chittur@cb.ecn.purdue.edu (Venkatesh K Chittur) (05/17/89)
I have an old Western Electric (AT&T) telephone; it's touch-tone, trimline, with the lighted-dial-in-handset. I'd bought it right after the breakup of AT&T, when they were actually selling the same phones they used to rent out. It has a mechanical bell ringer, with a lever under it, that can be moved to make the ring softer or louder. The problem is, I find it too loud even at the lowest setting. I have a separate ringer-silencer, but I'd rather be able to use the ringer at a lower setting. I opened it up and looked at it, but it seemed like *all* the parts would have to come apart before the ringer comes out of the assembly inside! Obviously, I'm not sure if I can put it all back together (even if I manage to get it all apart without snapping a few things!), and am wondering if there is an easy way that someone already knows about... Please email if possible; post if you can't send mail. Thanks in advance! (all appropriate words used are trademarks of the appropriate companies, people, blah blah blah...) -- Venkatesh K. Chittur (chittur@ecn.purdue.edu, pur-ee!chittur) "Anything good in life is illegal, immoral of fattening." "Anything that does not fit into one of the above categories causes cancer in laboratory animals." (source unknown)
ken@cs.rochester.edu (Ken Yap) (05/17/89)
Put it under a pillow. Sorry... :-)
rom@xor.Sun.COM (Achyutram Bhamidipaty) (05/17/89)
I had a similar problem with a phone with a mechanical ringer What I did was to tape some paper onto the bell where the clapper contacted the bell - this made the phone much quieter, but I did not have much control over changing the volume - short of opening the phone up again and messing with the paper. Hope this helps
greg@bilbo (Greg Wageman) (05/18/89)
Fold a piece of paper many times until you have a paper V, and wedge it between the bell and the housing. The phone will now buzz instead of ring. Longish .signature follows. Skip now. Greg Wageman DOMAIN: greg@sj.ate.slb.com Schlumberger Technologies UUCP: ...!uunet!sjsca4!greg 1601 Technology Drive BIX: gwage San Jose, CA 95110-1397 CIS: 74016,352 (408) 437-5198 GEnie: G.WAGEMAN ------------------ "Live Free; Die Anyway." ------------------ Opinions expressed herein are solely the responsibility of the author.
onymouse@netcom.UUCP (John DeBert) (05/19/89)
If the telephone is a desk set, i.e., an ATT 500 or 2500, there is a small spring clip on the ringer loudness adjustment that keeps it from being moved to the last position which completely silences the bells. Pulling that clip back from the detents allows you to silence the ringer. Also, by bending the wire that the clapper is mounted on, the tone and loudness can be changed. Experimenting with both the loudness adjustment and bending the clapper can produce a suitable range of loudness for the bell. (BTW, the bell in the 500/2500 sets are the dual bell type. ) J DeBert onymouse@netcom.UUCP