Butler's bell
When it became time to get a new doorbell, we were wondering what to do. Most of the electronic ones, we saw, sounded a bit... well, electronic. We didn't like it that much.
So looking around for a real, old fashion bell, we saw the ones you pulled. Like on the photo on the left. But would the postman still know how it would work?? Or would he still knock a hole in our door?
Then I saw an example of a butler's bell, a sort of electrified one. Like the one on the right. That gave me some thing to work on. This one was made by Antique door bells.
Our new door bell hat to work on batteries (as there was no power supply nearby), ring once, but only once (i.e. of someone only touch the bell very short, it still had to ring, but preferably not continue to ring for a long time). After quite a lot of of experimenting, models, working with an electric motors (too high rpm), solenoids (not powerful enough), my friendly neighbour came with a servo from a model car. It needed 'a little adjustment' as the servo would only turn 30 degrees, but that was doable.
The current bell has three 9v batteries serial connected. There is a micro switch with roller lever, which is parallel to the door switch a small lever which pulls the bell.
The bell itself, I found in an antique market, locally.
This is the bell working. I adjusted it a bit, so the after ring is not as long anymore.
Below is schematic drawing of the electronics.
Left a pricture of the 'inner workings'of the bell. This is from before the micro switch was installed.
A bell's not a bell 'til you ring it
A song's not a song 'til you sing it
Love in your heart wasn't put there to stay
Love isn't love 'til you give it away!”
Oscar Hammerstein