The British GPO746 is another classic model in this category. Just like UK Mellor-style traffic lights, the design was licensed to multiple manufacturers each of whom had their own quirks. This should be labelled as a nerd cognitohazard — once you know, you are at risk of trying to collect one of each type and then compare them (phones and traffic lights)!
I too have had little luck getting my hardware to activate the phone’s chimes but that at least led me to another fun quirk. The cabling for the phone has named wires that corresponded to the original switchboard connectors, which looked like enormous headphone jacks. They had two contacts: one at the tip of the plug and one for the collar that sits around the plug behind the tip, separated by insulation. The collar is ring shaped so this part of the circuit is called the ring connection.
Whoever dreamt that naming scheme up? It would be like calling the dial — where you set in the number you wanted to dial with you hand — the hand-set! Or calling a mute button the ear-peace!
I too have had little luck getting my hardware to activate the phone’s chimes but that at least led me to another fun quirk. The cabling for the phone has named wires that corresponded to the original switchboard connectors, which looked like enormous headphone jacks. They had two contacts: one at the tip of the plug and one for the collar that sits around the plug behind the tip, separated by insulation. The collar is ring shaped so this part of the circuit is called the ring connection.
Whoever dreamt that naming scheme up? It would be like calling the dial — where you set in the number you wanted to dial with you hand — the hand-set! Or calling a mute button the ear-peace!