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From: Robert Macy on 2 Jul 2010 18:49
On Jul 2, 3:07 pm, Jim <jim857...(a)jim.com> wrote:
> Can someone help identify this old device? It's mounted almost 9 feet up
> the wall of a garage in an early 1950's California house, and the other
> side of the wall is the kitchen. No obvious signs of what it might connect
> to inside.
>
> This is what's stamped on the body: RITTENHOUSE   5 V.A.   no. 180
>
> Photo:www.badongo.com/pic/9826616(black corners are from image-rotation)
>
> Thanks for any details. Jim

In the Dining Room, also look for a push button in the floor [may be
covered over now] near where the master would sit. That transformer
may have been the power to ring the maid's bell.
From: Jim on 2 Jul 2010 18:40
Franc Zabkar <fzabkar(a)iinternode.on.net> wrote in
news:hgps265t8msn4tacjo622uk5cba5urj2f3(a)4ax.com:

> On Fri, 2 Jul 2010 15:18:05 -0700 (PDT), nesesu
> <neil_sutcliffe(a)telus.net> put finger to keyboard and composed:
>
>>On Jul 2, 3:07�pm, Jim <jim857...(a)jim.com> wrote:
>>> Can someone help identify this old device? It's mounted almost 9
>>> feet up the wall of a garage in an early 1950's California house,
>>> and the other side of the wall is the kitchen. No obvious signs of
>>> what it might connect to inside.
>>>
>>> This is what's stamped on the body: RITTENHOUSE � 5 V.A. � no. 180
>>>
>>> Photo:www.badongo.com/pic/9826616(black corners are from
>>> image-rotation)
>>>
>>> Thanks for any details. Jim
>>
>>Looks like the door bell transformer to me.
>>
>>Neil S.
>
> I think I can see Bugle and Bell terminals, so I guess it may be a
> novelty door bell.

The doorbell itself is just a simple two-tone plunger type.

Jim

From: Jeffrey D Angus on 2 Jul 2010 19:56
Jim wrote:
> Can someone help identify this old device? It's mounted almost 9 feet up
> the wall of a garage in an early 1950's California house, and the other
> side of the wall is the kitchen. No obvious signs of what it might connect
> to inside.
>
> This is what's stamped on the body: RITTENHOUSE 5 V.A. no. 180
>
> Photo: www.badongo.com/pic/9826616 (black corners are from image-rotation)
>
>
>
> Thanks for any details. Jim

That's definately a door bell transformer. the 5VA refers to
the output capacity (roughly 5 watt). that wire you see is
the old "push back" bell wire. waxed cotton, you just "push
back" to expose the copper.

Jeff



--
�Egotism is the anesthetic that dulls the pain of stupidity.�
Frank Leahy, Head coach, Notre Dame 1941-1954

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