They're from the phones you see in old movies that you had to crank to talk to an operator, commonly used up until the 1950's. I put my multimeter on one and it's still reading 1.3 volts. The owner told me I can take the whole lot of them if I want them which I'm tempted to do just because I like to collect old junk but I probably drag enough useless crap home as it is.

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[–] [S] 30 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I was snaking a 240 volt line up through the attic when I found them. Judging by the dust I'm probably the first person up there in a few years. The phone lines have been upgraded and rewired with all this older stuff disconnected and just left behind and forgotten about.

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  • [–] 17 points 1 year ago (3 children)

    With how things usually go in such cases, when you disconnect them half the city phone lines will go down.

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  • [–] [S] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

    Thankfully that would just knock out a few peoples lines around here. (The store is in a little village of around 400 people at best.)

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