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Old 28th Apr 2010, 2:46 pm   #1
mhennessy
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Default Servant Bell Boards (Annunciators)

Split from this thread to which the quote relates:-

https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...ad.php?t=53487

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Quote:
Originally Posted by Herald1360 View Post
A bell indicator board- the indicators themselves are rather like relays in construction.
I'd love to see this - my house originally had something like this in the kitchen - I keep finding the solid-core cloth covered wires under the floorboards. And it's not a big house - even by Evesham's standards - but, fascinating to think that it once had "staff"...

Cheers,

Mark

Last edited by Station X; 11th May 2010 at 1:47 pm. Reason: Thread split.
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Old 28th Apr 2010, 7:21 pm   #2
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Default Re: Some items I have which hopefully fit here...

Quote:
Originally Posted by mhennessy View Post
I'd love to see this - my house originally had something like this in the kitchen - I keep finding the solid-core cloth covered wires under the floorboards. And it's not a big house - even by Evesham's standards - but, fascinating to think that it once had "staff"...
These were fitted to quite modest houses. My aunt's 1920s 4 bedroom semi in Streatham had a bell box in the kitchen. I think developers sometimes included these for snob appeal, but it's true that many middle class households had a day servant to do the cooking and cleaning before WW2. A great aunt of mine specified a fireplace in the kitchen for 'the girl' when her house was built in 1935 - she was only a teacher, and the house was a 3 bed semi.

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Old 28th Apr 2010, 10:53 pm   #3
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Default Re: Some items I have which hopefully fit here...

OK, here it is. The bell was attached rather crudely to the bottom- you can see the holes in the base.

The indicator flags should have red stars on them but they have faded almost to white. When activated, the solenoid attracts the armature which when the bell push is released, swings for quite some time on the knife edge bearings so that the servants have time to look and see where the call is from. Some indicator boards had drop flags which had to be reset by pulling a cord, but this type is effectively self resetting (and presumably cheaper because it's simpler to make).

They do seem to command serious prices in good condition, this one was dreadful when I bought it which made it affordable as an impulse buy. It still needs the woodwork restoring, not least to fill in quite a few wormholes.
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Old 28th Apr 2010, 11:14 pm   #4
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Default Re: Some items I have which hopefully fit here...

I have an annunciator with five flags on it (there were various types: manual reset, latching electrical reset, swinging flags) that I scrounged from a hotel years ago - it was thick with about twenty layers of paint.

I installed it in our hall, with the front doorbell indicating 'Sitting Room 3', and provision for a back doorbell flag as well. It works fine from an AC supply (6V bell transformer), but I need a better gong on it, having stuck one from a 332 telephone on it years ago (the original had long gone).

Mine was made by a local Carlisle firm, and, looking through the 'Sunco' electrical catalogue of 1928, I get the impression that kits of parts were provided to local agents who would tailor them to their customers as appropriate.

I became fascinated with annunciators around seven years old on a visit to the doctor, when I would avidly watch the little flags move as the receptionist summoned the next patient. I just had to have one in our house!
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Old 29th Apr 2010, 6:59 am   #5
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Default Re: Some items I have which hopefully fit here...

Very nice. My family once stayed in a large house in North Yorkshire complete with bells, but it was actually not relays rather a whole line of bells and lots and lots of wires going everywhere.
Oh I had some fun annoying my parents during that holiday
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Old 29th Apr 2010, 11:26 am   #6
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Default Re: Some items I have which hopefully fit here...

Beautiful! Thanks for the pictures!

I'm always amazed with the quality of the woodwork from this era - that panel is very elaborate. What type of wood is it? Victorians were masters of disguise, so I never assume anything from appearance. Perhaps OT, but we scrounged some original skirting boards from a neighbour who was unsympathetically renovating their property, and when I started peeling off the paint, I found the original surface treatment had been perfectly preserved in places because the first people to apply paint hadn't rubbed down the boards properly first. A combination of staining and dragging to fake a grain made these humble pine boards look like fine oak!

Presumably the bell was a separate unit mounted adjacent to the annunciator?
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Old 30th Apr 2010, 9:33 am   #7
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Default Re: Some items I have which hopefully fit here...

My late grandmother's flat in Kensington, London had a bellboard, I dont know hold old it was.

Because the flat was rented, when she had to move out, I couldn't remove it.
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Old 30th Apr 2010, 11:53 am   #8
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Default Re: Some items I have which hopefully fit here...

An Edwardian semi-detached house I moved into about 20 years ago (in Reading) had wooden bell pushes next to the fire places in most of the rooms. I asked the vendor about the annunciator board and he casually said that he had thrown it out during the refurbishment of the kitchen/back parlour area. How can people be so unthinking about these monuments to our heritage? Fortunately, I was able to locate one - they were very plentiful then - and mounted it in the kitchen but the cabling had been mostly removed so it was a static display.
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Old 30th Apr 2010, 5:28 pm   #9
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Default Re: Some items I have which hopefully fit here...

Our edwardian detached house is complete with original 10 way servants indicator and bell pushes in most rooms all wired in and working. There is cotten covered wire running under the floorboards everywhere. Next to it is an original wooden boxed extension bell set. I did restore both items as they had been painted white.
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Old 4th May 2010, 3:02 pm   #10
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Default Re: Some items I have which hopefully fit here...

What a lovely vintage word is "Annunciator"

Those in working order & with their bells, should properly be powered by a battery of (three or more) Wet Leclanche Cells [q.v.] connected in series ; each cell in a glass jar a shade bigger than a two pound jam jar and the whole lot placed in a corner of the pantry cupboard. I doubt if the zinc and carbon rod electrodes are available now but the internet can produce anything these days I am told.
These simple Primary cells could not be recharged but it was easy to replace the electrolyte when it was exhausted - but if assembled without a de-polariser around the carbon rod the volts fell rapidly during use so that long peals of the bell was impossible in spite of vigorous use of the bell push; the action of the jiggling flags was not affected!

Happy days

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Old 4th May 2010, 3:14 pm   #11
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Default Re: Some items I have which hopefully fit here...

I agree that originally they would have been powered by Leclanche Cells as were local battery telephones. I suspect that these would have been replaced at a later date by dry cells of the R40 type.

http://www.prc68.com/I/No6.shtml

This certainly happened with LB Telephones and I intend to use similar cells which are now designated R40 or H40 for my own bell board. I will of course being using old style labels with them.
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Old 4th May 2010, 6:11 pm   #12
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Default Re: Some items I have which hopefully fit here...

Wonder if Ever-Ready called them 'Flag' cells because they worked flags?

Attached are some bell / annunciator adverts from 1921.
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Old 4th May 2010, 6:25 pm   #13
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Default Re: Some items I have which hopefully fit here...

Russell,

That is my understanding of the origin of the "Flag" cell.
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Old 4th May 2010, 8:57 pm   #14
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Default Re: Some items I have which hopefully fit here...

Quote:
Originally Posted by Maestro Maker View Post

'Those in working order & with their bells, should properly be powered by a battery of (three or more) Wet Leclanche Cells [q.v.] connected in series...'
Whoa - not so fast there, MM! More progressive households might have used a 'Gent & Co Bell Reductor' if they were equipped with DC mains, or one of a range of 'Sunco' bell transformers, if on AC. The bell reductors were nothing more than potential dividers with a lamp and a resistor, and, if wired incorrectly (ie: bell not in 'earthy' side), might have caused '...a careless attendant to receive a very unpleasant or dangerous shock...'

Attached are pics of a 1921 bell reductor and a selection of bell transformers from 1929.
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Old 5th May 2010, 9:05 am   #15
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Default Re: Some items I have which hopefully fit here...

Quote:
Originally Posted by mhennessy View Post
Beautiful! Thanks for the pictures!

I'm always amazed with the quality of the woodwork from this era - that panel is very elaborate. What type of wood is it?
Both of those pictured here look like oak.
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Old 5th May 2010, 1:31 pm   #16
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Default Re: Some items I have which hopefully fit here...

Quote:
Originally Posted by mhennessy View Post
Beautiful! Thanks for the pictures!

... I found the original surface treatment had been perfectly preserved in places because the first people to apply paint hadn't rubbed down the boards properly first. A combination of staining and dragging to fake a grain made these humble pine boards look like fine oak!
Yes, it's a finish known as scumble and is still done by some of the older painter & decorators round here. It could be used for our restoration projects where a cabinet is too far gone. You could build a new cabinet with MDF and apply a scumble woodgrain effect.
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Old 5th May 2010, 8:31 pm   #17
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Default Re: Some items I have which hopefully fit here...

In the 1950s my aunt and uncle lived in a large house in Edgbaston, Birmingham, which had bell pushes in every room and an swinging-flag annunciator panel in the kitchen. My sister and I, as children visiting, used to play pressing the bell push in a distant room then running as fast as we could into the kitchen before the flags stopped swinging.

I also enjoyed being responsible (in adult life as a hospital engineer) for the maintenance and repair of some very early fire alarm annunciator boards with a variety of electro-mechanical indicators, such as dolls' eyes and dropping flags, all had manual reset of course. It's a great shame that virtually all these have been scrapped because they didn't comply with some new British Standard that the manufacturers cooked up to increase sales of their new digital systems!

Happy days
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Old 6th May 2010, 9:10 am   #18
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Default Re: Some items I have which hopefully fit here...

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Yes, it's a finish known as scumble and is still done by some of the older painter & decorators round here
This - Ronseal Paint & Grain - can be obtained from B&Q and saves trying to get hold of scumble and graining tools.

I have found it is excellent, and the full instructions make it easy to give a finish that is indistinguishable from real veneer, unless seen close-up.
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Old 11th May 2010, 3:35 am   #19
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Default Re: Some items I have which hopefully fit here...

I have Number 6 battery covers if anyone's interested!

I've never seen these signaling systems. Pls keep this thread going...I find this interesting!
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Old 11th May 2010, 4:48 pm   #20
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Default Re: Servant Bell Boards (Annunciators)

They were also fitted in Pubs to call waiters in the good old days when they were too busy to get to the bar. I have a salvaged wooden bell push somewhere.
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