sundance-communications.com/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems Antique Telephones another "what are they for?"

Jeff:

You have correctly figured out all the tools. The red thing with the resistor and capacitor is called a "standard termination" in New York Tel territory, and probably had other names in other BOC's.

During the period when Mother was trying to eliminate craft jobs (like Test Desk Technician) a system known as MLT (Mechanized Line Testing) was introduced. It relied on clerks who knew nothing about telephony (but who earned about half what a top craftsman earned) and a rather mis-engineered system that was supposed to allow the field tech to get tests on POTS lines.

MLT came to be known as "More Lost Time" and was the cause for yelling, screaming, complaining and walkouts.

That red gizmo was put across a line under test so that the machine would have a "base line" so to speak, when testing other circuits in the same cable count. It emulates electrically the ringer circuit in a standard 500-type set.

Thanks...very interesting!