Doc Holliday's Battery Charger?

[Bob Boze Bell]

January 16, 2013

So I'm working on Doc Holliday's Last Gunfight, which took place in Hyman's Saloon in Leadville, Colorado in 1884. The esteemed author Gary Roberts, who is the foremost authority on all things Holliday, graciously sent me a photo of the inside and outside of Hyman's Saloon for me to do my artwork from. I believe both photos are courtesy of the Denver Public Library and we are getting clearance for them for the magaizine, but in the meantime, at the risk of copyright infringement, I want to draw your attention to something in the photo that kind of blows my mind. Here is the complete photo:

 

 

Great photo, love the old style, thick glass with the distorted reflections (which is worth a painting in itself), but check out the clock on the pole, in the foreground. What is that sitting at the foot of it?

 

 

Is that an electrical box of some kind? Looks like a battery charger, no? 1884? Could it be? What the hell?

 

"This is funny."

—Doc Holliday

[patrick mark pazen]

I was up in Leadville last summer and 316 Harrison was up for sale. Wouldnt it be great to be able to restore it to its original condition? I think I better buy a lottery ticket, naw I will buy two.

[Flying R]

Its a BOMB...

[Wolfgang]

Patrick . . is there anything left of what it was like in the photo ?  

[Jim Pettengill]

Prototype Roland battery operated guitar amp?  Re/electricity, direct current was around at that time, commercial AC first showed up at Ames, Colorado (south of Telluride) in 1891, IIRC.

 

Sometimes a box is just a box.

[Sue Cauhape]

Are we assuming this photo was taken in 1884? Maybe if it is some kind of electrical device, it dates the photo for a decade of two later. Are the clothes 1884 vintage? Or later? 

[anthony martin]

  Bob,

    I don't exactly know what the box is but it might just be an electrical device.Note the hanging light over the door.At first glance one might just mistake it for a gaslight but note the two wires -it is in fact an early arc light and those had been around for years,even before Edison's incandescent lamp of 1879.

[Buck Grizzly]

Maybe it is part of the photographers equipment.

[Gold Lady]

It's got a leather carrying strap on it.  The box looks like it might have those metal corner protectors on it, like trunks have.  My husband suggested it might be a carrying case for the photographer's glass plates.  It looks about the right size for that.

[patrick mark pazen]

Wolfgang, the front of the building is entirely different. Might make a trip up there when it warms up a little right now its been in the minus 0, would like to get inside the building and take some pictures but will have to see if the realty comp. will let me in.

[Neil Waring]

I think Bob was correct with his first assumption it looks like a battery charger to me. My guess it was for Doc’s horse, more power with a fully charged horse – horse power.

I could be wrong------