The evolution of annunciator signaling for telephones | Hacker News Reader

The evolution of annunciator signaling for telephones

calling315.com

90 pointsKovalick13 comments

Great article! I really love electro-mechanical designs from the birth of electronics up to the 1960s. Using a little hammer to strike two bells is such a simple, cool, and intuitive design. Today it would be replaced with a piezo buzzer or speaker which works, but isn't nearly as interesting.

You don't really see cool little designs like that anymore - it's all almost all digital now. Though I will say YIGs and RF designs are pretty cool in terms of combining mechanical with electrical elements. Maybe it's just nostalgia, but I miss when electronics weren't so standardized. Tube amps, flip displays, tube displays, etc.

I agree with you that electro-mechanical is very cool. Check out Calling315.com for a complete coverage of vintage (relay based) telephone exchanges. The site has 70 articles on switching systems from 1877 until 1970. All for fun...

In The Idea Factory (about Bell Labs) they describe another common method being to shout "Ahoy!" into the phone and hope that this gets the attention of someone near the receiving telephone. I just love the mental picture I get from that.

On the other hand, this forced people to make written appointments for calls. Sometimes I wish that happened more often.

Me and my closest friend stay in near constant touch through text messages (whatsapp).

We know we can call each other on phone any time of any day and the other would nt mind one bit about their routine or focus being disturbed.

Still we plan our calls a week in advance and only have calls once every few months.

Part of the reason must be that async but near-instant communication afforded by messaging apps is enough for 90% of the needs.

Of course this reduces the intimacy of having a real conversation but we are introverts anyway.

Great point! I will add that to the pages on Annunciators. Thanks for the idea!

Me and everyone I know in a professional setting makes written appointments for calls. We write it down in Google Calendar or similar, with a link to where the call is taking place.

You don't?

I text the person to ask if I can call them.

Generating 90 VAC at 20 Hz was a challenge in the early days of exchanges. Check out Calling315.com for more on ringing generators

https://www.calling315.com/ringing-machines

There's a whole history of annunciators for summoning servants.[1] Bells, flags, meter needles, all pre-telephone.

[1] https://1889victorianrestoration.blogspot.com/2011/09/everyt...

It would be interesting to see the wiring configurations behind the early Western Electric catalog pieces covered and how it eventually led to the 2-wire Tip and Ring configuration if that was not used from day-1

PS Little further back maybe but there is a nice outline of how the naval Semaphore system got started in the James Burke Connections (S3E08) [1] -- I was looking for one where he got into circa Roman long distance fire signaling and how they got significant bits to work

[1] https://youtu.be/eJMXgTNKBks?si=FYnncildJpVvq2uU&t=2627

Jimmy, thanks for the comment-- check out Calling315.com for more on the very early days of how the T and R got started. It was JJ Carty of AT&T (1900) that decided to use Tip and Ring and not a single wire and earth ground from each home.

> When the caller operated the Buzzer, it made a sound (at the called side) quite like the horseradish grater automobile signal... and it aroused just the same feeling of resentment which that does.

I would love to hear it!

I suspect this refers to a klaxon horn. Horseradish graters (some of them) were boxes with a crank handle, and a cog wheel (thrumming a metal strip connected to the amplifying horn) was a vital part of klaxons. Awooga.

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