Posted 11 years ago
ttomtucker
(313 items)
For walksoftly, this is some of the photo's in my annunciator catalog. The catalog was published in 1900 by Electric Gas Lighting Company of Boston, MA. The Electric Gas Lighting Company operated from 1880 to 1904 and then changed it's name to Electric Goods Manufacturing Co.
As you can see some of these annunciators can be quite large.
They were a work of art as well as the best technology had to offer at the time.
Love the detail in the wood case, it would have to equal the high class of hotel that these would have been installed in.
Would they have hard a separate bell, as I don't see one.
How rude of me, thank you for posting these for me to admire.
walksoftly, In was a pleasure, I haven't looked at this catalog in a long time. Most bells on the larger annunciator were mounted inside or on the side of the cabinet. On my annunciator the bell is located inside.
Thanks for the response to my question, I am so intrigued by these early electrical devices.
I imagine there was different bell options as well.
I have been trying to determine on mine if the bell was struck only once, or if it would ring as long as someone held the button.
On mine the the electromagnet that power the striker is mounted to the inside of the door & strikes the bell on the inside.
Now that would take a lot of attention to watch over. Thanks for sharing this Tom
I would think a full time hotel desk clerk would have to watch over these large annunciators 24/7