What do you reckon this did?

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raytaylor

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#150142 12-Jul-2014 15:02

I am guessing some sort of point to point phone between two buildings?
Found it still wired into the wall of a kitchen pantry when installing broadband service at a house yesterday

Ray Taylor

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kiwitrc

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#1087751 12-Jul-2014 15:05

Jeez I remember those batteries, my neighbour when I was a kid was P&T (Post and Telegraph) and used to give me those to do experiments with, some old liney is going to be able to tell exactly what they were for.

DarthKermit

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#1087757 12-Jul-2014 15:18

No idea, but it looks like it belongs in a museum.

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raytaylor

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#1087759 12-Jul-2014 15:21

Wonder if it has anything to do with the original party line that may have gone up the valley

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DarthKermit

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#1087760 12-Jul-2014 15:23

A guy like InstallerUFB will probably know. He's been in telecommunications a long time and would know a lot of that ancient kit.

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Gilco2

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#1087763 12-Jul-2014 15:27

years ago we had something like that. Kept spare batteries for it. Ours was for a loud bell ringer at end of workshop so if you were at back of yard you could hear the phone ringing. Cell phones and cordless phones werent around way back then

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Technofreak

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#1087768 12-Jul-2014 15:37

It could be for almost anything. Though if you say there was an old party line up the valley it could well be the local battery for the phone in the house.

How long since there was a party line? I thought they'd all gone in most places by 2000 at the very latest. When I finished at telecom in 1991 we'd seen the last of party lines in that location (Taranaki) by then.

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InstallerUFB

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#1087770 12-Jul-2014 15:38

raytaylor: I am guessing some sort of point to point phone between two buildings?
Found it still wired into the wall of a kitchen pantry when installing broadband service at a house yesterday

Looks like a Battery Set from what was reffered to as a 'plan wireing' setup - The NZPO had a book of 'plans' that you could use to reconfigure 100type phones (the last type of rotary dial phones use in NZ) by modifying the circuitry (adding switchs and buttons etc) so you could do things like buzz and have a conversation between two phones etc on the same exchange line without the exchange being connected

This was in the day before small pbxs, sbxs, or even interphone was available to private residences, small business etc

The only Plan that we may still refered to these days is an 8A (which is actualy only two ringing circuits (two phones) across the same line but generaly two differnt locations - eg home and down the road @ the cow shed)

BTW those batteres are unsafe and should be disposed of properly as soon as possible

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MikeB4

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#1087772 12-Jul-2014 15:48

old style phone bells

PhantomNVD

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#1087807 12-Jul-2014 17:10

Gotta love the Lino in that cupboard... Home designer could probably date the batteries by using the Lino pattern!

Who needs carbon dating when you have house decorating :)

kiwitrc

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#1087809 12-Jul-2014 17:14

PhantomNVD: Gotta love the Lino in that cupboard... Home designer could probably date the batteries by using the Lino pattern!

Who needs carbon dating when you have house decorating :)

Well spotted, that lino is up there with buzzy bees and pavlova.

linw

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#1087912 12-Jul-2014 22:48

My father was in the Post Office and I remember him half hitching some of those huge cells. Was a damn long time ago, though!

Aredwood

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#1088288 14-Jul-2014 02:09

I was told that those battery's [yes they are batteries, just a big version of torch batteries] were used with crank handle phones. The batteries provided the DC to run the voice. And the crank handle can generate about 50V AC.

I have 2 or 3 old crank handle phones. And managed to get them [sort of] working when I was about 10 years old. Could lift the receivers on both phones and have a conversation. with power coming from a 6V battery. But I didn't figure out how to get the bells in them to ring. Also remember seeing a circuit in an electronics magazine ages ago for linking those phones to the mic and speaker ports on a computer. VOIP on a crank handle phone anyone?

How much would you be willing to sell that battery case for?

Stu

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#1088299 14-Jul-2014 07:54

Although that's possible, I believe in this case they'll be from a plan wiring setup as mentioned by InstallerUFB. From memory they're an Eveready #6 1.5V dry cell. Also from memory, for the old crank handle phones you could use 3 or 4 #6 cells in series (so 4.5V-6V) for voice and they fit inside the phone cabinet. The magneto could actually generate up to ~100V AV to ring the bells (and were used in many pranks). We used to use a couple of the old phones as an intercom when I was a kid too. Not sure if it had any bearing on it, but I actually ended up working for P&T (which became Telecom not too long after I started) when I left school.