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Switches?

Started by sebbel, March 20, 2012, 09:46:50 PM

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sebbel

Hi,
I found those 3 today. I managed to get the N500GC for 20$ but the seller didn't want to sell the switches. He did however le me borrow them so I could have a closer look. I'm really intrigued as to what the are and their purpose. Does anyone have any information on those?

Seb.

Phonesrfun

The two switches shown are very typical of general purpose telephone switches of the early part of the 20th century, although they were routinely used well into the mid 20th century. I.E. the 1950's and so forth.

Switches of that type were used in rows inside switchboards, but they were also used routinely in single applications and when they were used singly, they were often mounted in wooden cabinets like the two you have there.

Typical applications would have been to switch a single phone between two lines; switching ringers in and out of a circuit; as an exclusion key to keep listeners from extensions from being able to listen in while another is on the phone; switching a phone line from a business location to an answering service.

In addition to the above uses, the switches could have been used for non-telephone related applications that were for low voltage DC circuits, including telegraph or other low voltage uses.  These switches were very much all-purpose in nature.

The other box you have there is a local battery magneto subset, including the ringer, magneto, capacitor and an inductor.  That one is not a switch.
-Bill G