Wire and Insulation Q

Sep 01, 2003 8 Replies
W

I have a few thousand feet of some old plastic insulated twisted pair telephone wire stuck away in my garage that has me puzzled. It's 24 AWG (.5 mm) but the insulation is thicker than usual. The usual overal diameter is .044" or 1.1mm, but this wire is about .065" or 1.6 mm. I've cut chunks off to use in some places, and wherever I cut and strip it, the copper is tarnished like it was stripped and exposed to the elements for years. But that's underneath the insulation. So I'm puzzled as to why the insulation didn't protect it from being oxidized and corroded. Maybe something in the insulation itself?



The color codes don't conform to the ones in use today, probably because things were different a few decades ago. I think that it might be good for hooking up field phones in a forest somewhere. Any ideas?



BTW, I was web surfing and found some interesting info the other day on "Murphy phones" for cave rescue. Might be of some use, somedsy.

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@@F@r@o@m@@O@r@a@n@g@e@@C@o@u@n@t@y@,@@C@a@l@,@@w@h@e@r@e@@ ###Got a Question about ELECTRONICS? Check HERE First:### http://users.pandora.be/educypedia/electronics/databank.htm My email address is whitelisted. *All* email sent to it goes directly to the trash unless you add NOSPAM in the Subject: line with other stuff. alondra101 hotmail.com Don't be ripped off by the big book dealers. Go to the URL that will give you a choice and save you money(up to half). http://www.everybookstore.com You'll be glad you did! Just when you thought you had all this figured out, the gov't changed it: http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html@@t@h@e@@a@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@m@e@e@t@@t@h@e@@E@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@
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E

Sounds like Quad cable that used to be used for telephone. 4 conductor, not even twisted pairs. They used to use all 4 conductors -- green/red for talk and black/yellow for the ringer, which used to be a bell that drew a fair amount of current at 90VAC.

CIAO!

Ed Nielsen Society of Cable Telecommunicati> I have a few thousand feet of some old plastic insulated twisted pair

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G

Bell and voice were driven from the same loop (green/red). The usual install was to use the black/yellow for a second line or for the "Princess" lighted phones. Those phones had small lamps in them. In that case they used a "wall wart" type transformer to power the second pair which was used to power the lamps.

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S

It seems that some wires, in particular silver plated wire, will tarnish from the plasticizer in the insulation.

Cheers!

Chip Shults My robotics, space and CGI web page -

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E

I remember tearing into some phones that had them going to the bell, but then again, my memory may be a bit foggy on that. Wasn't quite yesterday.

CIAO!

Ed Nielsen CENCOM

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George wrote:

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J

Some of the old party line phones used a 3rd wire, to determine which of 2 subscribers the call was for.

Fundamentalism is fundamentally wrong. To reply to this message, replace everything to the left of "@" with james.knott.
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J

Were you on a party line?

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Fundamentalism is fundamentally wrong.

To reply to this message, replace everything to the left of "@" with james.knott.

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W

In article , snipped-for-privacy@comcast.net mentioned...

No, it's a single twisted pair, with odd colors like blue and black. Thanks.

@@F@r@o@m@@O@r@a@n@g@e@@C@o@u@n@t@y@,@@C@a@l@,@@w@h@e@r@e@@ ###Got a Question about ELECTRONICS? Check HERE First:### http://users.pandora.be/educypedia/electronics/databank.htm My email address is whitelisted. *All* email sent to it goes directly to the trash unless you add NOSPAM in the Subject: line with other stuff. alondra101 hotmail.com Don't be ripped off by the big book dealers. Go to the URL that will give you a choice and save you money(up to half). http://www.everybookstore.com You'll be glad you did! Just when you thought you had all this figured out, the gov't changed it: http://physics.nist.gov/cuu/Units/binary.html@@t@h@e@@a@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@m@e@e@t@@t@h@e@@E@f@f@l@u@e@n@t@@
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