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.

  • Jay@lemmy.caOP
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    2 days ago

    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.

      • Jay@lemmy.caOP
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        1 day ago

        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.)

        • Feyr@lemmy.world
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          16 hours ago

          That’s what you’d think, but the 911 system for the whole State probably really of those cells