GPO Candlestick Problem

[HobieSport]

To cut plaster and wire lathe (or the older wood lathe) you can use a masonry blade mounted on a regular circular saw. It will make a lot of sparks and dust, so wear mask and goggles. To help keep the dust down, you can have a helper hold a vacuum cleaner tube next to the saw as it cuts. Just be sure that you don't cut into any live electrical wires!

[McHeath]

Just be sure that you don't cut into any live electrical wires!

Did that once, it was shocking. 

Okay, bad pun.

Really it was no big deal, the saw was insulated and had a plastic handle so all that happened was the lights went out as it tripped the breaker.

[HobieSport]

Yep, careful as I am with electricity, and always shut down the circuit breakers before doing any household electrical work, I've still accidentally cut live wires a few times. One time was when I was assistant for an electrical contractor. The guy was super smart and was actually (no kidding) an ex-brain surgeon, who got into electrical work as just being much less stressful. So I trusted him with electricity. Heck, it's not brain surgery (Yeah, he got sick of hearing that.)

Anyway, I was under a house and about to cut a wire in the pleasantly claustrophobia encouraging crawlspace, and the boss assured me that the circuit breaker was off. Not. POP! (sparks fly). It turned out that the large wire I was cutting was actually controlled by two circuit breakers for some reason. Anyway, I was fine thanks to insulated pliers (which did not survive the ordeal) and the second breaker tripping itself. Well, I was fine except for the black widow spider who now came out to investigate what all the commotion was about. It got the plier treatment too.

[Stephen Furley]

I once had 415V across me; it was not an experience that I would want to repeat.  I've had 240V about half a dozen times, mainly as a young child taking things to bits to find out how they worked.  I've only had it once as an adult, and that would be nearly 30 years ago now.  I was setting up a portable Xenon 16mm projector.  I connected the cables from the rectifier to the projector, then connected the power cable, but for some reason plugged it in to the mains, and switched on at the socket, before connecting the other end to the rectifier.  The connector at this end was a metal one, with a screw on locking ring, and a Bakelte core.  The Bakelite was cracked, and as I grabbed hold of it a piece broke off, exposing the live conductor.  Nothing since then I tend to be more careful now.  In those days I was young and healthy; now I'm much older, and I suspect that it's quite likely that I wouldn't survive the same thing now.  My heart was better then.

[Dan]

Stephen, can you approximately date our candlesticks for me?  Are they around 1910-1930? That's my generalized guess.

[Stephen Furley]

That seems to be about right.  I think the 150 was introduced in 1924, when it was already rather dated.  The 162 was introduced in 1929, and I would guess that the 150 was dropped soon afterwards.  The 162 used te same bellset circuit as he 150, bt it was actually an anti-sidetone circuit, using a second coil in the 'phone itself.  My 150 seems to have built new in 1927, though the dial is a 1940s one.  My bellset is 1930.  Your telephone seems to have been converted from a No.2, so some parts of it are probably older than mine.  I'm not sure when the No. 2 was introduced, but 1910 is probably a bit too early though.

[Dan]

To 'finalize " this, Bill replaced the wall cord and simplified the hangup switch. He also repaired the subset (coil winding was bad). It came back today. The phone works great and I will add some weight to the receiver since it has an ITT transmitter and not the original one.

Thanks again Bill for all of your time, help, and patience. This forum is a great example of good people helping others .

[Stephen Furley]

Dan,

Glad you finally got it working.  Nice 'phone, and you got it for a good price; well done.

I actually used my one today.  After I sorted out the wiring problem I just picked it up, checked that there was dial tone, and put it away.  About a week ago I took it to work to use in a photo shoot for something, and it's been there since.  Today I got it out and connected it to an analogue port that I've got patched through to my desk for testing.  I made several calls from it over a couple of hours, and received one, which almost made the others in the room jump out of their skin when they heard how loud the ring was.

I've never used one of these before, and never seen one that was still connected and working.  The first thing I noticed about it was that it's too low to use comfortably when it's sitting on the desk, so you have to pick it up, which means no free hand to use for anything else.  I'm used to having at least one, and sometimes two, hands free when using the 'phone (I often use a headset at work).   The next thing I noticed was the amount of noise in the earpiece, loud clunks from both hookswitch and dial, and just general handling noise being picked up by the transmitter; this was much worse than on a modern 'phone.  There was also more sidetone, but I found that this really didn't worry me after a few minutes, I just got used to it.

The overall quality of the sound was pretty good, I've certainly heard worse from much more recent 'phones.  The level of the transmitted sound was also pretty good, it's louder than my 232, and I even managed to access the voicemail system via a hand-held tone caller held to the mouthpiece.

[Dan]

Thanks Stephen. It strickly is a "novelty" piece. It does feel odd not having one free hand available. Even with a WE500 you can cradle it between your cheeck and shoulder and use your hands. I like it and look forward to seeing my son's friends try to work it. (I had to teach most of them how to use a rotary)

Lastly, these are HEAVY! I can see these lasting another century.

[bwanna]

dan   i always love to see those "phone nooks" in the older homes. your candlestick will look cool sitting in yours.

sawz-all is what you need & a hammer. better send the mrs away for the weekend

i've drilled thru a customers power. no damage to me, but smoked my drill bit & left the customer eating dinner by candlelight. it was valentine's day, & they laughed about it. i was mortified, as i had only been on the job about a month.

also being "up the pole" when lightening strikes is a little un-nerving. that was the last time i tried to get the job done before the storm hit. now i just wait them out

[Stephen Furley]

I've made several more calls with the 150 today, and I've noticed that I tend to hold it further from the mouth than I would with a normal handset, and that sometimes causes problems.

[Phonesrfun]

Dan:

I am glad it works.  That was an interesting phone.  I am on the road this week end in Seattle.  I hope to meet up with Brinybay.

[Stephen Furley]

How many of us here have working candlesticks now?

[Phonesrfun]

I think I have 5 that are working.  All Western Electric.

[Dan]

I have one-thanks Bill