Found a cool bell at a flea market.

[Mac]

I found this bell in the navy-grey condition in the first picture at what seemed to be a pretty reasonable price. I was told it worked (skeptical, of course...) and was used to call the kids in from recess at some school yard.

Took it home, threw a cord on it and plugged it in- It worked! ....So I took it apart and went through the wires and nasty screws.....did some sandblasting....little paint....Wala! Once i re-assembled it i realized the tag said it was 24v....What? Will I have killed the motor having run it on 120v? Is the 24v AC or DC?....and what should I get to plus this into regular house current?

Can anyone give me an age on it? Honestly I don't care if it is of particular value...It will look sweet over my garage next to the Federal A.

[AKSoapy29]

Well it says 60 cycles, so I'm going to guess AC.

[Mac]

Well it says 60 cycles, so I'm going to guess AC.

Good catch... I didn't even think about that.

[AKSoapy29]

No problem. My dad was telling me about Ac single phase and three phase just a few weeks/months ago. 60 cycles, hence the name Alternating Current.

[Ziginox]

I wonder how this thing was powered, 24 volts is odd for AC...

[Daniel]

Most school bell systems up through the 1980's used 24 VAC supplied by a large version of a doorbell transformer. By that time, most schools were moving away from mechanical bells and horns in favor of electronic tones over the intercom (or chimes in European schools).

[Mac]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AC-Heat-Pump-un ... 415d3d84c5

Would that work?

[AKSoapy29]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AC-Heat-Pump-un ... 415d3d84c5

Would that work?

We'll the bell has AMPS on the tag. How many amps does it say? And I have a Pan Tilt Zoom camera mount that runs off of 24VAC. Luckily I have a 24VAC transformer for my battery back up panel, so I used it and it worked great, not the this has anything todo with sirens...

[murrfarms]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AC-Heat-Pump-un ... 415d3d84c5

Would that work?

Why spend that much money when you could buy this one for a lot cheaper? The bell only pulls .35A based on the ID tag, so you really can't get a transformer that's too small, unless you get some kind of micro transformer.

[Daniel]

I installed a system of 24VAC bells in a school last year. There were four bells, and one Edwards 50VA signaling transformer was enough to run them all.