CHESTERTOWN — Saturday, as residents and visitors to Kent County enjoyed the farmer’s market on High Street, high school freshman Ryan Helgerman of Gaithersburg walked into Chestertown Electric, curious.
The store’s name might sound like a place to pay a utility bill, but what he found was something entirely different — a place where time, technology and culture merge.
In every corner there’s something interesting to see, from Victorian-era clocks to a hand-crank vacuum cleaner.
Above Helgerman, spun a 105-year-old copper-plated ceiling fan, operating with fluid efficiently. A space heater from the early 1900’s hummed in the corner, generating heat immediately.
Owner of the establishment, David Hoatson describes his shop as a museum where you can buy the items.
“It’s like walking into the Smithsonian and being able to purchase a fossil,” he said, grinning.
Helgerman pointed to what he thought, understandably, was a music box, which turned out to be a Little Edison high voltage coil from 1900.
Hoatson explained it was probably used as a generator for a spark plug in an old farm engine.
Beside that was a Carl Zeiss Carbon Arc lamp from the 1920s. That consists of two carbon rods of differing sizes that create a consistent flame when they touch.
The customer and shop owner had a great time deciphering its uses, browsing online for German words, trying to track the mechanism’s origins. Hoatson is a knowledgeable guide to do so with.
As a mechanical engineer for 35 years, working at AAI corporation out of Cockeysville, throughout his career, he’s conducted military simulations, working on computer graphics. He’s worked on F-35 airplanes, spending much of his time on military bases.
For the past ten years he’s been into sales, restoration and running his museum. After fixing up his first fan, an Emerson from 1918 he bought on eBay, he’s had a steady stream of customers, learning as he goes.
He explained that when he disassembles an item he can see not only how it functions, but insights into the time and culture it was built in.
Case-in-point, Helgerman presented a light socket. There was nothing out-of-the-ordinary really, except it had a key hole on the side.
“So if somebody tries to unscrew it, they can’t steal it,” Hoatson remarked.
Light bulbs in the late 1800’s were a day’s wages for most people, and so like with anything valuable, protective measures were taken.
Another point of fascination was where old technology combined with new technology. For example Hoatson’s Nixie tube clocks are all hooked to the internet.
“I’m using modern electronics using old tubes,” Hoatson said.
The Nixie tubes were made in the ‘60s and ‘70s to put in computers and expensive electronics when they didn’t have LEDs and LCDs. It was the only way people could do numbers, Hoatson explained.
These tiny clocks flashed the time of the day and date.
In the back room, a slot machine from the 1930s caught Helgerman’s interest. While he tried his luck pulling the lever, Hoatson explained that inside the machine are separate shelves with varying thickness for the coins that drop down in mathematical sequence.
As the young man and store owner talked over inventions, Helgerman’s father came in. He too was caught up in the intricate world of the museum. Not only are there inventions, but old maps of the region, Chestertown’s history, documents from the 1800s and much more.
Helgerman told his father, “I’m fascinated by this stuff. What he’s showing is some of the greatest minds of the 1800s. All of this is 130 to 150 years old, and it all works.”
Hoatson shrugged.
“Alot of it just works without having to to fix it up. If I buy a 100-year old ceiling fan, there’s probably a 95 percent chance it still runs,” he said. He added he probably wouldn’t have that luck with a 5-year-old one that has plastic parts and is imported.
Hoatson invited the father and son back, as well as the public, to see him at 324 Cannon St. every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.
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