Phone Jack

[blueheels2]

I assume this is some kind of floor jack from the 50’s?

 

[blueheels2]

Wires are black and orange. No bigger than a 16awg.

 

[blueheels2]

Says Edwards 1872. Can see this is Edwards Signaling Co.

 

[hbiss]

From that picture I can't see how it's installed or where it is. That wood is the floor? What kind of building? Edwards would indicate some kind of signaling system.

-Hal

 

[LarryFine]

It looks like the back of a doorbell buzzer.

 

[blueheels2]

It’s in a home built in the 50’s. This was Screwed to the floor in the center of the dining room. The wires run along the floor about 2’ and then disappear in a hole in the wood. There is a mechanical space under it but I couldn’t find the wires under there.

 

[JFletcher]

Not a phone jack. Around here anyway, back then the phone company itself did the internal wiring, they used biscuit jacks mounted on the baseboard and would have never have mounted something in the middle of the floor like that, especially with a '3 screw head triangulation'.

The wire colors are also wrong for Bell wire, the primary pair is red and green, secondary pair would have been black and yellow. And they would have been smaller than 16 gauge.

Sewag, maybe a footswitch to buzz somebody in the front door. Maybe a buzzer... The location and the way it is mounted tell me it is a grandpa special and nothing that was original to the house.

 

[Little Bill]

Wealthy people with a buzzer or bell to contact the servants while at the dining room table?

 

[zbang]

Wealthy people with a buzzer or bell to contact the servants while at the dining room table?

If it's an upscale house, it could very well be a servant-call button.

 

[blueheels2]

This was definitely upscale. Was a mansion for this area in the 50’s when built. When the upgrades are done it will be again.

 

[LarryFine]

I'd say tracing the wires would be the next investigative step.

 

[JFletcher]

Before you go romping about trying to trace the wire, if the homeowner or GC superintendent is around, might inquire with them as to its purpose. Or a short walk around looking for the switch and transformer

 

[GoldDigger]

It was probably used to shake the table or make noise during seances. :angel:

 

[grich]

It was probably used to shake the table or make noise during seances. :angel:

LOL...my late MIL sat in one of the theatre seats rigged up to shake during the blackout scene of "The Tingler" with Vincent Price. According to the interwebs, the movie distributor rigged certain seats with war surplus aircraft deicer motors, controlled from the projection booth. She was NOT amused...years later, we gave her a copy of the movie and she threw it back at us. :lol:

 

[blueheels2]

Tough to say where it goes. Directly below this device is a mechanical space with a finished tongue and groove ceiling. Lots of low voltage in this space for boiler controls and who knows what else. Most of that is coming out in the next month or so.

 

[MichaelGP3]

Edwards

Edwards

Based on the manufacturer, it could be a heat detector.