My 1960's Private Telephone Network

[Roger Ramjet]

Way back in the late 60's I set up a private telephone link across the gardens to my pal who lived at the rear. We initially started with transistor intercoms costing 45 shillings in old money. These worked well but after a while we started picking up a BBC Radio station so a rethink was needed. I managed to legally obtain a couple of 200 bakelite tele's & converted them DC ringing using buzzers salvaged from 19 set control units.

When both tele's on hook, each buzzer was directly across the line and if the calling handset was lifted, the buzzer in that phone was dissed via the switch hook and the transmitter + receiver + local battery appeared in series across the line thus ringing the buzzer at the other end. When that other tele handset was lifted, the transmitter + receiver + local battery complete the series loop and speech was possible albeit with a degree of side tone.

Later on I added another pals house (next door to me) onto the "private network", noting only two phones were connected at once and one local battery had to be reversed so both worked in series.

Visitors would come to our house & be amazed that given how poor we were, we could afford to be "on the phone"!

Great days,
Rog

[nutteronthebus]

In the early 90's ( yes it was 30 years ago ) I had an Ambassador telephone system in the house 3 floors so I can call the kids from the attic play room for there dinner

[dagskarlsen]

I have a 1946 PAX in the garage with 24V batteries to supply the power. Works between several rooms in the house, oldest phone with a dial is from 1911

[Roger Ramjet]

I recall reading an article in the THG magazine that locals in Norway utilised existing steel wires on cattle fences for basic telephony distribution over some distances. Necessary insulators were fabricated from old glass bottle necks.
Multiple telephones would be connected to the same fence "pair", so privacy was never an option. Each subscriber had their own mutually agreed ring code presumably generated by the caller from a magneto ringer.
Surely qualifies for a Private Telephone Network !

Rog

[majoconz]

Roger said

Each subscriber had their own mutually agreed ring code presumably generated by the caller from a magneto ringer.

Not so long ago, many many NZ country networks were like this with an operator way down the valley in the village! Summoning the operator was with a very long ring on the magneto. A label on the front of the box (with 'Edison' in gold script on it) gave all the rings for each subscriber on it - that was how I learnt morse code - unfortunately not all the letters! Nothing was secret! Pickup the phone and say "Working" - if no-one replied, you could ring who ever you wanted. Often in evening young Billy was talking to his girlfriend - or maybe just listening to her breathing.

[dagskarlsen]

Originally Posted by Roger Ramjet

I recall reading an article in the THG magazine that locals in Norway utilised existing steel wires on cattle fences for basic telephony distribution over some distances. Necessary insulators were fabricated from old glass bottle necks.
Multiple telephones would be connected to the same fence "pair", so privacy was never an option. Each subscriber had their own mutually agreed ring code presumably generated by the caller from a magneto ringer.
Surely qualifies for a Private Telephone Network !

Rog

That is actually true, but not common. In an area they made coop telco where the farmers could build their own line to save costs. The telco laste long, but the D.I.Y. system did not.

In some areas it was extremely long distances and I have spoken to a man that grew up to be one of 16 on the same single wire line (ground return). No Electricity, and a lot of places they had to hang the wire over water between small islands etc.

[Roger Ramjet]

That is actually true, but not common. In an area they made coop telco where the farmers could build their own line to save costs. The telco laste long, but the D.I.Y. system did not.

In some areas it was extremely long distances and I have spoken to a man that grew up to be one of 16 on the same single wire line (ground return). No Electricity, and a lot of places they had to hang the wire over water between small islands etc.[/QUOTE]

The single line / earth return is very interesting ... probably not ideal in today's with multiple earth currents all over the world causing interferance over speach. As you say No electricity in those days so guess not a problem ?

[dagskarlsen]

Originally Posted by Roger Ramjet

The single line / earth return is very interesting ... probably not ideal in today's with multiple earth currents all over the world causing interferance over speach. As you say No electricity in those days so guess not a problem ?

Would probably be noicy today, I have read somvere that when they started up the undrground in Stocholm (Sweden) they measured small currents in the ground at the univerisity in Oslo (Norway) and that was around 1960.

[Nickthedentist]

Originally Posted by Roger Ramjet

Way back in the late 60's I set up a private telephone link across the gardens to my pal who lived at the rear. We initially started with transistor intercoms costing 45 shillings in old money. These worked well but after a while we started picking up a BBC Radio station so a rethink was needed. I managed to legally obtain a couple of 200 bakelite tele's & converted them DC ringing using buzzers salvaged from 19 set control units.

When both tele's on hook, each buzzer was directly across the line and if the calling handset was lifted, the buzzer in that phone was dissed via the switch hook and the transmitter + receiver + local battery appeared in series across the line thus ringing the buzzer at the other end. When that other tele handset was lifted, the transmitter + receiver + local battery complete the series loop and speech was possible albeit with a degree of side tone.

Later on I added another pals house (next door to me) onto the "private network", noting only two phones were connected at once and one local battery had to be reversed so both worked in series.

Visitors would come to our house & be amazed that given how poor we were, we could afford to be "on the phone"!

Great days,
Rog

When I started at Birmingham University in 1993, I lived in an flat with 4 other lads. Of course, nobody had mobiles then, and the nearest payphone was in a Council Estate half a mile away. Fine for phoning home, no use when someone needed to contact you. We contemplated getting a phone installed in the flat, but the cost was prohibitive. But then we got chatting to the girls in the flat above us who had been having the same thoughts about a phone. If we could split the cost between 10 of us, it would be affordable, so...

We got a line installed in our flat, and I ran a length of skip-scavanged ethernet cable between the two flats, using a pocket screwdriver to make a small hole in the wooden window frames to allow the wire to exit and enter. It all looked very neat and professional! A trip to Texas on the way home from lectures got us a LJU2/3 extension socket which I installed in the girl's flat. So now we had two phone sockets in parallel on one line.

I'd recently picked up a pair of shiny red GPO 746 dial phones from a boot sale on another nearby housing estate, which were fitted with the "RECALL" buttons. On a domestic line, these were normally pointless, but I installed a DC buzzer and PP3 in each phone, and used the equally-pointless green wire in the line cords to link the buzzers to one another.

So if we received a call and it turned out to be for the girls, we pressed the RECALL button, they heard a buzz and answered, then we hung up. And vice versa.

Primitive, but cost virtually nothing, worked perfectly, and allowed us to stay in touch with our families affordably.

[Oldcodger]

Originally Posted by majoconz

Roger said

Not so long ago, many many NZ country networks were like this with an operator way down the valley in the village! Summoning the operator was with a very long ring on the magneto. A label on the front of the box (with 'Edison' in gold script on it) gave all the rings for each subscriber on it - that was how I learnt morse code - unfortunately not all the letters! Nothing was secret! Pickup the phone and say "Working" - if no-one replied, you could ring who ever you wanted. Often in evening young Billy was talking to his girlfriend - or maybe just listening to her breathing.

Majo- in the era where "PARTY LINE" meant several ( usually local battery) telephones in paralel, where a ring code ( a series of long/short rings) would determine which caller the exchange/other party wanted. Similar systems were installed in other colonial outposts, e.g. Rhodesia. We had one in a rural place there with ( me as signal tech) on same line as Station master's home and office. So it never cost anything to call each other. More usefull than the rail network, which went out if local power failed .