Posted 6 years ago
AnythingOb…
(1778 items)
Here's another item from my "obscure electrissical things" collection. ;-) :-)
This device is (at least part of) a vintage type of intrusion alarm (as near as I know, anyway?) which would have been hard-wired up to a network of trip-switches mounted to doors/windows/etc. -- if any of those switches actually 'tripped' while this thing was turned on, it would apparently then send some kind of particular signal to a "central office" monitoring facility (via telephone landlines?) who would in turn notify police/etc of the alarm.
Manufactured by POTTER ELECTRIC SIGNAL CO. of St. Louis, MO, a company that appears to remain in business providing (much more hi-tech) alarm and security systems to this day. Its cast aluminum housing is about 8" x 6" x 3-1/2" with brown crinkle-finish paint, and features its aluminum nameplate (noting that this is a model# "SCB-2", which oddly enough no longer comes up when looking around the POTTER website?) and it has a "DAY - NITE" switch on one side and a 1/4" phone jack on its bottom. Its inner parts appear to be complete and I wouldn't be surprised if it is still functional, but how would one know??
I also don't know exactly how old it is, but I recovered it from a building first constructed in the late 1960's/early 70's, so I suppose it is a product of that time...?
I should post my actual electric panel its unbelievable. I didn't realize it was stil hot until the kids blew a fuse recently.
THANKS to Caperkid, fortapache, Brunswick, blunderbuss2, Lamplover78, and most recently Camper27 for taking a sec to tap the <love it> button for this little thing! :-) :-) :-)
I own the mating unit to this. It is the control unit that Potter made that would be located in an alarm company central station. Leased lines from the local telephone company would connect the two units together. I have Potter documentation from November, 1961 that discusses this exact unit in detail. Very, very cool piece of alarm history. If only I could complete my collection :)
Hi Camper27 -- HOW TOTALLY COOL that you have the 'other end' of this thing?!! Any chance you'd be willing to post up a pic or 3, I'd sure enjoy a glimpse of whatever it is, guessing its bigger/more-funner than this little box? Frankly, I wouldn't have quite guessed it'd even be *possible* to ever see such a thing (relic?) nowadays...?!! (considering 50-60yrs worth of 'advancing technology', yada yada) I'd also be way-curious how it actually "works", if you'd care to share any of your knowledge/documentation that is? :-) [and who knows...mebbe my little box might ultimately need to find itself a new home one of these days, but we're not supposed to talk about stuff like that on here...] All the best, Tim
Tim;
I uploaded 2 pictures of the mating Direct Wire receiver. Each module supported 2 different accounts. It worked by sending a current from the central station to the protected premises, (the unit you have). Both halves have to be on the same setting: either day or night. Then, if a door switch tripped, it would turn on a light on the receiver and a buzzer sounded. Police dispatched. The meter gave the operator a way to understand what was happening on the circuit. (Very interested, but how?)
Cool thing about alarm gear: "message received" :)
:-) :-) :-)
More late-ish thanks to hunterqlee, Vynil33rpm, and (today I guess?) Brunswick for the <love it>s.
For the record, this particular item no longer resides in my own personal collection, it having otherwise moved on to a better place with Camper27 (I think, whether he's still amongst us here or not) where it hopefully has now ended up actually being able to be connected back to some of the other machinery it was originally intended to be hooked up to and maybe even be kinda 'functional' again instead of just hanging on a wall (or hiding inside a cardboard box, or whatever) here with me. :-)