is a bit iffy and keeps sliding out so it's difficult to use sometimes.

[jjohnson23]

I used a mark 9 (very similar) through my apprenticeship (77-82). It was bloody heavy.
It was replaced by a DA116,state of the art with an lcd display,lighter but still bloody big,still in use when I left in 1997!
The Fluke I had in my new job was tiny in comparison,it was for use by me only rather than having to be shared as well.

[john2443]

glenrobbo said:

I used this type at school in the 1950's

We had them, or very similar, at school in the late 60s /early 70s

[mad4amanda]

there is a limited company name on the back so surely that dates it as post 1948?
Nice piece of kit I have one tucked away somewhere

[langtounlad]

john2443 said:

glenrobbo said:

I used this type at school in the 1950's

We had them, or very similar, at school in the late 60s /early 70s

Me too, the picture brought back memories of O Grade Physics lessons.

[jr6yam]

I think this model pre-dates the Mk3 (which came out in 1965)
As has been said, definitely not a mk4; which, IMHO, is the best of the lot

[Halmyre]

john2443 said:

glenrobbo said:

I used this type at school in the 1950's

We had them, or very similar, at school in the late 60s /early 70s

I worked for a couple of companies in the late 80s/early 90s where the ancient Avometer was still a standard bit of test kit, along with even more ancient engineers who saw DMMs as the work of Beelzebub.