Finding a Western Electric L1AMP Ringer
At a recent Telephone Collectors International show in Hicksville, NY, we stumbled upon a beautiful Western Electric L1AMP dual-gong external ringer that was a must-have for our upcoming second phone installation. While the phone for that installation, a Western Electric 236G, has an added ringer in the coin vault, we don’t know the provenance of it and if it is even meant to be used with a telephone! From the beginning we had mused about installing an external ringer and this one should fit the bill nicely.
The L1AMP (or LIAMP, there seems to be some confusion on the exact name based on how WE labeled things), is a fully-functional, standalone ringer meant to provide an additional source of ringing for an incoming call. The ringer is meant for both indoor and outdoor use, though I’m not sure how well it would hold up facing the elements directly (it is probably better under some cover), and provides a much louder ring than you would get with a ringer in a standard telephone. I can picture this ringer installed at an old warehouse or farm to be a loud, attention-grabber. As we plan to install this indoors in a somewhat quiet business, we’ll have to come up with a plan to dampen the gongs directly or encase the whole ringer in a box to muffle its full power. Each gong seems to resonate at a different frequency to create a nice harmony, so we need to be careful as to not obscure the sound too much.
One detail that had been alluding us was a possible date of manufacture. Throughout the life of this ringer, it went under a few different model numbers and most are difficult to get information about. However, thanks to digitized Federal Supply Groups and Classes (FSGs) we can look up different parts and pieces of equipment used by the US government over a long period of time. The oldest entry I can find for this ringer dates it to 1963, and the notes on that page mention they were installed in B-52 Stratofortress stealth bomber planes!
