I have recently come into possession of a pair of genuine 1970's aerators. I'm posting this up here as I think it could be of interest to a lot of people and wish to gauge that interest for reasons I'll explain a little further down.
Just to give a little background on this, back in 1977 as a young boy a friend of mine saw an afternoon matinee screening of ANH at the cinema and at the time recognised what the parts were on the helmet. After watching said matinee he then got his father to take him to a plumber's merchant where he was bought a set of these aerators and they just sat there in a tub for years.
Sadly he passed away and whilst helping to clear out some rubbish from his house I clocked these parts in a pile earmarked for the bin.
Now what is interesting is that it opened up a couple of previously unknown things about the tips, namely that there was a serated push fit tube on the back of these which fitted into a hose. What is now obvious is that these were cut off from the original backs for the threads to fit through and attach to the helmets.
Another thing that stands out is the internal fitting, in the past I have seen the pictures Gino shared of the hero helmet aerator and the insert appears to be a one piece. It isn't, the middle piece is actually a two piece moulding that fits together. Something else that doesn't seem present on the screen used tips is a black O ring seal.
As you can see from these pictures the colour itself is actually off white, with a definite yellow tinge to the plastic as opposed to an all white moulding. When I first saw this part I actually thought it was a resin cast initially as the colour was very reminiscent of a polyurethane casting resin I use and to be honest I almost dismissed it!
I think it's fairly obvious that these were moulded in different shades of plastic, and that the internal components were also moulded in different colours as Gino himself in the past has stated he had seen a mix of aqua and white.
Another difference to the screen used tips and these is the filtration mesh, this is a different pattern. From what I can ascertain there is a moulded groove on the inside lip and you can see how the mesh was inserted from the inside before being fixed in with an adhesive.
Another interesting thing about these was that he actually had what appears to be the connecting hose that they fit into. When I found the first one it was sitting in the wider end of the tube but I actually think it's supposed to fit in the narrower end and the wider end fitted onto a tap or a tap adapter.
This would make sense of what my friend had told me a while back, that these aerators were tap mixers for hot and cold taps back in the 70's. The tube itself bears a very consistent appearance to how they appear today, they are called rubber swirl mixers and are still in manufacture although not to this exact design. Also the rubber on this is obviously aged and shows signs of perishing particularly at the base where the aerators would most likely connect. I think for this reason the aerator was stuck in the larger end to prevent the narrower part from further deterioration.
So onto the great unanswered question... what I HOVI MIX pa2? Well, on that one I really have no answer I'm afraid. Like most people curious about these I've spent far more time than is healthy trying to track this info down. I've even tried thinking outside the box I case VI is actually roman numerals rather than text! I have asked around several old time plumbers and will continue to do so but for the time being all professional opinion seems to agree that this is actually the part code or name as opposed to a manufacturers name.
One thing that does seem a lot simpler to clear up however is what pa2 means, this is simply the formulation of the aerators' operation. P= pressure, A = area and the 2 is the equal mix of water and air into the nozzle.
So far all attempts to identify a manufacturer have proven fruitless. One thing that does seem conclusive is that this was a UK manufacturer rather than an imported product.
My initial hope was that if somebody I talked to could have identified the part there may have been an outside chance of then finding the company that sold these and then the manufacturer and pursuing the chance the dies could have still been in existence with a view to recommencing manufacture. Sadly this seems to be impossible to bring to fruition.
So, what I have done is what I hope will be the next best thing. I am currently part way through the process of having these parts reverse engineered. At the moment I'm still in the early stages but my plan is to have these parts remanufactured exactly as they would have been back in the 70's. This means having them produced as injection moulded pieces and making them available to the community.
As of yet I'm afraid I can give no further details for the simple reason I don't have any myself at present, but as soon as I know I will be making it known here.
If you would like to see anymore of these then I would recommend you head over to the RS Propmasters YouTube channel.
Just to give a little background on this, back in 1977 as a young boy a friend of mine saw an afternoon matinee screening of ANH at the cinema and at the time recognised what the parts were on the helmet. After watching said matinee he then got his father to take him to a plumber's merchant where he was bought a set of these aerators and they just sat there in a tub for years.
Sadly he passed away and whilst helping to clear out some rubbish from his house I clocked these parts in a pile earmarked for the bin.
Now what is interesting is that it opened up a couple of previously unknown things about the tips, namely that there was a serated push fit tube on the back of these which fitted into a hose. What is now obvious is that these were cut off from the original backs for the threads to fit through and attach to the helmets.
Another thing that stands out is the internal fitting, in the past I have seen the pictures Gino shared of the hero helmet aerator and the insert appears to be a one piece. It isn't, the middle piece is actually a two piece moulding that fits together. Something else that doesn't seem present on the screen used tips is a black O ring seal.
As you can see from these pictures the colour itself is actually off white, with a definite yellow tinge to the plastic as opposed to an all white moulding. When I first saw this part I actually thought it was a resin cast initially as the colour was very reminiscent of a polyurethane casting resin I use and to be honest I almost dismissed it!
I think it's fairly obvious that these were moulded in different shades of plastic, and that the internal components were also moulded in different colours as Gino himself in the past has stated he had seen a mix of aqua and white.
Another difference to the screen used tips and these is the filtration mesh, this is a different pattern. From what I can ascertain there is a moulded groove on the inside lip and you can see how the mesh was inserted from the inside before being fixed in with an adhesive.
Another interesting thing about these was that he actually had what appears to be the connecting hose that they fit into. When I found the first one it was sitting in the wider end of the tube but I actually think it's supposed to fit in the narrower end and the wider end fitted onto a tap or a tap adapter.
This would make sense of what my friend had told me a while back, that these aerators were tap mixers for hot and cold taps back in the 70's. The tube itself bears a very consistent appearance to how they appear today, they are called rubber swirl mixers and are still in manufacture although not to this exact design. Also the rubber on this is obviously aged and shows signs of perishing particularly at the base where the aerators would most likely connect. I think for this reason the aerator was stuck in the larger end to prevent the narrower part from further deterioration.
So onto the great unanswered question... what I HOVI MIX pa2? Well, on that one I really have no answer I'm afraid. Like most people curious about these I've spent far more time than is healthy trying to track this info down. I've even tried thinking outside the box I case VI is actually roman numerals rather than text! I have asked around several old time plumbers and will continue to do so but for the time being all professional opinion seems to agree that this is actually the part code or name as opposed to a manufacturers name.
One thing that does seem a lot simpler to clear up however is what pa2 means, this is simply the formulation of the aerators' operation. P= pressure, A = area and the 2 is the equal mix of water and air into the nozzle.
So far all attempts to identify a manufacturer have proven fruitless. One thing that does seem conclusive is that this was a UK manufacturer rather than an imported product.
My initial hope was that if somebody I talked to could have identified the part there may have been an outside chance of then finding the company that sold these and then the manufacturer and pursuing the chance the dies could have still been in existence with a view to recommencing manufacture. Sadly this seems to be impossible to bring to fruition.
So, what I have done is what I hope will be the next best thing. I am currently part way through the process of having these parts reverse engineered. At the moment I'm still in the early stages but my plan is to have these parts remanufactured exactly as they would have been back in the 70's. This means having them produced as injection moulded pieces and making them available to the community.
As of yet I'm afraid I can give no further details for the simple reason I don't have any myself at present, but as soon as I know I will be making it known here.
If you would like to see anymore of these then I would recommend you head over to the RS Propmasters YouTube channel.
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