Do you recognise this: vintage wooden box for electronics...?

[oneten]

Inherited this wooden box, was hoping someone might recognise it and know what it is used for.

Has slots machined into the top and bottom side of the base, with holes drilled through between the two sides, much like an electronics "breadboard". The lid has GR stamped into the outside, and A223 stamped on the inside of the lid. Note that the hinges had wires soldered to them, and there are terminals still fitted to the outside.

Dimensions: lid is 15cm wide x 20.5cm tall, and box is 14cm deep.


https://i.postimg.cc/dkPhq93t/1.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/9zHTJhGS/2.jpg (https://postimg.cc/9zHTJhGS)

https://i.postimg.cc/2VzWN797/3.jpg (https://postimg.cc/2VzWN797)

https://i.postimg.cc/svwhjGtd/4.jpg (https://postimg.cc/svwhjGtd)


Gut feeling is that it is from early part of last century.

Any ideas?

[goingbush]

It looks like a PMG Inter-switch , has a knob one the front and two bells, with a magneto inside . Dating 1930-40's.

something like this ,

http://www.telephonetalk.com.au/images/ForSale2007/011.jpg

[goingbush]

OOPS, I managed to zoom your photos, its actually an old wooden wall telephone, I can see the hole on the side is oblong , where the switch hooks for the receiver was placed to hang up the call. still has the pair of bells on the front, the other front hole is for the microphone.

[Tins]

I grew up in a house that had one, but it had 8 extensions. There were also bell pushes in all the rooms, but no one ever came, no matter how many times you pushed the button.

It's an old telephone thingy. Lovely, but probably not worth a lot. They were everywhere. We used to have batteries in a box that powered the phone system. How many of you remember that?

[oneten]

Thanks goingbush.

But now you have me wondering what an inter-switch does (I at least know what PMG is), couldn't find a description on the net (except for Cisco fibrelinks, which I am pretty sure it predates...).

[oneten]

I grew up in a house that had one, but it had 8 extensions. There were also bell pushes in all the rooms, but no one ever came, no matter how many times you pushed the button.

It's an old telephone thingy. Lovely, but probably not worth a lot. They were everywhere. We used to have batteries in a box that powered the phone system. How many of you remember that?

Yeah, I didn't think it would be worth anything, inherited was probably the wrong word, it wasn't a formal inheritance, found it in the shed.. :)

It has interested me for a few years but never knew what it was, and had never seen a breadboard created like that until I saw this.

It'll come in handy, can never have too much storage.. :)

[Pedro_The_Swift]

Is it a (PMG) Linesman box?

[oka374]

As Goingbush said it is an old wall telephone case, two bells at the top and a mouthpiece in the large hole towards the bottom. The slot in the side is for the switchhooks where the bell receiver hung.
I used to work on them when I started my PMG apprenticeship and still have one hanging on the wall here.

[JDNSW]

Agreed. A wall telephone box. Commonplace in rural areas in my younger days.

[Bigbjorn]

Definitely a PMG item from the days of manual exchanges. The GR is George Rex. Much government property was marked this way with the monarch's emblem. EIIR was used widely until quite recent times. We had a wall phone in Winton when I was a boy. You cranked the handle and the exchange would answer and ask for the number you wished to be connected to. In major towns the exchange was usually in the post office. In rural areas the exchange was often in someones house and had opening hours. There was an after hours charge if you wished to make calls outside these hours. Relatives farmed near Clifton and the exchange was in a neighbours kitchen. Your listing in a rural directory was by exchange. My rellies were on Narkanda exchange. Talk about obfuscation. Narkanda was a locality name that had fallen into disuse except for the telephone exchange. At Maryvale then the post office and exchange was in the front room of a house. The only public telephone in the village was on the veranda. I remember the big dry cell batteries used to power the phones.

[austastar]

Hi,
And on party lines you could hear the drop in voltage when Flossy Flanelldraws on the next farm was listening in.
Cheers

[4bee]

[biggrin] A pity one couldn't send an HT charge down the line, that may have helped Flossie drop the handpiece or her drawers.


Well, it might have....[smilebigeye]

[oneten]

As Goingbush said it is an old wall telephone case, two bells at the top and a mouthpiece in the large hole towards the bottom. The slot in the side is for the switchhooks where the bell receiver hung.
I used to work on them when I started my PMG apprenticeship and still have one hanging on the wall here.

Would you be able to post a picture of yours? Would love to see what it looked like originally. :)

[trout1105]

We used to be on a "Party Line" in Tenindewa WA and we had a big black bakerlite phone with a windup handle on it.
I can't remember how many rings was our que to answer the phone But everyone's ring sequence was different and yes nosey bastards could listen in if they so desired.

[DiscoMick]

My mother operated a rural exchange with either 12 or 20, can't remember which, of those phones connected to it. In an emergency such as a fire she would plug in all the lines, ring everyone at once, and call everyone out to respond.

[NavyDiver]

If you ever get near Beechworth look at the telegraph museum. Pretty sure you'll find the phone and a lot more.

Telegraph Station - Beechworth (https://www.explorebeechworth.com.au/listing/telegraph-station/)

[Old Farang]

We had one on the farm where I grew up. Hand crank to call the exchange in the village shop. Separate earpiece and the microphone stuck out the from the front of the box. Can't remember if it had the little shelf on it for a notepad. Our number was "6". (not a "party line")

Strange thing with them. It must of been how hard the exchange operator cranked the calling handle at the exchange, because there was a certain "urgent" tone to the bell if there was a callout to a bushfire!

Beware: The exchange was in the post office part of the small village shop. Unfortunately, they employed what appeared to be a nice young girl as an operator. She became my wife after a year or so, but like the telephone is now obsolete and consigned to the scrap heap!

150334

Australian rental telephones 1901-2015 - Old Australian Telephones (https://oldaustraliantelephones.weebly.com/australian-rental-telephones-1901-2015.html)

Somebody reckons they are worth some money:

Vintage Magneto Telephones, ex PMG British Erricsson (two) | Collectables | Gumtree Australia Kingston Area - Mentone | 1206782761 (https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/mentone/collectables/vintage-magneto-telephones-ex-pmg-british-erricsson-two-/1206782761)

[rick130]

I'm still laughing at that last line above!

IIRC Bundarra had the last manual exchange in NSW where you needed to crank the handle to ring the exchange to get a line.
A friends farm had one of the bakerlite phones, had to use it a few times over 30 years ago.

[goingbush]

On of my first real jobs whilst I was a Telecom apprentice was a field trip to Hopetoun Vic for a month, we apprentices stayed in the Pub on TA (yay) They old Manual plug & cord exchange was getting upgraded to crossbar & I had a lot of fun changing Magneto phones & battery boxes for rotary dials , Bagged quite a good collection too, mind :) .

[jonesfam]

My Old man was a PMG Tec, Superving Tec from memory. He started as a Telegraph Boy & worke his way up.
He Had PMG Land Rover, Built "Secomb" sites (I Think) & after a huge cyclone went through the Whitsundays he had to re-build all the island exchanges.
He collected old phones & repaired them. We had a manual exchange & he was originally sent to Proserpine to install the auto exchange. Our number was 323 (not a bad memory from when I was 10) but generally you just asked for who you wanted by name.
He used to collect old phones & repair them, I remember Mum used them as door stops.
He also built his own stereo. I don't know why but I recall helping him hammer a steel pole into the ground which he connected lots of wires to.
He was a great bloke, I wish I had known him longer.
Jonesfam

[Tins]

The wonderful days of party lines.

[Tins]

EIIR was used widely

EIIR? Really? Not arguing, I just don't recall seeing it. I always thought it was Elizabeth Regina. Could make these more valuable:

150357

Part of a set of cutlery commemorating the Coronation of King Edward.... Some of you will know that it never happened, as he formally abdicated in favour of his brother Albert, who took the name George, the George Rex that Bigbjorn mentioned.

[JDNSW]

Yes - EIIR was widely used, especially in the first couple of decades of her reign. Probably still a lot of them about, especially on buildings etc - I can think of quite a few "VR" ones even round here.

[oka374]

Another few pics of the one we have mounted on the wall at home, I restored it probably nearly thirty years ago and it worked fine until the NBN ;-)) couldn't be bothered to mod it to work with the NBN as standing in one place to talk on the phone wears pretty quickly.150557150558150559150560

[4bee]

as standing in one place to talk on the phone wears pretty quickly


Certainly would cut out the Telstra Waltz that people on their Mobiles do. God, some must walk miles while chatting to their girlfriend not to mention being tripped over while aimlessly 'dancing'..[biggrin]

3' is your lot.