Pattern 1856 Navyphone

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File:Pattern1856NavyphoneCoverRemoved 1902.jpg
Pattern 1856 Navyphone with cover and transmitter removed
As shown in Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1902, the arrangement of the rigid and flexible receiver is shown oppositely in all other sources.

The Pattern 1856 Navyphone was an early example of Navyphone used in the Royal Navy, intended for use in engine room, requiring the user to walk over to it and swing up an ear piece on an arm to place it over his ear.

The 1856 first appeared around 1902 along with the Pattern 1855 Navyphone which was intended for use in quieter upper deck areas.[1] In 1903, its design was modified slightly to simplify the rotary switch that was activated by rotating the receiver arm upward.[2]

Form Factor

The 1856 was bulkhead mounted in a cylindrical iron chassis, approximately 13cm across.[3] When the external call-up bell[4] was hear to ring, someone would walk over and answer the call by swinging a rigid copper arm upward and outward 90 degrees so he could place the rubber ear cup on its end over his ear. This action switched out the bell call-up circuit and activated the transmitter and receivers. A second earpiece on a flexible copper tube could be cupped over his other ear to help isolate him from the noisy engineroom.

Pattern 1856 Navyphone
As shown in Torpedo Drill Book, 1914. The small circle at the 1 o'clock position may be a call-up bush button.

It is not clear that this phone had a call-up push by which it could initiate calls to the other end, but this may be indicated in the small drawing in the 1914 Torpedo Drill Book.

The transmitter was affixed by 3 screws and could be revolved (by rolling about its axis)[5] "to shake up the carbon granules."[6]

Like most navyphones before those used in Lord Nelson, Bellerophon and later classes, these phones were probably battery-powered, initially, powered in pairs off six pattern 1453 cells in a pattern 1704 battery box.[7] This box was separate.

Service Life

These phones were almost certainly obsolete by 1924, by which time only phones in the 2460 and 3330 series were in general use.[8]

See Also

Footnotes

  1. Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1902, p. 60.
  2. Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1903, p. 78.
  3. estimating from Annual Report of the Torpedo School, 1903, Plate 20.
  4. Torpedo Drill Book, 1914, p. 261.
  5. Electrical Drill Book, 1924, p. 275.
  6. Torpedo Drill Book, 1914, p. 260.
  7. Torpedo Drill Book, 1914, p. 263.
  8. Electrical Drill Book, 1924, p. 286.

Bibliography