The invention of the first multimeter, in the 1920s, is attributed to British Post Office engineer, Donald Macadie, who became dissatisfied with the need to carry many separate instruments required for maintenance of telecommunications circuits. Macadie invented an instrument which could measure amps, volts and ohms, and so the multifunctional meter was named Avometer.

For many years AVO led the field in having a meter which could measure AC voltage andcurrent as well as Resistance and the usual DC ranges.  The Automatic Coil Winder and Electrical Equipment Company (ACWEECO), founded in 1923, was set up to manufacture the Avometer and a coil winding machine also designed and patented by MacAdie. The first AVO was put on sale in 1923, and many of its features remained almost unaltered through to the last Model 8.

There are a number of ways to fit bearings onto motor shafts. Bashing them on with a steel tube, not so tradesman like. Sliding the bearings onto a shaft after expanding them by soaking them in hot transformer oil, effective but messy, and expanding them by electro-magnetic heating as is with this bearing heater. This bearing heater is from the 1980s.

The ETU is sometimes referred to as a pepper and salt union in that its members are sprinkled over all industries. But it all began with the poles and wires.

While the newspapers were warning the general public about this new stuff electricity. “If you see a wire off the pole and on the ground don’t touch it. If possible train your dog to to pick it up…” electrical men were busy installing small private power generators and transmission lines to supply Melbourne city blocks.