Those old fashioned shop bells that were on a spring loaded bracket. When a customer entered, the top of the door caused the bell to ring.
Any idea what the proper name for them is? I'm trying to google for them, but don't know what they are called.
£ 11 ebay
"shop door bell"? See eg
"The Medway Handyman" wrote
No idea what they call them, but there was a "lot" on Bargain Hunt the other day which had the bells needed for an entire communication system in a stately home! Even had the bits to allow pull chords to go round corners! Not much help I know, but if you get a run on these things, a bric-a-brac stall may be worth a visit :)
Phil
Totally OT, but my daughter invited a young French friend to her wedding, which was taking place in a castle. Can't specifically remember why but he was with me when I was arranging something in the bowells of the castle where all the bells you are talking about were hanging.
They were all named as you would expect, but what I didn't expect was that the Frenchman didn't know what "Boudoir" was. Curious as it comes from the French to pout or sulk !!
Rob
Cheers vass & neverwas! Never occurred to me to actually search for 'old fashioned shop door bell'. I should have kept it simple :-)
Totally OT, but my daughter invited a young French friend to her wedding, which was taking place in a castle. Can't specifically remember why but he was with me when I was arranging something in the bowells of the castle where all the bells you are talking about were hanging.
They were all named as you would expect, but what I didn't expect was that the Frenchman didn't know what "Boudoir" was. Curious as it comes from the French to pout or sulk !!
I think there was a lot of this about in Edinburgh where my Dad grew up. It wasn't a particulaly well-to-do area, they didn't have domestic staff, but there were 3 bells on springs in the kitchen. One rang when a big brass door-bell was pulled downstairs, the second rang by turning a bakerlite handle in the lounge, and the third... I don't remember, the bedroom I suppose. Also, outside the flat on each landing, was a brass knob you slid up in a slot and a wire and pully system lifted the latch in the outside door.
I was in a different part of Edinburgh on buisness a few months ago and saw an identical bakerlite handle in a front room I passed.
I found this:
Can't you devise a system with lasers and mirrors and some electronic circuitry to play a recording of an old fashioned shop bell? And a battery backup in case of power failure.
P.S. I approve of your low-tech solution :)
Just a note re door bells. In the late 1940-50s lived in flat on one floor of a big old house in Liverpool. Found remains of three different bell systems; ranging from mechanical pull-wire, DC LeClanche cell battery room and front door bells to AC transformer operated buzzers. In the attic next to the big slate water tank with names written on it from the 1890s, found the remains of a distinctively shaped actual LeClanche cell!
-Just a note re door bells.
-In the late 1940-50s lived in flat on one floor of a big old house in
-Liverpool.
-Found remains of three different bell systems; ranging from mechanical
-pull-wire, DC LeClanche cell battery room and front door bells to AC
-transformer operated buzzers.
-In the attic next to the big slate water tank with names written on it
-from the 1890s, found the remains of a distinctively shaped actual
-LeClanche cell!
Forget the batteries, how was the slate water tank made? I've never seen one.
I found this battery after a 100 year old house was removed.
I was wondering what it was used for, but a doorbell is very likely.
Slate tank. IIRC was made from big slabs of slate held together with steel rods (I think). Thinking back some 60+ years it was in the attic of the 'servants' quarters and was some four by three feet and some three feet deep. The top was open so I suppose a mouse or bat or whatever could have fallen in?
In the greenhouse of somewhere I lived in there was a slate water tank. IIRC (and it was a long time ago) the slate was very smooth and dead square - I'd guess around 25mm thick. The two end slabs had channels cut into them - that just like you might do with a router for a piece of wooden furniture. The other sides slotted in. I have a feeling that the base might have had some similar machining.
Wish I could remember more detail - there simply must have been some sort of tie rod but I don't remember seeing one when the tank was in place. Maybe holes were drilled through the slate from one end to the other?
Used to get frogs hiding in there...
I really can't think that any other slate water tank would be much different - unless dating from before the ability to finely machine it.
It may have been glued.. aquariums are only glued together these days. It may have had dovetail slots to help keep it together while the glue set.
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember "Graham." saying something like:
I remember that kit still being in place when my folks moved into a Victorian building in S.Glasgow. Most of those houses *did* have domestic staff - the 'staff' was a housemaid who lived in the kitchen which had a bed recess. I marvelled at the Victorian bath - a fairly normal claw-foot tub, but around the top third was a perforated sheet zinc hood affair, topped off with an overhead pancake shower head. Whole body showers long before they became common. The water storage tank was up in the roof, about 60' overhead - I suppose the shower pressure was 'adequate'. Pity it all got ripped out, would have been worth a fortune later.
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