It is a Walter Jones & Co. 17Hz ringing tone generator, an example of the emerging ingenuity applied to the early communication systems. It was part of a manually operated telephone exchange. It generated the ringing tones that were sent down the telephone line to get people to pick up the phone.
An operator would have manually sent the ringing tone to a particular line with a switch.
The tone was generated as a sngle frequency and the cams on the right operated switches to interupt it and make it pulse on & off.
They were also exported, and I have another photo of two "ringers" installed in Kuching, Malaysia. (see flickr link)
Walter Jones was my great grandfather and the company was passed on to my grandfather.
Telephone Exchange Ringing Tone Generatr
Contributed by Jared Thomas
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Sydenham
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1932
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