🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <318f8630.16876879@news.tiac.net>,
selpro <selpro@pop.tiac.net> wrote:
>On 7 May 1996 10:38:33 -0400, chesler@shore.net (David Chesler) wrote:
>= There is also an audio tape in the WHRB (Harvard Radio) archives of
>=a remote broadcast, made from a new building which had been wired for
>=telephones, but not yet electric power, during which the engineers 
>=had the telephone operators set up two connections (imagine old 
>=plug boards, with genuine tips and rings) and used the second
>=connection to send 120 volt power to the remote site.
>
>
>this is possibly a troll, when you consider that the "ring" voltage
>for a phone is 90 volts ac.

  This is true, and it does hurt.  But generally it's considered
safe to work with live phone wires, they aren't covered by the electric
code, and so forth.

>i dont know what you mean by "genuine tips and rings" if you look at
>the wiring of a jack youll see a genuine tip (green) and a genuine
>ring (red)  maybe you refer to the gauge of the wire?

 No, I mean an actual tip and an actual ring, not a piece of wire
named for an obsolete piece of equipment.  The tip was the end of
the plug, then there was an insulator, and then there was another
ring near the base of the plug.  Think of a mono headphone jack or
plug.

 This was a long time ago, before WHRB obtained the BOTR (Battery
Operated Tape Recorder).

 The telco switchboard operators would not have been happy to
find out that their lines were connected to the 120v mains.

>the usual wire guage for telco inside wiring is 20 gauge, this is not
>thick enough to carry much AC beyond the milliamps that are sent down
>line for "ring voltage"

 I'm sure at the time telephone was running on three cloth-insulated
wires (third = earth ground), and from what I've seen those look
to be 16 gauge (maybe 18 gauge) solid copper.

>perhaps then the guage of the wire was at overkill sizes and it
>allowed you to run 110AC
>and yes a lot can be done with line carrier signal, but i dought that
>there would be a clean enough signal to do much good with modems

 Modems?  Touchtone hadn't yet been invented.
-- 
David Chesler (chesler@shore.net - Usual ISP  chesler@world.std.com - SOMETIMES
     david.chesler@itcambridge.com - WORK   david@absol.com - DURABLE ADDRESS)
"Tell me again why they call me governor instead of branch manager"
[No longer at TIAC -- Ask why.]  Gov. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, CSM 10/25/95 p18