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What is this? Northern Electric 98A What is this? Northern Electric 98A
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Old 08-24-2009, 12:59 PM   #1
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Default What is this? Northern Electric 98A
Can anyone identify this? It was brought in as a puzzle and boy is it ever!
Under the black centre cap there are two ceramic graphite sliders (no springs or return mechanism) and the rods on the sides have a series of small slots cut to align with the cutouts in the backing piece. The back of the device is potted with beeswax.

Northern Electric 98A
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Old 08-24-2009, 01:03 PM   #2
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Lightning protection for telephone lines.
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Old 08-24-2009, 01:13 PM   #3
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Awesome. It is marked patented 1938. I'd love to read the patent on it. Anyone good with patent searches?
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Old 08-24-2009, 01:57 PM   #4
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You may check with Nortel, They started out as Northern Electric part of ATT. They had there own Canadian versions of Western Electric (Bell) equipment.
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Old 08-24-2009, 02:58 PM   #5
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Ha! I used to work for nortel in their Ottawa labs until about 2000 or so. There are no old timers left who'd know about this kind of thing; I promise you that.
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Old 08-24-2009, 03:04 PM   #6
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I didn't imply to find a employee from 1938, (71 years on the job) they may have a little museum or historical office.
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Old 08-24-2009, 07:53 PM   #7
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I think I'd have better luck at museums. Nortel is currently in such a bad way that they have employees that have had their pay held back for weeks and the pension/severance fund has been redistributed in the form of bonuses to upper management. It is a desperate shadow of a once great organization.
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Old 08-24-2009, 07:55 PM   #8
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There's still a heck of a lot of them in use in old house basements all over my area. They typically get bypassed if the person gets a DSL line.
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