ECN Electrical Forum - Discussion Forums for Electricians, Inspectors and Related Professionals
ECN Shout Chat
ShoutChat
Recent Posts
Increasing demand factors in residential
by gfretwell - 03/28/24 12:43 AM
Portable generator question
by Steve Miller - 03/19/24 08:50 PM
Do we need grounding?
by NORCAL - 03/19/24 05:11 PM
240V only in a home and NEC?
by dsk - 03/19/24 06:33 AM
Cordless Tools: The Obvious Question
by renosteinke - 03/14/24 08:05 PM
New in the Gallery:
This is a new one
This is a new one
by timmp, September 24
Few pics I found
Few pics I found
by timmp, August 15
Who's Online Now
1 members (Scott35), 297 guests, and 18 robots.
Key: Admin, Global Mod, Mod
Previous Thread
Next Thread
Print Thread
Rate Thread
Page 2 of 3 1 2 3
#142980 04/22/05 09:01 AM
Joined: Dec 2001
Posts: 2,498
T
Member
Even though the number of components is just about the sane the schematics look a lot more complex than those of our W48 phones from the same era.
5 wires to the dial... ours had four, later ones only three. Our rotary dials basically consist of 2 switches. One is open at idle and closes when the dial is turned. The other one is closed in idle an opens while the dial spins back, generating the dial pulses. The correcr technical term for rotary dial was and still is "number switch". The more familiar term is "dial disc".

A few weeks ago I took apart two W48 phones and did loads of measuring to find a fault. I eventually tracked it down to all dial wires being swapped over.
The only common problems with those phones are faulty microphones and handset cords with broken strands. Everything else is inestructible. The cap is only 1 microfarad here IIRC.
The oldest W48 models (mine is from 1949) had a braided cloth handset cord and plastic line cord (three wire for single line phones, th third wire was earth where required, party line phones had a 10 wire cord). Later 50ies models had a round cloth cord for both hand set and line (maybe mine had a cloth line cord originally too, the dial was definitely replaced at some point in the 1970ies or later) and from about 1959 on they had black plastic cords.
Our W48 is in regular use, every visitor jumps upon hearing it ring... I have to admit though, sometimes it even makes _me_ jump when ringing close to me unexpectedly.

Think I already told the story of the Zylmurbafi dials...

#142981 04/22/05 05:18 PM
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 7,520
P
pauluk Offline OP
Member
Quote
Actually Paul, modifying a 332 to work on modern style phone jacks is quite easy
Yep, didn't mean to say they were difficult to modify electrically for the modern system. It was a reference to Trumpy's joke about trying to terminate an old braided cord into a modern BT plug which I said I wasn't even going to attempt.

When the modular jacks were introduced in the 1980s there were many 746 phones in service, and we used to modify these in a similar way by adjusting the straps and fitting a new cord. It was a pity that the latter didn't come in all the colors to match the phones.

Quote
I don't know how hot BT are on this anymore, they *used* to insist everything complied to BS something or other, but these days it seems pretty much standard to use north amercian equipment,
There was a huge difference between the official position and what happened in practice. I was hooking up all manner of U.S. modems and homebrew equipment to the lines 25 years ago, and never had any queries or problems. If nothing caused any trouble, it was unlikely to be detected. You may remember that there was a lot of imported equipment with the big red "PROHIBITED" triangle on sale in the mid-1980s, just after the red-triangle/green-dot system was introduced in fact. I'm sure nobody would have dreamed of using it...... [Linked Image]

Quote
Speaking of old jacks, the 316 switchboard plugs are *incredibly* well made by modern standards, the things are a pleasure to connect to. Pity nothing uses 1/4 inch connectors anymore.
Yep, and compared to modular plugs also something of a Captain Scarlett connector -- Indestructible! (Well, almost!) [Linked Image]

How many times do you find a new BT plug with the locking tab broken off? They're worse than RJ11s in this respect. No surprises for guessing that I prefer the old 4-prong American plugs over RJ11 too.

Quote
Our rotary dials basically consist of 2 switches. One is open at idle and closes when the dial is turned. The other one is closed in idle an opens while the dial spins back,
As you can see from the schematics here and in the other thread, GPO dials generally had two sets of off-normal contacts, although the exact way they were wired varied on different models.

Quote
party line phones had a 10 wire cord).
Due to the relay box to ensure privacy that you've described before?

Quote
Our W48 is in regular use, every visitor jumps upon hearing it ring...
Amazing isn't it? People are now so used to beepers and (Ugh!) cellphone tunes htat they jump when they hear a real bell. Unless they're old phone fanatics, not that I would know any, of course.... [Linked Image]

Quote
Think I already told the story of the Zylmurbafi dials...

Had to refresh my memory on that one. And for ECN newcomers, here's the story:
https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/Forum9/HTML/000287.html


[This message has been edited by pauluk (edited 04-22-2005).]

#142982 04/22/05 09:41 PM
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 1,253
D
djk Offline
Member
Just thought this was a weird sight in Dublin

[Linked Image from worldpayphones.com]

Dublin payphone operated by ITG (bought out by smarttelecom)

Never seen a US style payphone this side of the atlantic before!

#142983 04/24/05 03:24 PM
Joined: Aug 2001
Posts: 7,520
P
pauluk Offline OP
Member
Looking at the cement around the base of the pedestal and the adjacent patch next to it in the road, it doesn't look as though that phone has been there very long.

I see it didn't take long for the graffiti and stickers to appear though. [Linked Image]

#142984 04/24/05 04:16 PM
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 1,253
D
djk Offline
Member
We had a bit of a "street war" between payphone operators as apparently there is and may still be signifigant money to be made out of credit card and coin calls made by non-mobile carrying tourists and immigrants, students etc who may not want to make a call at mobile rates back home.

For a while we had at least 3 payphone operators, other than eircom (the former PTT) operating payphones in lucrative areas like city centres, airports etc.

However, the bottom must have dropped out of the market as they've all pulled out the country's third phone company Smart Telecom now have all of the non-eircom sites. They replaced all of the other operators equipment (including those US phones as far as I'm aware) with red totally branded Smart Telecom units.

I seriously doubt that either eircom or smart make much money out of the actual use of the phones but they do provide a very high profile on-street public presence for their brands and logos.

Eircom are required, under the terms of their universal service obligation, to continue to provide payphone service. However, in many place which would have had multiple payphones (e.g. back-to-back payphone stands or clusters of kiosks) they've cut back to just a single heavily branded booth with a multipayment phone. In rural areas some of the phones now only accept credit cards.

The eircom callcard (chip based phonecard that has been around since the mid 1980s) apparently still exists but I have no idea where you can purchase them!

Also, in the city centre areas phone kiosks have started to become WiFi hotspots.

I think the payphone, after a century of service, has finally come to the end of its useful life!

#142985 05/06/05 01:09 PM
Joined: Dec 2002
Posts: 1,253
D
djk Offline
Member
Any of you guys fancy a mobile Western Electric 500 handset for your mobile? [Linked Image]
http://www.firebox.com/index.html?dir=firebox&action=product&pid=1044

[Linked Image from theregister.co.uk]

Click the link above to find out more.

It'd look a bit weird, but might be catch on if it cuts down on the radiation exposure from a GSM handset [Linked Image]

#142986 05/07/05 08:00 PM
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,443
Likes: 3
Member
LOL Dave!,
From the site,
Quote
Because despite a relentless stream of mobile telephonic innovation, talking on the phone just isn't as satisfying as it used to be. For starters you can't slam a mobile down in disgust, chuck the receiver skywards in delight, or re-enact your favourite 'This is the Sweeney, sunshine, and we're comin' ta get ya!' TV moment.
[Linked Image]

#142987 05/08/05 01:57 AM
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 354
K
Member
I remember my brothers and I having hours of fun on those old telephones by dialling the dial right round and as it was spinning back tapping the hang-up button a couple of times. 5 times out of 10 this would get us a crossed line and we could listen in on peoples conversations and insert comments of our own. That was hillarious. We did this while Mum & Dad were busy watching "The Sweeney".

I saw a guy talking on one of those old hand-sets in a cafe a while ago and I thought he was bananas, until I saw that it was plugged into his mobile ! ! I asked him about it and he said he'd made it himself.

#142988 05/08/05 07:34 AM
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 1,803
Member
The Sweeney*!! - Jack Regan, on his 'Manor' shouting "Shut it!*" every two minutes, all the villains ('the slags'*) saying things like "It's a fair cop, Gov'nor*", or "Leggit!*- It's the Old Bill!*", the Ford Cortinas attempting curves before bowling over the camera crew! Happy days!
---------------
* Sweeney (Todd) = Flying Squad, part of New Scotland Yard, in cockney rhyming slang,
Manor = a police precinct.
shut it! = be quiet please.
It's a fair cop!= You caught me red handed, constable!
Guv'nor= a Senior Police Officer
slag= criminal,(sadly now just loose women.)
Leggit = run!
Old Bill = a police officer.


Wood work but can't!
#142989 05/08/05 08:14 AM
Joined: Jul 2002
Posts: 8,443
Likes: 3
Member
Hey Alan,
Wasn't that the series with John Thaw in it?.
Last time I saw it was in 1979 here and the lead character was getting straight whisky poured down his throat, by some thugs.(Not sure what the idea was behind that, certainly not a night out on the town)
Nice to see a guy in France that hasn't forgot where he came from. [Linked Image]

Page 2 of 3 1 2 3

Link Copied to Clipboard
Powered by UBB.threads™ PHP Forum Software 7.7.5