Help finding replacement bulbs for 80 year old doll house

[Jennifer Murphy]

I am refurbishing a dollhouse for my granddaughter that was made by my grandfather in the 40s and has been in storage for many years. Each room has an overhead light built into the ceiling. There are 4 push-buttons that used to turn the lights on and off. None of the lights will go on now. Some of the bulbs are broken, but most appear OK.

There is a 110 VAC cord going into the side of the dollhouse. It then goes into a covered panel underneath the house where the 4 buttons are.

I have a few questions:

1. Where can I find replacements bulbs? 2. There has to be a transformer to convert 110 VAC to low voltage and maybe DC? 3. Is it wired in series or parallel? That is, if any bulb burns out, will they all go out?

There are markings on the bulb bases, but they are almost impossible to read. as best I can tell, they say 2.5 V and 0.3 A. One says "GE50".

Here are a couple of photos:

The base is just over 3/8" wide. The base is 1/2" long of which about

1/4" is threaded.

I am guessing that these were flashlight bulbs.

Radio Shack has a bulb that is 2.4 V and 360 mA.

Is this the right bulb? Does this base have a standard name?

Thanks for any help.

[Percival P. Cassidy]

The Radio Shack bulbs are probably close enough, but they might not last quite as long as 2.5V bulbs.

I knew these as MES (= "Miniature Edison Screw") bulbs, but I see that sometimes the abbreviation "MES" is also used for the standard North American 120V bulb base but with the meaning "Medium Edison Screw"; I have always called the latter simply "ES" (= "Edison Screw").

Perce

[Sjouke Burry]

Jennifer Murphy wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I would replace the lamps with 12Volt types. There are very small ones used in car displays, see if a local garage can supply you. Then you only need a 12Volt wallwart as suply, much safer than that 110v cord. Also you could cannabalyze and old christmas tree lightstring for lamps. Count the lights, divide 110 by it, and you know the voltage.

[zxcvbob]

These look closer:

HTH, Bob

[Stormin Mormon]

The old bulbs probably say on them, the volts and amps. Or a part number. I used to (about 40 years ago) have some of these bulbs, and might be able to find them again. It would be very helpful to know what the names / numbers stamped into the side of the metal base are.

Christopher A. Young Learn more about Jesus

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There is a 110 VAC cord going into the side of the dollhouse. It then goes into a covered panel underneath the house where the 4 buttons are.

I have a few questions:

1. Where can I find replacements bulbs? 2. There has to be a transformer to convert 110 VAC to low voltage and maybe DC? 3. Is it wired in series or parallel? That is, if any bulb burns out, will they all go out?

There are markings on the bulb bases, but they are almost impossible to read. as best I can tell, they say 2.5 V and 0.3 A. One says "GE50".

Here are a couple of photos:

The base is just over 3/8" wide. The base is 1/2" long of which about

1/4" is threaded.

I am guessing that these were flashlight bulbs.

Radio Shack has a bulb that is 2.4 V and 360 mA.

Is this the right bulb? Does this base have a standard name?

Thanks for any help.

[Norminn]

There are oodles of lighting gadgets available if you are inclined to upgrade to true-to-scale lighting...DAGS on miniature room lighting. There are loads of hits. Of course, a dollhouse from that time probably wasn't 1/12 scale :o) I inherited a big dollhouse with lots of furnishings and dishes, but folks sold it around 1950ish or so. My mom later took up building miniature rooms of various periods and styles and had loads of 1/12 furnishings and tools. Still have her mini woodworking tools, like tiny spoke shaves and drills. Would love to see pix of the house.

[Jennifer Murphy]

Using your info (#14 flashlight bulb), I was able to find what looks to be the exact bulb at Bulb Town for 2/$1.

They say it's an E10 base.

The eBay listing is for a box of GE-50 bulbs, which is on one of the bulbs I have.

Thanks

[Jennifer Murphy]

... snip ...

Would I have to rewire the whole house? It looks like I can get at some of the wiring underneath the house, but the wires to the sockets look to be inside the flooring.

I found lots of sources for 12V E10 bulbs. Here's one:

Count the lights, divide 110 by it, and you know the voltage.

The house has 9 lights. 110/9 = 12.2.

I'm going to go get a voltmeter.

[Jennifer Murphy]

... snip ...

They sure do. Thanks.

[Jennifer Murphy]

... snip ...

That's what I thought, too, but then the lights should work even if one or more are burned out, broken, or missing, no?

This makes me wonder if there is a break in the wiring somewhere.

Do you mean the right amount of light for the small rooms?

Hmmm..., not likely, but maybe bribery?

I like the idea of LEDs and battries. The 100V wire with children makes me nervous.

Would this require rewiring? I'm not sure I can get at all of the wires.

I see lots of sources for E10 base LEDs.

[Jennifer Murphy]

... snip ...

I could be wrong, but I doubt if it was made to any exact scale. The large 12-pane windows are 2 7/8 x 5 1/4, which is about 1/10 scale.

We are doing a lot of repainting and replacing linoleum and carpet. ;-) When it's all done, I'll see if I can get a good photo to upload.

[Attila.Iskander]

Why not just replace the current fixtures with LED panels ? Some can be attacked in series. You might even be able to light the whole thing up that way.

[Norminn]

I had forgotten what the old dollhouses were like...certainly not to scale. The popularity of miniatures makes lots of electrical gadgets available....compact wiring, transformers, etc. If you are replacing floor coverings, it might be worthwhile to consider hiding new wiring under them, with transformer under the base of the house. When I look at miniatures, I'm always tempted to tinker with them again. Once did wood flooring that looked like oak strip flooring...glued down veneer, scored it to look like planks, stained, then painted on teeny scale wood grain. Fun!

[dpb]

The GE 50 was the Lionel toy train bulb in many of the accessories.

Here's link to an old GE catalog; it has the bulb listed as "toy, train"

Later on there's the data for the bulb...

Not sure of best source; surely there still is one for these things but a google search brought up an auction on eBay for a pack of 10; you may have some luck looking for the toy train bulbs or Lionel.

They're rated at 7.5V and were powered off the "Acc" side of the transformer for the train set. I presume the A/C cord leads to somewhere inside the dollhouse where he hid the transformer.

[notbob]

I was gonna say, "model trains!". Despite the railroads long-ago departure from the public eye, toy trains are still big business. Many a metro hobby shop still caters to the model train crowd. Heck, I live in a rather remote section of the CO Rockies, but a little town

20 miles away has a lone model trains shop. They should have all kinds of light bulbs, either old NIB stock or replacement.

Another source would be commercial model makers. You know, the ppl that make models of new buildings or housing developements. That's a real and thriving business. Myself, I'd rewire the dollhouse for LEDs. Jes butcher up a Christmas tree light string. Not like there's any shortage, right now. ;)

nb

[Nate Nagel]

Do you have any of the original bulbs, or even just the base of one? If so, can you read the Mazda number stamped or printed in the base? I'd check out donsbulbs.com if you can't find an exact replacement anywhere else.

nate

[Jennifer Murphy]

Can you recommend a good voltmeter? I went to Lowes and they didn't have anything that would go below 10 volts.

[HeyBub]

No, the wiring is okay, it's the voltage that's at issue. If you can reach each end of the wire (the power supply and the socket), you're good.

As for the bulbs themselves, you might look at old-fashioned flashlight bulbs.

Good luck on your project - sounds like fun for you and a little girl.

[Nate Nagel]

They will, the "10V" setting on the meter means that the needle (I'm assuming that you were looking at cheap analog meters, which are perfectly adequate for what you're trying to do) will deflect to 100% scale on the 10V setting. Analog meters tend to be most accurate around

50% deflection which would be 5V on that setting, you can still get accurate enough readings in the 1-2V range.

To answer the question you actually asked, Fluke for digital or Simpson

260 for analog, but both are expensive and massive overkill for your uses.

nate

[Nono]

Try Sears. I've got one of their multimeters. It does a nice job on voltage, current, continuity, etc.

Tomsic