Nick Mace Posted February 12, 2021 Author Share Posted February 12, 2021 2 hours ago, Hemsley said: Nice work, I too like the way you’ve brought a modern interface to this. I’ve not made much progress with mine, too many other projects on the go! I was the same. It was getting my son interested in it which made it happen. He now has plans to add arduinos to most appliances in the house! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernard Posted September 21, 2021 Share Posted September 21, 2021 We've just bought an old house with an antique servant's bell board in it, which I also plan on restoring for requesting beer. The box is very similar to this one here, with just 4 numbers: https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/antique-oak-edwards-1872-four-number-291708587 The inside looks a little like this, where the numbers can swing up. Seems to be an Edwards Annunciator: http://ancientpoint.com/imgs/a/i/c/s/y/antique_1872_dixie_edwards_annunciator_butler_servants_victorian_signal_call_box_7_lgw.jpg The house has over a dozen buttons throughout it - so would anyone have any idea how this system worked? Where will people know to bring me my beer with these 4 numbers? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nick Mace Posted September 21, 2021 Author Share Posted September 21, 2021 I’m not sure how that would have worked. Perhaps the house was divided into 4 “zones” so the butler would know roughly where to go when summoned? Is yours still installed and wired up? We’re starting the process of getting our kitchen redone and we’ve found where our board was originally installed. Taking some shelves off a wall revealed the original wiring for the bell board. The wiring is long past its sell by date but we might consider putting the bird back in the same place (although it would be partly behind a door so needs some thinking about). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard (OldStager) Posted September 21, 2021 Share Posted September 21, 2021 all this reminds me of the nurse call systems i used to fit in nursing / care homes back in the day, the oldest of which had just 4 or so main lamps on a board and that told you what area of the property to head for, once in that area you simply looked for which ever lamp was lit above the doors. the more modern ones were on a per room basis as far as main displays go and just as i stopped working the analogue addressable ones were just being sold. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bernard Posted September 22, 2021 Share Posted September 22, 2021 Ha - that sounds great. I'm starting to run with your zone theory, I can't think of any other way it would have worked. Yes it was installed and about a third of the buttons around the house still worked. I have my low voltage guy restoring it, we'll see what he comes up with when he cleans it all up. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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