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Old 20th Jan 2011, 6:29 pm   #1
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Default Servant Bell Board.

I'd been looking for a servant bell board for some time, but most of them seemed to be overpriced or had too few indicators. Eventually this twelve indicator board showed up at a reasonable price so a deal was done.

Visual inspection showed the following:-

The board was complete apart from the bell gong which was missing along with one indicator.

The whole of the exterior was covered in a thick greasy film of what appeared to be cooking fat and tobacco smoke.

The glass was loose in the frame and had several scratches in the black paint.

The wire of one of the bell coils was starting to unwind.

For some inexplicable reason someone had cut some of the internal wiring and reconnected it with choc bloc connectors.

All the metal work, especially the indicators, was covered in a thin layer of corrosion.

The striped card flags glued to the indicators had faded and gone brittle.


The first thing I did was to test all the indicator and bell coils for continuity. They were all intact, so this looked like being a straightforward job.

The woodwork was cleaned using white spirit. This took some time, but eventually all the grease was dissolved and the case was polished with a duster. Small pieces of wood were glued and tacked in place to hold the glass more firmly. The glass is painted from the back, the gold lettering being applied first and then the whole of the glass painted black apart from the indicator windows. I applied two more coats of black gloss paint to cover the scratches. This wasn't entirely successful, but as the glass is not back lit the scratches are barely visible unless you know where to look.

Next I tackled the internal wiring. The original was silk and cotton covered being routed round brass pins nailed into the back panel. The choc bloc was removed, new pins fitted where necessary and the wiring renewed in bare copper as I had no S and C. There's no danger of shorts as the wiring is widely separated. The loose winding on the bell coil was wound back. The original method of securing the turns, namely a knot in the wire, was retained, but a blob of silicone sealant was applied to the knot. With a 12V DC supply connected the bell and indicators all operated correctly.

The indicators were removed from the knife edges, which form part of the armature frame, by gentle bending. As much corrosion as possible was removed from the armature coil frames using fine emery paper. I refrained from using wire wool for fear that particles of it would stick to the armatures due to residual magnetism. This job wasn't difficult but it took a long time, so I spread the work over several days.

I decided that new striped flags would be needed, so the old ones were removed from the indicators and discarded. Underneath were flags bearing a star with a number. I assume that these were used in hotels, or when a household opted not to have a front panel with gold lettering. The starred flags were also faded and brittle so they too were removed. The metal indicators were then thoroughly cleaned, this time using wire wool. I don't know what adhesive was used to stick the flags to the indicators, but it was exceedingly tenacious, so I only cleaned one indicator a day as I get bored easily. A new indicator was made from 3/64" thick steel to replace the missing one, using an original as a pattern. This was a simple sawing, drilling, filing and folding job. The lead residual studs were removed from the original indicators and all twelve sent off for replating.

Having got the indicators back from the platers I replaced the lead residual studs with small brass screws and nuts. Residual studs provide a break in the magnetic path to stop the indicators from sticking to the armature coil face due to residual magnetism in the core. I used Microsoft Paint software to create artwork for new striped flags and printed them on to stiff glossy card. Acting on the advice of forum members I stuck the flags to the indicators using double sided transparent tape. More careful bending saw the indicators back on their knife edges.

The last thing tackled was the missing bell gong. Initially I used a gong from a Friedland bell purchased from a DIY outlet. This rang satisfactorily, but the profile was far from hemispherical preventing the front panel from being closed. A clock gong was ordered from a horological suppliers, but the delivery time period stretched from weeks into months. Again acting on advice from forum members I bought a counter type bell and removed the gong from it. The hole in the middle was too large for the securing screw, so a top hat shaped bush, drilled through for the screw, was turned up from brass rod. Once reassembled the clapper and electrical contacts were adjusted for the best ring. I'm happy to say that the lid could now be fully closed. The bell would operate down to about 3V DC, but 6V DC was needed to give a good swing to the indicators.

The bell board has now been fixed to my kitchen wall where it is in clear view. The next job is to make up a battery rack for replica period Flag Cells.
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Old 20th Jan 2011, 7:06 pm   #2
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Default Re: Servant Bell Board.

Lovely job!

Quote:
Originally Posted by Station X View Post
The next job is to make up a battery rack for replica period Flag Cells.
And after that, presumably, recruit the servants...
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Old 20th Jan 2011, 7:32 pm   #3
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Default Re: Servant Bell Board.

I presume the blank one bottom right is for the workshop, "more tea, more tea!" I did see a 6 way one of these in a 1900 house in Maidenhead, it was in use 'til 1960 in a fairly modest house.
 
Old 20th Jan 2011, 8:20 pm   #4
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Default Re: Servant Bell Board.

Looks lovely, I'd love one of these!
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Old 22nd Jan 2011, 10:35 pm   #5
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Default Re: Servant Bell Board.

What is the point of having servants (very hard to find the right ones these days) if one has to refurbish ones annunciator board oneself? Regards and best wishes for a project brought to a successful conclusion.
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Old 22nd Jan 2011, 10:37 pm   #6
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Default Re: Servant Bell Board.

Agreed, surely one 'has a man in'
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Old 22nd Jan 2011, 10:42 pm   #7
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Default Re: Servant Bell Board.

In the interests of equality it might be a man or a woman. We're going Off Topic though.
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Old 22nd Jan 2011, 11:13 pm   #8
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Default Re: Servant Bell Board.

Quote:
Originally Posted by merlinmaxwell View Post
I did see a 6 way one of these in a 1900 house in Maidenhead, it was in use 'til 1960 in a fairly modest house.
Bell boards were indeed fitted in the kitchens of many quite modest houses until the end of the 30s. My aunt's 4 bedroom 1920s suburban semi in Streatham had a 6 way board. Undoubtedly builders fitted them partly to provide snob appeal, but many ordinary middle class families employed a kitchen servant before WW2.
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Old 24th Jan 2011, 9:11 am   #9
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Default Re: Servant Bell Board.

Thats a lovely restoration job.
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Old 24th Jan 2011, 9:58 am   #10
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Default Re: Servant Bell Board.

My aunt's old house (a 1920's farmhouse) had a very similar 12 line board like this. All the switches were present and still wired up - though only the 'Dining Room', 'Bedroom 1' and 'Morning Room' ones worked - no doubt due to the fragile wiring being broken somewhere in the house. It ran off a 1970s doorbell transformer I seem to remember, as it looked quite out of place on the wall next to the board.
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Old 28th Jan 2011, 3:57 pm   #11
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Default Re: Servant Bell Board.

Hi
I've managed to miss getting hold of these several times - once upon a time it was the bulldozer, now it's the architectural salvage squad!
I always wondered if the legends were standard or made to order? After all, present company excepted, few of us have a billiard room!
An old building I'm helping renovate had the older version - tensioned steel wires running in a wooden trap from bell pull (or twist) to annunciator board. Sadly these wires are all that's left of the system. No new-fangled electricity here!
Nice job - anyone for billiards?
Glyn
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Old 28th Jan 2011, 4:16 pm   #12
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Default Re: Servant Bell Board.

I grew up in what must have been one the last houses fitted with something like this. It was a 4 bed semi in Golders Green, built in 1937. A nice spacious house but hardly in the upstairs downstairs league. There was a bell push in most rooms as well as one for the side entrance gate. I dimly remember that when my mum had greengocery etc delivered the man would sometimes come to the back door, via the side gate.

There was an annunciator board in the morning room but my parents had the area panelled over before I was born so I didn't see it until they had the room modernised when I was about 7. It got taken out and I played with it for a while before discarding it. The bell pushes in most rooms had been heavily painted over and so didn't work.
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Old 28th Jan 2011, 4:43 pm   #13
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Default Re: Servant Bell Board.

I remember one at my prep school (Yardley Court, Tonbridge, 1958-63). It dingily looked down on us from on high as we little boys trooped into the dining room. Even then, it somehow conveyed the Edwardian atmosphere of the place, along with the stuffed heads and other hunting trophies. Definitely a symbol from another age!
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Old 28th Jan 2011, 11:35 pm   #14
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Default Re: Servant Bell Board.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Welsh Anorak View Post
An old building I'm helping renovate had the older version - tensioned steel wires running in a wooden trap from bell pull (or twist) to annunciator board. Sadly these wires are all that's left of the system.
My house, a Victorian terrace, has the remnants of this system. Aluminium tubing with a steel inner wire behind the plaster. Brass quadrants nailed into the wall to change the direction of pull. One was the front door bell, but one goes upstairs from the basement via the ground floor (front) to the first floor.
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Old 29th Jan 2011, 1:29 am   #15
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Default Re: Servant Bell Board.

Just put a short video-clip of my annunciator on the group 'Facebook' page. I first saw one of these things as a little lad in the Doctors' waiting room, and I've been fascinated ever since; a fascination reinforced by the chapter 'Bells, Alarms and Annunciators' in J. W. Sims' 'The Boy Electrician', where there are plans to make your own!

I remember the Doctor had a domed bakelite bell-push on his wall, with a screw-off top, and a spiral flat spring underneath.
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Old 29th Jan 2011, 5:04 pm   #16
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Default Re: Servant Bell Board.

Hi
Russell - do I need to ask just how you found out about what lay behind the doctor's bell push?!
Glyn
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Old 29th Jan 2011, 7:44 pm   #17
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Default Re: Servant Bell Board.

I just sort of unscrewed it whilst in there, as one did as a child!

I was that sort of kid... ;o)
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Old 18th Jan 2015, 4:39 pm   #18
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Default Re: Servant Bell Board.

Is the article in the boys electrician still available as I would like a copy to have a go at making one
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Old 19th Jan 2015, 10:05 pm   #19
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Default Re: Servant Bell Board.

Here's the relevant chapter from J. W. Sims' 'The Boy Electrician' 1951 edn. 'Bells, Alarms and Annunciators'.
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Old 19th Jan 2015, 10:46 pm   #20
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Default Re: Servant Bell Board.

There is an earlier, also informative, S B Board thread in 2010 where the use of this system in pubs was mentioned. I suppose that was a really an "inverse" modification [still going strong in Bury pubs during the 60's]. There would have been a Greater number of Pushes to wire up than the Flags in the "Annunciator" as the pushes were distributed all round the many small rooms in early drinking establishments. [I was always alert to this technical feature whether it was still in use or not].

A waiter could be summoned and he would know which room to go into [this saved a lot of time wasting]. My girl friend never understood how they knew which table to go to but of course they didn't, it was a human visual signal once the waiter was in the right room A very elderly Landlord [they had them then] told me this dated from the 1930's or earlier. I suppose it might have been an addition to the existing set up in a converted house or otherwise built from scratch but using the standard "big house" parts.
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