On Sun, 08 Mar 2015 10:44:39 -0500, Mike wrote:

On Sun, 08 Mar 2015 14:07:58 +0000, N_Cook wrote:

Where self heating of current through the metal of a bimetal strip to
a heater or some other faily current hungry device, switches in and out
some contacts and so gives some sort of an indirect regulator for the
load. They were still to be seen in the dashboards of cars in the 1980s
and just termed regulators in the car repair manuals.

When used in electric cookers to vary the heating I think they were
called "simmerstats" but I don't know if generic or proprietary...

What were their purpose in dashboards?

I've remembered a possible use. Before electronics-everywhere, the
flashing turn indicators used to use a small bi-metal strip + heater to
flash the power. The heater was in series with the current to the bulbs,
so the changed flashing rate showed that a bulb had blown. The device was
put under the dashboard so the clicking was audible to the driver as a
reminder to cancel the indicator.

But that would not have been described as a "regulator"...

Mike.