wkb@cbsck.UUCP (William K. Brummett) (01/30/86)
<Eat me, Oh Great First-line Monster>
Greetings,
An aquaintance of mine has asked for some advise on converting an
antique phone he has in his shop into a working, non-dialout extension.
I have not yet seen the beast, but he tells me that it is an old crank-
generator-and-battery-style telephone built by the Kelloggoo(?) company
of Chicago and patented in 1901. (You know, the kind where you lift the
earpiece, wind the crank for a second, lean toward the mouthpiece, and
ask Sarah to connect you to Floyd down at the hardware store.)
The owner is concerned about preserving the original state of the
phone as much as possible, and therefore is not interested in adding
any rotary or push-button dialing mechanism; he only wants to be able
to answer incoming calls on it. He also wants to keep the original
internal parts intact, if only disconnected from the line.
From what little I know (or think I know) about telephones, I told
him he would probably need a network (is that what they call that little
box with all the screw terminals on it?) and a bell. I thought that
maybe these could be mounted where the batteries were originally. But,
beyond that, there are some questions that occur to me that I don't have
answers for:
1.) How do we implement the switchhook functions (and by the way,
just what are these functions)?
2.) Will the original microphone and speaker work? Since I
haven't seen the phone yet, replacing them could range from
trivial to impossible.
3.) With no dialing mechanism connected to the network, will the
phone still work in an answer-only mode?
4.) Is there anything I am overlooking?
I am intentionally distributing this to a wide audience. If there
is anyone in the central Ohio area who is experienced in conversions
like this, either commercially or as a hobby, the owner would be willing
to pay to have it done. Otherwise, any advise or instructions would be
greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance ...
_____VV_____ W. Keith Brummett
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'------' `------`
"Whenever you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains,
however improbable, must be the truth" - S. Holmes, Esq.