MAGNETO RING GENERATOR, 1930's

Part of a telephone instrument or switchboard, and used for generating the alternating current required for ringing a bell or attracting the attention of the operator. Bell voltages are in the region of 50 Volts AC; this would have been created when the handle on the right of the picture is manually operated.
This unit is similar to GPO units of the period and used in early telephones, they were phased out when telephone exchanges took over the generation of the ring signal.

A1666