# An old switch and a mystery device from Queens NYC



## BuzzKill (Oct 27, 2008)

some kind of capacitor?


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## Grimlock (Aug 4, 2009)

Maybe the house was bugged by the CIA?! 

Where were the BLK, RED, WHT wires attached exactly? You said it was behind an outlet?


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## BryanMD (Dec 31, 2007)

Alex.K.NY said:


> Pulled these out during a remodel of an apartment in Queens. Same building in which Charlie Chaplin had once lived, I was told (different apartment though).


mentions:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kew_Gardens,_*Queens*
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayside,_Queens

but nothing specific here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charlie_Chaplin



> Here's an interesting bugger:
> It was sitting in the back of an electrical box, connected to the terminals of a conventional 115V outlet. Whoever can tell me more about this device's function gets respect.



* Duplex radio aerial system *
get the drawings (in pdf) from here:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/1965539.html


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## Alex.K.NY (Feb 17, 2010)

Grimlock said:


> Maybe the house was bugged by the CIA?!
> 
> Where were the BLK, RED, WHT wires attached exactly? You said it was behind an outlet?


The device's 16...18AWG black, white were appropriately connected to the same-color (live and neutral respectively) 12AWG wiring in the box. Except that wiring did not carry 115V - there was a very minor voltage.

The red was connected to the phase/live terminal on the outlet and there was a separate wire connecting the neutral of the box's wiring (where the device's white wire was attached as mentioned) and the neutral terminal on the outlet.

BryanMD gets the respect - smart move to look into the patent mentioned on the label.

I went a different way - guessed based on the remaining letters that the device's name was Multicoupler, googling which had brought up a May 1942 issue of Popular Mechanics - here's the relevant page 159:










So the little bugger was a part of the building's radio signal distribution infrastructure over the household electrical wiring - a sort of a circa-1940s PLC. 

Curiously, the outlet had close to 115V on its terminals even though the power leads in the box did not carry appreciable voltage. My only guess as to why is that given that the infrastructure had been unused and largely dismantled for some time, some nimrod elsewhere in the building must have connected 115V to a similar outlet in his apartment without disconnecting this thing, and the two Multicouplers are acting like a step-down and step-up transformer pair. If any real load were connected to this outlet it's an interesting question which one would catch on fire first.


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## Dennis Alwon (May 9, 2009)

Alex.K.NY said:


> A switch - hadn't had chance to clean it yet:
> Alex


Those switch are quite common from years ago. I have seen them connected to the old Knob & Tube wiring.


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## BryanMD (Dec 31, 2007)

Alex.K.NY said:


> BryanMD gets the respect - smart move to look into the patent mentioned on the label.



Well, it's like this:
Considering that the vast majority of my posts are totally off the cuff and based in little more than that... to maintain what little credibility i have around here I need to actually do some homework now and then and post accurate, objectively true information based in confirmable research.


btw, welcome to the forum.


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## Toronto Sparky (Apr 12, 2009)

I got a couple of those devices that plugged into a reg outlet and had 300 ohm twin cable that you connected to your ant. terminal on the TV . 
I think they were big in the 60s


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## Alex.K.NY (Feb 17, 2010)

BryanMD said:


> Well, it's like this:
> Considering that the vast majority of my posts are totally off the cuff and based in little more than that... to maintain what little credibility i have around here I need to actually do some homework now and then and post accurate, objectively true information based in confirmable research.
> 
> 
> btw, welcome to the forum.


LOL makes sense

Thanks for the welcome!


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## RICK BOYD (Mar 10, 2008)

http://www.freepatentsonline.com/1965539.html [ here it is listed]click on it to see schematics and description

its a noise suppressor for a duplex radio antenna 
I found it in Google patent search from the # , 
but the computer won't let me copy and attach it

Here's an interesting bugger:








It was sitting in the back of an electrical box, connected to the terminals of a conventional 115V outlet. Whoever can tell me more about this device's function gets respect.


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## jw0445 (Oct 9, 2009)

Old telephone load coil.


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