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Frequency Ringer Identification Markings?

Started by TelePlay, December 09, 2017, 10:12:44 PM

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TelePlay

Working with a frequency ringer. At 20 Hz, I get clapper movement but weak. Moving the gongs fully inward, I get a soft ring. My first thought is the ringer is near 20 Hz or a near a harmonic of 20Hz.

While cleaning the reed area, I noticed stampings on the reed holder. Within the circle, there is a large "3" and above that what looks like "54 ~" possibly indicating this to be 54 Hz frequency ringer. A 54 Hz ringer would be near the 3rd harmonic of 20 Hz and as such some movement of the clapper,

Has anyone else looked closely and seen these types of stamping, or does someone know for sure and can confirm the companies that produced frequency ringers use these stampings to identify the ringer?

scottfannin

An old and oddly unanswered message.  But might as well....  I made an annoying discovery last night around 3:00 a.m.  It seems that while almost every ringer I had collected would ring with a magneto, at least to some degree (many just kind of vibrated a little), only a few would ring with the wall jack current.  And one that failed actually had a ~66 on it, which I, too, assumed is a frequency, which is why I was searching here.  It vibrates on the magneto with no capacitor.  It does nothing at all with the wall current and a 0.47 uF capacitor.  (I guess I could test smaller values but I didn't).  The obvious conclusion, which I hadn't thought of previously, for some certainly dumb reason, is that the old big coil ringers have the same thing as the smaller ones in say, a Monophone.  They come in frequencies for party line use.  Ugh.  I guess I do still get a variety of frames, magnets, clappers, screws, etc. out of the "bad" ones.  But now I know why I've seen some complete units with "modern" ringers placed inside.  Ugh.  And thinking about it...which time period phone is extra-likely to have been on a party line....