[GreenKeys] Telephone Hand Crank Dynamo

Wed Jun 17 10:57:36 EDT 2015

That procedure might work on people who had individual lines but even in 
the 70's and 80's there were still multiple residences on a single 
line.  When i worked for SW Bell in the 70's one of the things i did was 
splicing work.  I spliced hundreds of miles of cable ends together to 
make a new network for hundreds of rural customers.  The reason was to 
offer them a step upwards from the 8 party lines most subscribed to to 
either single res. telephone service, two res. service or 4 party lines, 
no longer 8 but they could keep their 8 party facility and share it with 
3 other people if they wanted to in order to keep their cost down.  I 
didn't understand that one but the big boss said ok, just do the 
splicing and then cut them over to the service they want.  We'll take 
care of the billing.

All the old crank phones were long gone but most people kept theirs 
stored in the garage or in the barn someplace. We had one of them crank 
things when i was living in Ohio back in the 40's. If you wanted to talk 
to someone on your own 4 or 8 party line you rang the operator.  She 
said to hang up and she would ring the other party that we wanted to 
talk to.  After the called party answered, you had to be standing by to 
pick up the handset at your house, you would then pick up your handset 
and commence to talk. You always waited a few seconds after their phone 
quit ringing before you picked up your handset.  Course if you head the 
phone ringing some other party's ring, there was nothing to keep Grandma 
from picking up the receiver and listening in to see what the local's 
were talking about.  But yes, you had to ring "Central" and then she 
would ringback the people on your line you wanted to talk to.

Nowadays the network has changed around so much that i'm not sure how 
they do it.  They may not even offer 4 party service anymore, even for 
rural customers because of the cell phone coverage. Those were good days 
in the telephone industry.

Larry
W0OGH

EX-Bell outside and inside plant Tech.

On 6/16/2015 7:37 PM, drlegendre . wrote:
> 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 
> <mailto:k1lky68 at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>
>     On Jun 15, 2015, at 12:01 PM, Howard Weeks <weeksh at att.net
>     <mailto: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 <mailto:k1lky68 at gmail.com>
>     K1LKY Since 1958
>
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