Tallbloke

Olds, mate. That's a corker. I like what looks like the innards out of an old AFA bell behind the hurdy -gurdy. That's effectively the panel and PSU, isn't it? You could be known as The Curator. Of the museum, that is. Retro alarms. LOL I did a search on Google and read something about early signalling systems and how they predated and later gave rise to city-wide phone systems in the US. The first electric burglar alarm was used in 1858, apparently. Bit before my time.

Right, here goes. One of oldest panels I worked on when I started with Moderns in 1986 was a Brocks Analyzer. It had EOL batteries in the form of flag cells with 6v lantern batts to power the panel. They sometimes had a reel to reel tape player attached, a 999 unit which had to be rewound by hand to reset. Until someone told me about a link between two terminals which would rewind it under it's own power. If the EOLs went down and you'd run out of flag cells, you could put a 6v on the end to get you out of trouble. For about 10 minutes when it would FA as you were driving away. The oldest had to be the S type 1. A keyswitch and toggle switch on a block with the panel containing batts mounted higher up the wall. Lacking a buzzer, this beauty would ring both internal and external bells on setting and unsetting. I'll bet the neighbours were impressed. I remember a 74 panel connected to a boxed turntable that had to be reset by pressing a button on the deck and cueing up the record. The start of my DJing career.