Marconi Wireless Artillery and aircraft communication

[Military radio]

Hello All

I am new to this hobby and have limited knowledge, so was hoping someone could tell me what this Marconi built device was used for ?. From the research I have done so far it seems it is a very early attempt to comunicate with aircraft in WWI but I have so far been unable to find a match with this specific unit.
It has two morse tappers one each side and two sockets which I assume are for head phones.
I would love to know its actual function and if its possible to get other equipment that might make it work.

Thank you in advance for your help.

[QQVO6/40]

To me it looks like it is something to do with telephone switching. Or maybe the ability to switch various telegraph positions. Possible use in an operations room? The information on the slide cover of the box looks like a key to map markers so to me it lends towards operations room use. To me it does not look to be directly associated with radio communication. More like ancillary equipment.
Cheers, Robert.

[Radio Wrangler]

Possibly training equipment?

David

[trh01uk]

Originally Posted by Military radio

I am new to this hobby and have limited knowledge, so was hoping someone could tell me what this Marconi built device was used for?

You would need to find a specialist in WWI communications to work out exactly what this is, and where it was used. From the photos I would say that it is a multi-way switch with three positions: "Through", "Intermediate" and "Open" (can't quite see the last label, but you can check that).

I would further say this is just one component in some "larger system". What that "larger system" might be I can only guess at. My guess would be the same as others have suggested - most likely the telephone system. The fact that the word "wireless" appears on the box lid only suggests that telephone lines from a wireless set or wireless operator were coming in or going out.

If I had to further guess I would say this is a primitive manual switching box - or sort of telephone exchange. The large number of terminals which are in pairs on the side suggest these would be the connections to the telephone cables (which generally run as pairs of wires).

I would approach one of the museums. The RFC has its own museum here. The Imperial War Museum might help - Google it. Sorry, I can't point to any definite authority on this kind of thing - and I fear that unless you are prepared to put in some work to finding out more about it, you will probably come up against a lot of "don't knows".

As for your request to "get it working" - well, I think all you have is a large switch probably custom built for a very specific task. Your request is a bit like asking to get a standard light switch "to work". The switch works just fine - but it does nothing very much that you can see, until it is connected to a source of power and a light bulb. I am not suggesting that you connect this item up to anything to get it operate as a switch. Unless there is more inside that we can't see from the photos, its function is fairly obvious, and there is little to be gained by connecting it to anything. Indeed, putting power through it may just cause damage.

Please bear in mind that anything of this vintage is a historic item, and may well be the only example that survives anywhere. You may find that a museum will buy it from you (the RFC museum might be interested) - and I think that will be the best place to safeguard it.

Best regards

Richard

[Military radio]

Thank you for your answers. I have now done quite a bit of research on Google and I think your suggestions are pretty accurate and have helped form a theory to its use. I cannot find this exact piece but as you say it could be unique and I have no plans to alter it in any way or risk using it as a switch. As the lever is turned it connects all nine sets of the terminals another turn connects five and another turn connects three. The selections are intermediate, open and through. From other references I have found "through" would as the name suggests connect everyone this was used in some situations to transmit SOS. Apparently early aircraft only carried transmitters due to weight and size restrictions. Voice transmitions did not work well and so Morse was used. This box has Morse tappers so I think its related to Morse rather than a phone system. These were probably used to alert the operator at the other end that a message was coming through. I think this box was probably as you say connected to a receiver as it had two headphone sockets I guess it had two operators who then listened to the transmitions from the aircraft and passed them via a hard wire system to the relevant battery or operation. I think this is a pretty good theory so far. Thank you for the RFC link I will follow that one up and get back if I find out any more information.

[GMB]

Yes, it does look like some kind of telegraph switch but it is a curious thing.

I'm sure the clue is in the annotation. I suggest you send much better resolution images of that photo to museums etc. as suggested above.

WW1 aircraft wireless communication was mainly simplex and air to ground. It wasn't used for complex messages, the norm being single letters to indicate things like grid squares of where shells were seen to land.

I found a stone age arrow head once in perfect nick, and (with direction from dad) gave it to a small museum as "on permanent loan". It is still there with my name next to it, gives a glow to the heart.

[AC/HL]

Continued here: https://www.vintage-radio.net/forum/...961#post817961