A ringer box is a

telephone A telephone, colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that enables two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be easily heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most ...

signaling device, similar to a

bell box A bell box is an audible device, often Electricity, electric, which when activated, emits a Warning chime, chime, bell, or buzzer sound. Components The housing of the bell box may be manufactured from wood, metal, or plastic. The basic core comp ...

. It usually contains an electromechanical gong and was used with most early desk stand telephones, such as candlestick telephones and the

Western Electric Western Electric Co., Inc. was an American electrical engineering and manufacturing company that operated from 1869 to 1996. A subsidiary of the AT&T Corporation for most of its lifespan, Western Electric was the primary manufacturer, supplier, ...

type Western Electric hand telephone sets, which were too small to hold a ringer and other required electrical components. Many pay station telephones also used a separate ringer box. In telephony, ringer boxes and similar devices are often categorized as subscriber sets. The ringer contained in the ringer box alerts a call recipient to incoming calls by ringing one or more metallic

bell A bell /ˈbɛl/ () is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be m ...

s emitting a

ringtone A ringtone is the sound made by a telephone to indicate an incoming telephone call. Originally referring to the sound of electromechanical striking of bells or gongs, the term refers to any sound by any device alerting of an incoming call. On p ...

. Ringers were commonly placed in the same housing as the subscriber set, which consisted of other electrical components, such as

induction coil An induction coil or "spark coil" ( archaically known as an inductorium or Ruhmkorff coil after Heinrich Rühmkorff) is a type of transformer used to produce high-voltage pulses from a low-voltage direct current (DC) supply. p.98 To create the ...

capacitor In electrical engineering, a capacitor is a device that stores electrical energy by accumulating electric charges on two closely spaced surfaces that are insulated from each other. The capacitor was originally known as the condenser, a term st ...

s, and, if required, a magneto generator. The subscriber set interfaced a telephone set to the telephone network, while magneto generators were used in a manual exchange to generate a remote ring signal. The Western Electric 302-type telephone was the first widely used Bell System telephone to include the ringer and other subscriber set components inside the housing of the telephone set. Almost all telephones manufactured since have an

internal Internal may refer to: *Internality as a concept in behavioural economics *Neijia, internal styles of Chinese martial arts *Neigong or "internal skills", a type of exercise in meditation associated with Daoism * ''Internal'' (album) by Safia, 2016 ...

phone ringer.

Components

A ringer box consists of a case made of wood, metal, or plastic, containing bells or gongs and an electromagnetically-driven clapper which strikes the gongs when actuated. The electromagnet of the clapper responds to the alternating current sent from a central office exchange or another phone via the telephone network wiring. The direct current required by the telephone's audio circuitry is blocked with a capacitor before entering the ringer to prevent the ringer from being triggered by circuit interruptions and pulse dialing. Typical ring signals ranged from 60 to over 100 Volts at a frequency of 20-30 Hertz.

Producers

{{Portal, Telephones Ringer boxes were produced by all manufacturers of customer-premises telephone equipment. In North America, the prominent producers were

, Automatic Electric, and

Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company The Kellogg Switchboard and Supply Company was an American manufacturer of telecommunication equipment. Anticipating the expiration of the earliest, fundamental Bell System patents, Milo G. Kellogg, an electrical engineer, founded the company in ...

, while in Europe companies such as Siemens & Halske and Ericsson mass-produced devices. History of the telephone