What's new
What's new

WTB: Crouse-Hinds Explosion Proof Telephone

Garwood

Diamond
Joined
Oct 10, 2009
Location
Oregon
Some people collect stamps or old motorcycles. I have a thing for explosion proof rotary telephones.

I'm using old Crouse-Hinds explosion proof switch boxes in my shop office and I wanted to use one of my phones in there too, but it needs to be wall mounted to look "right".

If anyone has one of these poking about it's probably worth about $100 to me. Would be well cared for and put into actual use, as a phone.
 

Attachments

  • Crouse-Hinds phone.jpg
    Crouse-Hinds phone.jpg
    95.7 KB · Views: 318
About 20 years ago I was looking at this massive cast rotary phone at a garage sale. The owner told me he worked on the Alaska Pipeline and he took that phone home when they were all done. I think I paid $5 for it. Every now and then I type explosion proof into craigslist and see if a phone or something else unusual pops up.

Years later I found a bunch of these neat looking explosion proof fluorescent fixtures Rig-A-Lite XP Fluorescent Light XP26543LCELF Hazardous Lot of Qty (4) TESTED | eBay at a Lavender farm so I stocked up. They look like Rube Goldberg designed a light fixture.

I think if I had a style I would call it "Industrial whimsical" or something like that.
 
Try also searching for "intrinsically safe" In my powerplant days there were all kinds of odd tools for working in the gas compressor buildings.

Including the worlds worst drop light, it looked cool though
 
yes, see many electrical items in paint booths.

also have a crane pendant that IIRC is explosion proof.
 
UL "explosion proof" does in fact require the enclosure or device to contain a certain internal pressure in case the interior does get infiltrated with explosive mixtures of gases and that gets ignited, so its quite a bit more than just not causing an explosion.

anyone know what they actually use to test with?

potting is an additional process involving casting an insulating compound such as wax or epoxy around components such as relays or circuit boards. It isn't part of the explosion proof standard, but considerably improves resistance to moisture and vibration, as well as isolating sources of ignition. really good in marine, power plant, offshore petroleum type environments.

it is usually used on components, not raceways and boxes, so only a small part of an installation will be potted
 
They built a new unmanned building at work. All the outlets are explosion proof. The funny one to me is the one that is tagged by the manufacturer as an explosion proof welding receptacle.
 
Awesome! And a rotary still works on the local phone system. That might be even more amazing.

Ironically I saw a pay phone in a business today. So of course I picked up the receiver and checked..... Non working. I would have paid just to use one again for the heck of it
Hodge
 
Never seen one of those. I think a good portion of the population does not realize those old school phones used electricity. I commonly hear that it is good to have a landline as they will work when the power is out, not realizing the phone company is supplying the electricity to run the phone.
 
Ironically I saw a pay phone in a business today. Hodge

Hodge -

You triggered a memory on that one. Used to work and ride to work with a guy who put a pay phone in his house - of course he did have either 16 or 17 kids, I forget the exact count.

Dale
 
I commonly hear that it is good to have a landline as they will work when the power is out, not realizing the phone company is supplying the electricity to run the phone.
Yeahbut The telco supplies the electricity from a massive battery bank, not live converted from powerco supply. At least if we are talking POTS landlines. And it's not at all unusual for telcos to have big backup generators (which actually get tested periodically). So, yeah, in the rotary phone era, the telco could provide power to subscriber phones when the powerco was down, for quite a long time.
 
I've got a couple of explosion-proof boxes -- some conduit/thermostat control box for a 3-phase Chromalox heater, and then a separate 8x10x6 box that contains a thermostat. That box weighs a ton -- perfect to hold your phone of choice...
 
Yeahbut The telco supplies the electricity from a massive battery bank, not live converted from powerco supply. At least if we are talking POTS landlines. And it's not at all unusual for telcos to have big backup generators (which actually get tested periodically). So, yeah, in the rotary phone era, the telco could provide power to subscriber phones when the powerco was down, for quite a long time.

I have had a land line phone all my life. Same number since married in 1963. Never had a cell phone. While in public school our home number was 4 digits, then 5 digits and finally 7 digits. I remember paying the phone bill by taking cash to a house across the railroad tracks where the switchboard was just inside the front door. If you wanted to make a long distance call, you dialed zero and told the operator you wanted long distance. She connected you to a long distance operator. Then you told that operator where you wanted to call, like Chicago, and she plugged you into a line to Chicago. Then you gave the operator in Chicago the number and she plugged you to the line that went to that phone. I suspect that in Chicago there was probably another operator, or 2, involved before you got to your last phone.

I had several occasions to service the fire alarm system in a Verizon central switching center in the early 2000s. There was a battery room at least 25 feet square filled with racks of batteries and buss bars. There was also a generator outside the building. As far as I know pulse dialing still works.

If you call 911 a land line may be the only way the 911 dispatcher will have your exact address displayed on his/her screen since every land line is connected to a specific street address. They may have computers now that can decode GPS data from a cell phone call to display exact location of the caller.

Bob
WB8NQW
 
Never seen one of those. I think a good portion of the population does not realize those old school phones used electricity. I commonly hear that it is good to have a landline as they will work when the power is out, not realizing the phone company is supplying the electricity to run the phone.

all phones still "use electricity' , unless you got two tin cans and a string, :D

yup as has been said, AT&T, NYNEX, and then Verizon still had service when Consolidated Edison went down in '64, '77, and '03, don't remember during Sandy...think the landlines went out in lower Manhattan then.
 
Our cell switch had 10000 amp hours of battery, load was 1000 amps.

Backup generator was 1.5 megawatt.

Landline switch lots more as they supply energy to the "outside plant".

Lots of batteries...

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
 








 
Back
Top