The following discussion is an archived debate of the proposed deletion of the article below. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.

The result was no consensus. No consensus to do anything specific, but I get the impression that merging this content to some appropiate article about Nortel or World War I or commutators would be accepted by most. Sandstein 20:10, 23 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Portable Commutator (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views) – (View log)

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Declined prod. Rationale was "The coverage (references, external links, etc.) does not seem sufficient to justify this article passing Wikipedia:General notability guideline and the more detailed Wikipedia:Notability (companies) (see subsection for products) requirement. WP:BEFORE did not reveal any significant coverage on Gnews, Gbooks or Gscholar." User:DGG asked for additional BEFORE, which I did again, but I am not seeing anything about this device from Northern Electric. There are few passing mentionof a 'portable commutator slotter' (Slotting Tool?) as well as 'portable commutator grinder'. Our totally unreferenced article claims this was a WWI-era tool but I couldn't find any discussion of it (military or otherwise). Finding a single source to confirm this is not a hoax would be a good start. The only thing we have is the fair use (disputable...) picture that claims the photo of this device is included in a "Computer Desktop Encyclopedia". Even if this is true (I couldn't get access to any digitized version of this reference work), it is plausible it doesn't have an entry for this device and the picture is used to illustrate something else. But maybe some with better research could rescue this? _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 07:40, 1 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Military-related deletion discussions. _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 07:40, 1 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Note: This discussion has been included in the list of Technology-related deletion discussions. _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 07:40, 1 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I think I have at least identified the object in the picture,: A commutator is basically mechanical switch for electric currents, usually rotary, and mainly used in old-fashioned DC electric motors to reverse the current so the motor continues to spin. See our article Commutator (electric). They have other uses, not discussed in that afrticle, as electrical switches, in particular for early battery operator telephones, to provide for connecting the master instrument to various telephone stations. A good reference for this is a Western Electric catalog from [1], undated, but I think around 1900-1819. A very common use for potanble electric switching apparatus in military field use, and I found a direct reference from the Canadian wquivalent of Western Electric [2] 'Early Years 1900 - Northern Electric manufactures ... the portable commutator, a one-wire telegraphic switchboard for military field service in World War 1. I know where to go from here, which is United States Army Field Manuals for WWI, but I can't do that much work right now. (I should mention that I am mainly familiar with US manuals for the WWII period, widely available in paper and probably now on line, covering all sorts of military ad general practical specialties. A wonderful PD resource.. Other countries presumably have similar. DGG ( talk ) 09:51, 1 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

• DGG, "a one-wire telegraphic switchboard for military field service". Good start - this would at least define this more meaningfully. Though I don't think the coverage in manuals/catalogs is enough to satisfy GNG. But maybe we can dig out something more? If not, perhaps a section about military portable commutators in the linked Commutator (electric) could be created, but I'll note right now the article is a sub-stub with next to zero meaningful content (so there's nothing to merge). _{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| reply here} 10:04, 1 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

• Keep Obviously not a hoax as it appears in histories of Nortel such as this. Our policy WP:ATD applies, "If editing can improve the page, this should be done rather than deleting the page." See also WP:NOTCLEANUP. Andrew🐉(talk) 17:19, 1 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

• Comment The Commutator (electric) has a section for different types. Seems like a natural place for adding a small blurb about a portable version if nothing else comes up. Maybe ya'll should just merge it and start on the Mercury swivel commutator which is totally unsourced and... freaky? What is that even, a Frankenstein kind of deal? Estheim (talk) 20:10, 15 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

• Comment They are not the same thing. This article seems to describe a communications device, rather than a motor part. I've added a reference. SailingInABathTub (talk) 19:57, 15 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Oh durr, you right. Maybe Electrical telegraph, if not a WL in the WWI section (which isn't terribly robust). Estheim (talk) 20:10, 15 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

• Keep or redirect to Nortel as the content is replicated there. SailingInABathTub (talk) 20:26, 15 February 2021 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page (such as the article's talk page or in a deletion review). No further edits should be made to this page.