parkview094
Member
- Messages
- 149
- Location
- Hersham, Surrey
I stumbled across a Servants bell box at a local auction in a bit of a sorry state which I thought would be the perfect faux addition to our 1890s home.
Unfortunately, it was in a bit of a sorry state and had there ever been such a system originally installed in our house, all traces of it had long since been removed. So, I thought I'd have a go at installing the system 'new'.
Despite many hours googling, I couldn't find anyone else who had documented the installation of such a system, so thought I would start this topic in the hope it might inspire or help anyone else in the future looking to do something similar.
I bought myself a copy of "Practical Electical Bell Fitting" by F.C. Allsop which contains a wealth of information. There's an online version available here: https://archive.org/details/practicalelectr01allsgoog
The book suggests these systems were originally being battery powered and seem to have been intended for DC power. Having worked my way round with a multi-meter, I was relieved to find the wiring was still intact with no shorts present. Hooking up a battery, resulted in a dull thud from the bell, but at least the indicator flags worked. There appear to be 'single' and 'continuous' type bells produced, but I had a single type. Hooking up an AC power supply instead fixed that problem.
With 7 indicator flags, I ran 7 lengths of bell wire to the intended position of the annunciator. If I'd thought about it properly, I would have realised that only 4 pairs were needed since each indicator has a common ground. Our 8v AC door-bell transformer for the front door bell was a convenient power supply.
A light sand, some danish oil and several goes with Autosol brought up the box looking much better.
One of the original indicator flags was torn and the others were all a bit sad. I couldn't find anyone selling anything suitable, but LadyArowana from the forum kindly pointed me at this link:
http://www.antiques-atlas.com/antique/edwardian_servants_bell_board/as512a072
A neat solution for both easy-to-print replacement indicator flags and a way around the fact that the windows on our annunciator were otherwise unlabeled. Finding an 'in keeping' font to use was more challenging than expected, but I ended up opting for "Berlin Sans FB" (available from here: http://fontsgeek.com/fonts/Berlin-Sans-FB-Regular)
And so to the 're'finished end result:
The flags look a little 'new' for my liking. I may try and find a slightly different colour card to print on, or if anyone has any suggestions - they'll be greatly appreciated. Otherwise, I guess in 50 or so years, they will blend in!
Although I've run plenty of bell-wire back to a central location, my next challenge will be to purchase and install suitable buttons for the key rooms. As we have a partial re-wire pending, I'm hoping running the necessary wiring should be straight forward. One option I am exploring however, is the use of wireless or Alexa control for the bells. I've labelled one of the indicators as 'Train' with my intention being that the bell will toll when I need to leave home to catch my morning train. I've ordered a 433Mhz wireless momentary relay from China to hook up to the 'lightwave' system I have elsewhere installed. If that proves a success, I may try and make all the call buttons wireless. Will post progress.
Unfortunately, it was in a bit of a sorry state and had there ever been such a system originally installed in our house, all traces of it had long since been removed. So, I thought I'd have a go at installing the system 'new'.
Despite many hours googling, I couldn't find anyone else who had documented the installation of such a system, so thought I would start this topic in the hope it might inspire or help anyone else in the future looking to do something similar.
I bought myself a copy of "Practical Electical Bell Fitting" by F.C. Allsop which contains a wealth of information. There's an online version available here: https://archive.org/details/practicalelectr01allsgoog
The book suggests these systems were originally being battery powered and seem to have been intended for DC power. Having worked my way round with a multi-meter, I was relieved to find the wiring was still intact with no shorts present. Hooking up a battery, resulted in a dull thud from the bell, but at least the indicator flags worked. There appear to be 'single' and 'continuous' type bells produced, but I had a single type. Hooking up an AC power supply instead fixed that problem.
With 7 indicator flags, I ran 7 lengths of bell wire to the intended position of the annunciator. If I'd thought about it properly, I would have realised that only 4 pairs were needed since each indicator has a common ground. Our 8v AC door-bell transformer for the front door bell was a convenient power supply.
A light sand, some danish oil and several goes with Autosol brought up the box looking much better.
One of the original indicator flags was torn and the others were all a bit sad. I couldn't find anyone selling anything suitable, but LadyArowana from the forum kindly pointed me at this link:
http://www.antiques-atlas.com/antique/edwardian_servants_bell_board/as512a072
A neat solution for both easy-to-print replacement indicator flags and a way around the fact that the windows on our annunciator were otherwise unlabeled. Finding an 'in keeping' font to use was more challenging than expected, but I ended up opting for "Berlin Sans FB" (available from here: http://fontsgeek.com/fonts/Berlin-Sans-FB-Regular)
And so to the 're'finished end result:
The flags look a little 'new' for my liking. I may try and find a slightly different colour card to print on, or if anyone has any suggestions - they'll be greatly appreciated. Otherwise, I guess in 50 or so years, they will blend in!
Although I've run plenty of bell-wire back to a central location, my next challenge will be to purchase and install suitable buttons for the key rooms. As we have a partial re-wire pending, I'm hoping running the necessary wiring should be straight forward. One option I am exploring however, is the use of wireless or Alexa control for the bells. I've labelled one of the indicators as 'Train' with my intention being that the bell will toll when I need to leave home to catch my morning train. I've ordered a 433Mhz wireless momentary relay from China to hook up to the 'lightwave' system I have elsewhere installed. If that proves a success, I may try and make all the call buttons wireless. Will post progress.
