[GreenKeys] Telephone Hand Crank Dynamo

[drlegendre .]

As I have come to understand it..

In the very early days, the hand-crank magneto served only one purpose - to
ring a bell down at 'central' (the phone company office) - it did not
supply current for the voice circuit - that was done by the talk battery.
In those days, a local system might have only a couple dozen circuits, at
the most.

When the operator heard you ring-in, they would connect your line to a talk
battery, with their headset (or handset) on the other end of the loop.
You'd then tell the operator who you wished to call, and the operator would
then connect the recipient's line to the operator's crank magneto - and
then the operator would use their mag to ring the bell on the recipient's
phone. In some cases, the operator would connect the two lines at that
time, and allow you to use your mag to ring the recipient's bell, if the
distance was short enough.

Once the recipient answered, the operator would say "call from Ray Morgan"
(if needed) and connect the two lines together on a talk battery loop. The
operator would then listen-in only as needed (...) and when the
conversation was over, they'd re-connect all of the circuits back to the
default jacks.

Please feel free to correct this..

On Tue, Jun 16, 2015 at 7:32 PM, Roy Morgan <k1lky68 at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> On Jun 15, 2015, at 12:01 PM, Howard Weeks <weeksh at att.net> wrote:
>
> > Roy,
> >
> > Those things will produce up to about 80 - 100 volts depending on the
> crank speed and condition of contacts,
> > On 6/15/2015 11:32 AM, Roy Morgan wrote:
> >> Greenkeyers and telephone historians,
> >>
> >> I have acquired a hand crank dynamo of the sort used in ole time
> telephones.
>
> Thanks to all for information about the hand crank telephone dynamotor:
> - 80 to 100 volts
> - about 20 cycles
> - rings a bell or other device at the operators place
> - will bite you if you are careless
> - wil bring worms up from the ground
>
> It’s nice to hear from folks who remember using them (even while standing
> on a chair to reach the thing!)
>
> Roy
>
>
> Roy Morgan
> k1lky68 at gmail.com
> K1LKY Since 1958
>
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