Hello,

My house was built in 1922.

Attached is a photo of part of the phone system that is still in use. The basic questions I have are...

What is it? & How does it work?

Thanks,
Mike

 

I have looked at the photo and I believe the item pictured is a fuse holder. The two red cylinders are the fuses. I seem to recall that each of the two incoming lines from the phone company have a fuse associated with them.

hgmjr

 

It could be a lightning arrestor or a coil. I'm just not sure. I'd have to see all the writing on it and also ohm it out.

 

Dunno about other countries, but over here it used to be that the incoming phone line had to have the RING signal separated (via a DC blocking capacitor) and run as a separate 3rd wire once it got to the house. This used to be done at the first socket (master) and all other "3" wire sockets were the Slaves. The Master socket also had the surge arrestors.
Perhaps what you are looking at is something that does an eqivelent job..? Dunno. Only way to tell would be to trace it out, and do some testing.

 

All,

Thanks for the help.

It turns out mrmeval was right. I did some more searching based on the suggestions...And it turned out to be a Western Electric lightning arrestor, model 98A. I found a few for sale on ebay and an antique phone parts store...

Anyway, thanks again...

mesinmn