Posted 6 years ago
GatorSS8541
(3 items)
I found this cleaning out my grandfather place after he passed. Any idea what it is? There are a few other pieces that may be similar or go with it. Just curious what I am looking at.
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That is a "10 position stepper relay" which would have been part of the central office equipment at a telephone exchange. Banks of relays such as this were parts of the machinery which responded to rotary-dialed telephones -- the relay would "step" up thru its positions corresponding to a digit dialed. [for example, someone dials a 2, it would click twice and advance to its second set of contacts...someone dials a 7, it'd click 7 times and end up on the 7th set of contacts...]
If you physically push the small hinged part on top of the lower (RH, 1st pic) relay coil down towards the coil itself with your finger, the mechanism should make the 'contact arm' (center) click one position towards the left. Pushing it again will make it 'step' once more, etc. etc. Pushing on the hinged part on the other (upper RH) coil should then make it 'reset' back to the starting position.
Thanks for the info. Its pretty neat when you finally get to see the machines that made it work.