WE 2500 Won't Ring on My Work PBX

[gpo706]

Why not treat yourself to an ex-phoneco AVO meter (amps. volts, ohms) - I pick ex GPO units off the bay for about a fiver a pop.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avometer

[Owain]

Why not treat yourself to an ex-phoneco AVO meter (amps. volts, ohms) - I pick ex GPO units off the bay for about a fiver a pop.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avometer

Ah, Macadie of the Macadie Keysender fame!!

[gpo706]

Macadie invented the keysender?

Blimey gonna have google him now, I've seen and used a keysender at a bloke lives in the same town, he's a high end collector, all bakelite stuff (he doesn't do plastic junk like me), we used it to dial his mobile as a test, it is an amazing piece of apparatus.

He gave me a bag of Dictographs and 2 topaz yellow 746's for 10 quid.

http://www.britishtelephones.com/keysend5.htm

[Owain]

Apparently so.

His papers have been aquired by the Science Museum:
Donald Macadie, inventor: papers c1922-53 (MS 2015)

Donald MacAdie, was a Post Office Factory engineer at the time he patented his coil winder and the original Avometer in 1923. It is perhaps no coincidence that the Model 7 Avometer design, introduced in 1936 around the time the PO 3000 relay appeared uses cam operated leaf spring function switches which are very similar to relay contacts, although shorter and narrower. ACWEECO (Automatic Coil Winder and Electrical Equipment Co Ltd) may have been taking advantage of the considerable research into making telephine relay contacts as reliable as possible.

However, although he continued to work for the Post Office until his retirement, Donald MacAdie died in the early 1950s, which I think pre-dates the CT160 design.
http://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/showthread.php?t=63429

See also Tube Testers and Classic Electronic Test Gear (Google Books)

[Wallphone]

For the TCI Members that are interested in the Macadie Keysender, Gary Goff did a nice article on it in June 2005. The article can be found in the TCI Member's Area archives.
Doug Pav

[Owain]

Macadie's US patent is available on Google, with some nice drawings.
Google Patents Keysender for the Keysender and Google Patents Avometer for the Avometer.

Apparently he lived in Wood Green and here's a photo of a Shaftesbury Hall he used as a workshop Bowes Park Tin Tabernacl