Explosion Proof phone

[Charles Davis]

You just never know what you'll find in an antique store.  Check this out.  It's missing the cradle and it isn't completely functional or assembled, but it seems to be a phone designed to avoid igniting airborne combustibles.

[twocvbloke]

but it seems to be a phone designed to avoid igniting airborne combustibles.

Indeed it is, the amusing thing is they turn up on ebay now and then with the sellers proclaiming they were built to survive an explosion, which they wouldn't, as where they'd have been installed would usually end up flattened, burnt up or completely collapsed...

[TelePlay]

Indeed it is, the amusing thing is they turn up on ebay now and then with the sellers proclaiming they were built to survive an explosion, which they wouldn't, as where they'd have been installed would usually end up flattened, burnt up or completely collapsed...

Yes. indeed, as this phone has been well discussed on the forum and what twocvbloke just said hit me this way - why would anyone have paid all that money for the phone and its installation to keep it from being destroyed in an explosion when the value of everything else destroyed in the explosion would be hundreds, if not thousands of time greater in value.

In other words, "We lost the entire building, it's contents and the staff but we recovered the phone and it's just fine!"   

[NorthernElectric]

...why would anyone have paid all that money for the phone and its installation to keep it from being destroyed in an explosion when the value of everything else destroyed in the explosion would be hundreds, if not thousands of time greater in value. ...

So they can cal the insurance adjuster?   

[19and41]

Should such a set be using a sound powered handset?  It looks good for the part, but I wouldn't think it would be the proper device electrically.

[unbeldi]

Should such a set be using a sound powered handset?  It looks good for the part, but I wouldn't think it would be the proper device electrically.

No, they are actually quite normal telephones, electrically.  The only remarkable aspect about them is that they are designed to limit any dust or gas ignitions possibly caused by the phone to the space inside the phone, rather than igniting the surrounding atmosphere.

In that sense, the term "explosion proof" is rather wrong and was not used in the descriptions of these sets by the manufactures.  In fact they are designed to explode only internally.

Ironically, the Underwriters' Laboratory (UL) classification of them was indeed "explosion proof", IIRC.

Again, the idea is not that the phone shall survive an explosion, but the phone would be the first and only thing to explode.    "Hey, Boss... We had an explosion, we lost five guys, but the phone is still working!."

[HarrySmith]

I have never seen one with a PTT handset. It is not a WE handset and appears to be much older than the phone.

[19and41]

It is a sound powered handset that were most often used in naval and artillery installations.  Not with telephones.