Telephone socket: dangerous?

Unless the phone rang, you'd come away with a "tickle", if that much. If it rang at the moment you were touching, you'd get bit hard enough to remember you don't wnt to do that again, but unles you're particualrly sensitive to electrcitiy, not much more.

All bets are off if you try this experiment while a lightning storm is in progress.

Usual "not ringing" voltage (AKA "Battery", in the parlance of phone-folks) is about 48 volts DC. When a ring is actively in progress, I've heard numbers ranging from 80 to 105 volts AC being called "normal". During a conversation, 30-48 volts of modulated DC is typical.

--
Don Bruder - dakidd@sonic.net - If your "From:" address isn\'t on my whitelist,
or the subject of the message doesn\'t contain the exact text "PopperAndShadow"
somewhere, any message sent to this address will go in the garbage without my
ever knowing it arrived. Sorry...  for more info

">

Don already answered the technical part of your question, I'll respond to the safety part. Yes, you were too careless. You admitted you didn't know what voltage was present and you went ahead and touched the wires anyway. This time no problem. Clean up you habits. Regards, Tom

No. Telephones are "low voltage" wiring, like doorbells and fire alarms, and are not dangerous. Dangerous voltages are wired differently and are subject to licensing, inspection, and and building codes.

John

Ever watch an outside plant lineman repair a buried splice in the rain standing or sitting on damp earth? You'll notice we don't take any special precautions. At most, the 48 volt line current will tickle, but the reflex action when you get across the 90 VAC ring current could cause you to fall off a ladder.

Replace the word current with voltage. For some weird reason, the telco industry calls voltage "current" and alternating current power as "battery".

A or signal battery = 24 VDC un-filtered (has hum) for relays and buzzers B or talk battery = 24 VDC filtered (has no hum)for intercom Ring current = 90 VAC or 105 VAC ringing voltage Lamp battery = 16 VAC Foreign battery = any outside power leaking into the circuit, like an AC line.

Only a complete novice in the telco world (or maybe a lineman) would call "AC " a battery. I spent a few years in the industry and NOBODY ever said such a stupid thing.

On a wet day we NEVER worked on a line without rubber gloves.

Don

Ummm...mebbe after a few years and then 20 more you might have heard of it. Just a guess.

Look at the schematic of a IA2 key system, you'll see a reference to "lamp battery" which is 16 VAC power.

Well, if you need to pick nits....... My NCS date is in 1955, so I guess my reference to "a few years" was a little off.

Do you realize that the Lamp Battery lead was originally connected to a DC supply? Connecting it to an AC supply doesn't validate your idea that they ever called AC a battery.

Don

I saw an old 1A2 PBX still using banks of batteries in the '70s at the Pontiac dealership in Middletown Ohio. It had a couple racks full of two cell, 4 volt clear lead acid batteries. Ohio Bell no longer wanted to service it, so they replaced it with one of the early japanese electronic key systems. It was a real piece of crap. I never had any problems with the telephone to page interface in the Western Electric

1A2 system, but in a years time four separate paging interfaces exploded. They had the design too close to the limits, and lost a lot of aluminum electrolytics every time there was a power surge, or a nearby lightning strike. BTW, Ohio Bell abandoned the old system in place, so I took most of the 4 volt batteries and used them around my shop, for years. I also pulled out over 1000 feet of 25 pair cable when I replace the wiring for their paging system. It made great pull wire, since they ran from the upstairs equipment room, down to every place that I needed to pull a new single pair cable.

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I\'ve got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

Sometimes I wonder why, but when I retired I kept my Key Systems Manuals, Data Service Manuals, Interconnect Manuals, and my favorite Bell Labs Records. Nostalgia isn't what it used to be, but........

I have some Stromberg-Carlson 1A2 manuals. I maintained them for some AM radio stations, the last one was replace four years ago. I still have a couple new 1A2 line cards and interrupters, somewhere, along with about 1000 good used telephone slide lamps for the old phones. I have a few of the older, larger version used in switchboards. They have wood wedges for bases.

--
Service to my country? Been there, Done that, and I\'ve got my DD214 to
prove it.
Member of DAV #85.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

That's not my idea, but if you read the manual to any 1A2 key system

*IT* will validate my statement when you see a reference to the "lamp battery" being fed from the 16 volts AC power.