1918 Dated Telephone Dynamo

[hatch_five]

I picked up these dynamos this week, one of them is dated 1918 and I am assuming they are to do with telephones. Does anyone have any more information one them? I can't find a /|\ mark on them so they might even be civilian, but the date on the larger one plus the other equipment they were found with in a shed makes me thing it's highly likely they are military. Any thoughts chaps?

 

 

[Chasemuseum]

They may or may not be military. These are used to send a signal along the wire to cause the bell/buzzer at the other end to ring and alert the users at the other end to respond. They are more commonly called a magneto. The handle drives the gears to spin an armature inside the horseshoe magnet. Many military field phones of WW1 through to the 1970s included a magneto in the phone mechanism for this purpose. They were also frequently built into a standard field switchboard.

Obviously the units you have where used where the phones or switchboards did not include an integral magneto.

Cheers

Ross

 

[hatch_five]

Thanks Ross, I only paid £10 for the pair so even if they are not military I feel I did okay for a couple of hundred year old pieces of equipment. I have given the cases a quick coat of Rennaisance Wax and they look a lot better now.