r/whatisit • u/AstroNerd7 • 8h ago

Solved! Found in Basment of House

Gallery image

Gallery image

Ive been cleaning up the basement of the house I just bought and found this.

18 Upvotes

92% Upvoted

30 comments sorted by

•

u/spotlight-app Mod Bot 🤖 8h ago

OP has pinned a comment by u/Signal-Drama7885:

Western Electric telephone station protector

[What is Spotlight?](https://developers.reddit.com/apps/spotlight-app)

29

u/Signal-Drama7885 8h ago

Western Electric telephone station protector

2

u/AstroNerd7 8h ago

Solved!

1

u/AutoModerator 8h ago

Thanks! Post flair has been updated to solved! Nice job people.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

7

u/ThraceLonginus 8h ago

Western Electric 98-A porcelain telephone lightning arrester and fuse block

1

u/Elementary2 8h ago

yeah, bottom line - lightning can come into the home through wires, such as telephone lines. As a matter of fact, back in the day, myself and a few of my friends were zapped on our ears while talking on the phone in a rain storm. So you had to put grounds near the incoming lines, to strip off lightning.

Seriously, we used to get hit in the ear / head by the lightning, from the telephone line. =) It wasn't even that uncommon.. I've lost 400 dollars worth of modems.

There was one guy who never let us hang up - he would keep talking and try to force us into staying online to pay attention to him. One day the lightning hit him and I could hear him scream "ouch! fuck!" ... and I laughed my ass off. I said 'Well, if you had hung up when I asked you to hang up, you'd be fine right now.'.

0

u/AstroNerd7 8h ago

Wow thanks for all the information man! I love learning stuff like this. I don't have a landline and don't plan on ever having one, does it need to stay up? I plan on really cleaning the basement and slowly turning it into a living space.

1

u/Elementary2 7h ago

you can safely remove all those and the equipment =) If you ever needed a land line, it's super easy to pull a line through the walls, seal it with a silicone rubber, or whatever.

5

u/Financial_Classic_53 8h ago

Flux capacitor.

3

u/DesignerFlat7108 8h ago

Fuse for old POTS telephone service.

6

u/Ok_Novel9327 8h ago

The item in the image is a vintage Western Electric 98-A telephone lightning arrester (often labeled Model 98-A), which acts as an old-fashioned surge and lightning protector for legacy POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) landline wires.

2

u/Ok-Chemical-1020 8h ago

Short it out, does it go ding dong?

2

u/Comfortable_Ball_765 8h ago

I forget what it is called but basically Its a old outdated "surge protector" for house phones

3

u/Elementary2 8h ago

lightning arrestor , most likely

2

u/zrad603 8h ago

I think It's either an old heat-sensor for an old fire alarm, or it's some kind of surge protector for a telephone line.

1

u/AutoModerator 8h ago

OP, please reply to the correct answer with "solved!" (include the !). That will change the flair on the post to solved. If you want to put the correct answer at the top of the replies for everybody else, please use our Spotlight feature by tapping/clicking on the three dots and selecting "Spotlight, Pin this comment" in order to highlight it for other members. Thanks for using our friendly Automod!

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

2

u/[deleted] 8h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/whatisit-ModTeam 8h ago

Sorry we don't allow direct copy/pastes of AI generated content or partial/altered text responses containing AI/search engines results here.

While it can be a tool to find the answer, be mindful that it can be misleading.

1

u/mmn_slc 8h ago

Western Electric 98-A telephone lightning arrester.

1

u/onegreatbroad 8h ago

I’m guessing doorbell.