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Western Electric RingersIf you've ever heard the sound of an old mechanical telephone bell that was used in the telephones prior to the Bell System divestiture, you probably remember how loud they could be compared to today's telephones with those wimpy, sissy, lame, bird-chirping electronic "ringers". Those brass bells sure got your attention when they rang! On this page we will be presenting various bells made before the days of the "poor-excuse-for-a-bell" piezoelectric trash we are forced to buy today. I've included some high-resolution digital photos of bell assemblies and their components.
P-Type Ringer Information The "P" type ringer consists of one steel or brass gong, a lever-position loudness control, a bias spring for adjusting bell sensitivity, a permanent magnet, an electromagnet, a brass clapper ball and iron core for concentrating the magnetic fields. It was designed to be much more compact than the "C" type ringer for use in the model 2554 wall phone, Princess phone and Trimline phone among others. The following (slightly edited) was contributed by Rodger Hart, a visitor to this website:
P-type ringer - The "P" type ringer has only one gong and was used in the model 2554 wall phone, Princess phone and Trimline phone among others.
C-Type Ringer Information The "C" type ringer consists of two brass gongs, a stepped-cam loudness control, a bias spring for adjusting bell sensitivity, a permanent magnet, an electromagnet, a brass clapper ball and iron core for concentrating the magnetic fields. It was used in the model 500 and 2500 standard desk telephones and the 554 wall telephone among others.
Below are links to my digital photographs of vaious parts of the C ringer assembly to help you identify the various parts of the ringer and functions/adjustment: Strong bias (high notch) position - Use this position if you have "bell-tap" problems. "Bell-tap" is when a voltage spike on the phone line causes the bell clapper ball to hit one of the bells causing a quick "ding" sound. Voltage spikes can be from nearby lightening strikes, a rotary dial phone on the same line that is dialing a number, or going on or off hook. Weak bias (low notch) position - Use this position if you have a lot of phones hooked up to your phone line. The added loads of many phones weakens the ringer current from the central office so by setting it on the low or weak position, it takes less energy from the central office to make the bell ring.
#7 SERIES WESTERN ELECTRIC RINGERS #7 bells and buzzers are all low voltage AC or DC devices. The voltages are listed in many WECo catalogs. According to catalog 12T for buzzers:
7A and 7E were typically used in key telephones systems @ 18VAC. 7C was typically used in early 1A key telephone systems without lamps where the only source of power for ICM talking and signaling was (3) #6 dry cells (total 4.5 Volts). 7F is commonly used as an alarm bell in 48VDC PBX equipment. Note: The above descriptions were provided by Steph Kerman.
BSP sections on ringers:
C-Type Ringers
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