Posted by John Wilson on April 11, 2001 at 14:27:53 from 202.154.130.192:
In Reply to: Re: Electricity at Holly Howe? posted by Pete Gerrard on April 11, 2001 at 13:08:22:
Re Jon’s comments of 04/10 on phones of the 40s and 50s, they did not require mains power unless there was a business interconnecting or interphone system, which was a cheaper alternative to the PBX or Private Branch Exchange system but with large multipair cables.
Many rural phones used to have a “hand-crank” to call the manual exchange but this was an AC generator not a DC dynamo. It rang the exchange (and other bells on the same party line). The phones also had two (usually) 1½ volt “No 6” large dry cells (DC) for speech, instead of getting power down the line from the 50-volt exchange battery.
But in PP Captain Flint joggles the switch-hook to call the exchange and Colonel Jolys, thus Fellside manual exchange is common-battery (ie in the exchange) and the phones do not have hand-cranks or batteries. There would have been an overhead telephone line on poles to Beckfoot (or a buried cable), but as I don’t think the British Post Office allowed power lines on their poles any power lines would need seperate poles.
In Taqui Altounyan’s description of Lanehead (chapter 14 of "In Aleppo Once") she says the telephone was in the Lamp Room on the ground floor where oil lamps and candlesticks were brought down from the bedrooms for cleaning (could this imply electric light downstairs?).
PS about party lines: They were usually code ringing eg a short and two longs (ie morse code; for a manual exchange given by letters eg 147D, 2580K) although automatic exchanges used to have selective ringing for two-party and some four-party lines. In suburban Wellington, New Zealand in the fifties my parents first phone was Wellington No 48-960 shared with the Osmans on the corner and someone else. Four-party; the black phone had a box on the wall with one button for ordinary calls and one for revertive calls to someone else on the same line - if you just dialled their number you would get “busy” of course. Prewar “rotary” telephone exchange equipment, made by Western Electric, Antwerp. And yes, we have the REN (Ringer Equivalent Number) system in NZ for extension phones now.