Anyone collect other electro-mechanical/electronic items?

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Got some old fire alarm equipment - pull boxes and bells and horns, as well as some neat old fire extinguishers. I also got some typewriters and sewing machines.
 
No Jason, I gave it away after repairing it, (The thrill was gone!) on Freecycle a few months later.
Do you want me to look for a CTC-48 for you around here? I might be able to find those Kenmores you have been looking for as well.
 
Here they are

Not much of a collection yet, but I am hoping to collect some more. I found a holy grail item on ebay I am also hoping to acquire. You can hear the big horn on Youtube, but mind you, you don't want the volume up very much. It's LOOOOUUUUD!

 
More old appliances.

I have about 30 radios from 1937 to the mid 60s. You gotta love the tubes! My best is a 1937 Philco Cathedral model 37-60. It is beautiful, well engineered, and it sounds great, too bad there's nothing good on AM here. I also have a Western Electric 302 telephone and a Candlestick telephone with an added dial (no buttons!). I also have a few fans, mostly GE with a '54? Vornado. I fixed up a 1928 Underwood #5 typewriter, and I have a '76? correcting IBM Selectric II typewriter. All that I have, I use.

My favorite sites include:
www.fancollectors.org Antique Fan Collectors Association (AFCA)
www.hudsonscustommachining.com A machinst and AFCA member who supplies lots of fan parts and can make lots more.
www.phonecoinc.com Parts for Bell System phones.
www.sundialwire.com Brand new, mostly UL-rated cloth-covered electric wire and cords.

In order to keep using old appliances, you have to maintain them :)

Keep em coming,
Dave
 
The Time clocks--does anyone use 'em anymore-used one of those at one workplace.And the IBM Executive typewriter-Typed out many a transmitter log on 'em-the station had two-one for the AM transmitter logs and the other for the FM logs.One time some mice built a nest in the type basket-was a surprize when typing the morning log after sign on!!Mice jumping out of the typewriter!!They were green in color.I wonder if those typewriters are still there??Wouldn't surprize me if they are in the building somewhere.
 
Cap, I work for Ma Bell and one of our buildings locally is full of Merlins still in use. These are on an ISDN system--a total nightmare to provision as I can attest to first hand. I'll soon be moving to that building and using a Merlin on a daily basis. At my current desk I've got a Nortel M5316 "EBS" phone and I do like its functionality but again, it's a provisioning nightmare.

On the home front, in my guest room I have an old 202 oval base dated 1931 running through a bell box that I'm thinking is even older as it has wooden terminal blocks. I have a stash of 302's as well, a couple of them with metal cases and brown cloth cords, most of which include the letter "Z" on the dial faceplate, but I have no place to put them. Once I get my home office set up the way I want it, I'll have my early model 500 desk phone from appx 1950 wired up for use there.

These old phones are great, they were never designed to be throw away items like modern phones are. Ma Bell strikes me as the world's original recycler, refurbishing and re-deploying phones for over 80 years before the Bell System break-up changed the way the phone companies did business.
 
school bells, fire alarms

Interesting someone collect those. In the 70s and early 80s the schools here had the old bells. One bell each hour and a "tardy bell" 5 minutes later meant, you gettin' written up. And yes, the urban legend about the fire alarm pull squirting you with ink was alive and well. Our fire alarms was a constant ringing of the school bell. We had fire drills every now and then which was fun considering I didn't have to be in class.

Did those things run on 24vac or 120vac?
 
Cool things guys, I have a 1900 school bell that is rung by hand. (boy is that loud) Player piano and an 18 rank pipe organ with electro-mechanical action.(can't really call it a D E action because of the patents I would guess? I will have to try and get some pics of the organ here if I can figure out how to do that. Gary
 
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