Unusual 332 with buzzer

[ZiggyUK]

I spotted a nice 332 at an auction on Friday, it was not for sale as it had been passed from an old auction and never collected, they said I could have it for £20.
After getting it home I opened it up to take a look and discovered the bells were missing.... or so I thought at first. There was a strange contraption in their place.
Then I noticed on the wiring diagram it says "Auto Telephone No332. Type with buzzer" and "KS10858 (open issue)"

It has a dummy draw which dates it to the 1940s but I have not been able to find any information on a 332 with buzzer.

Has anyone come across a model like this before? I kind of wish it had bells but intrigued by the buzzer and wonder how it will sound when refurbished?

[Roger Ramjet]

I was going to suggest an intercom unit with DC Signalling but looking at the cct. diagram, the buzzer is wired via the usual bell capacitor meaning it must be AC Ringing - presumably from telephone exchange or a PABX.

Maybe the subscriber had a preference for a buzzer rather than bell notification ?

Rog

[paulsherwin]

Presumably intended for use in a low noise environment, such as an office or hospital.

[matthewhouse]

I quite like the sound of buzzer telephones, perhaps I should connect mine to to the house line again. Less noisy than bells as mentioned above. The sound is quite pleasing, I'm not going to attempt to describe it though! It certainly sounds nothing like those little plastic 9 volt buzzer things!

[ZiggyUK]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

Presumably intended for use in a low noise environment, such as an office or hospital.

Maybe a Library

[russell_w_b]

Maybe to differentiate between telephones if there was more than one instrument on a desk? A bit like having a neon indicator in the handset on the more modern 746 instruments to tell which one was ringing.

[ZiggyUK]

If anyone is interested, I have completed the refurb and this is how she sounds with the buzzer instead of bells.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jbweqzyf8z...027_145009.mp4

[lesmw0sec]

Originally Posted by paulsherwin

Presumably intended for use in a low noise environment, such as an office or hospital.

That makes me recall the phone which was in Forrester's National Radio shop in Bournemouth. That used to buzz and on enquiry I discovered that they had snapped off the bell hammer, as the ringing was too loud when talking to customers!

[Brigham]

Originally Posted by ZiggyUK

If anyone is interested, I have completed the refurb and this is how she sounds with the buzzer instead of bells.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/jbweqzyf8z...027_145009.mp4

Sounds great, as if the designer was interested in the end result, not like the Dictograph!