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Magneto Telephone Systems

Introduction
Dating back over 100 years, magnetos were used in the earliest telephone systems. Even to this 21st century, such magneto systems are still used in many specialized situations, especially by soldiers in the field.

History
When Alexander Bell invented the telephone, he only found a way to send a voice signal to a distant location. In the early days, when telephone was still a novelty, only pairs of customers were connected by direct wire. Bell realized that a way must be found to allow one party to alert the other to come to the telephone. He consulted his good friend Thomas Edison, who suggested the magneto, which Edison had just perfected. Thus a telephone system was born where Edisons magneto was used to alert the other party and Bells microphone and speaker was used for talking. Both the ringing and the voice signals share the use of the same wire. In actual use, the originator would crank a handle, which would generate ringing current to cause the distant telephone box to ring. Then the distant person would go to the telephone and answer the call. The magneto telephone also has a self-contained battery, which is used to power the microphone. This battery voltage, besides powering the microphone, serves no other purpose. Thus the wire line does not have DC voltage of the battery, only the AC voltage of the voice signal. In the early days, lead-acid battery was used, with a replacement schedule of 6 months.

Party Lines
At the beginning, two parties would have a wire between them. Then, three parties would have a wire between each of the three possible party-pairs. Five customers would need 10 wires, if each of the five wants to talk to any of the other four. In general, the number of wires for n parties is n(n1)/2, increasing with the square of the number of 2 Parties 3 Parties customers. In todays terminology, these wires are called private lines, since no one else can have access to them.

5 Parties

John Pan

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Bell soon realized that as the number of customers grew, the number of wires would become unwieldy. So, at first he devised the party line, the first ring network. In this scheme, each of the parties would be assigned a ringing cadence, for example, one short ring, followed by two long rings. The originator of a call would crank the magneto according to the cadence of the desired party. Then the party hearing his or her own cadence would answer the phone. In practice, everybody goes to answer the phone just to hear what others have to say to each other. The issues are no different in todays optical ring topology.

Ring Network

Central Office
As the number of telephone subscribers grew even more, the ring topology no longer suffice. The central office concept was born. No wires connect any pair of customers, but a telephone operator would be connected to each of the customers. In this way, the number of wires needed for n parties is just n. To reach another party, the customer must first alert the operator, who in turn would alert the end party. During this early history of the telephone, the magneto was used both for the originating party to alert the operator, and for the operator to alert the end party.

Central Office Scheme

In many instances, a combination of techniques was used to reduce the number of wires to remote locations. A ring would be used at a remote location, with a single wire from the ring to the central office.

Today, of course, computers replaced the operators in central offices. Battery circuits replaced the users magneto to alert the computer. Ringing current generator in the central office replaced the operators magneto. However, the topology, and the methodology of making a telephone call remained the same since the beginning of telephones.

Long Lines
As the distance between telephones increase, the voice signals would get weaker. This was not a problem within a city. Telephone calls between cities posed a problem of weak signals. Those were the days before electronic amplifiers. One method employed was to have a human situated at the halfway point of a long line. That person would listen to the words from one side and shout the same words towards the other side. That person is called a repeater. To this day, electronic amplifiers used in telephony are still called repeaters.

John Pan

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Magneto Systems in Use Today

Even today, magneto systems find applications in many situations. The most well know are phone systems used by soldiers in the field. Commanders in the back need field telephones to communicate with the front lines. Radiotelephones provide one method, which has the advantage of mobility but the disadvantage of limited range and of enemy intercept, encryption notwithstanding. Magneto phones, being reliable, selfcontained, and easy to install, provide a simple and secure method of communication. In practice, a soldier, belonging to the signal corps, would back-pack a reel of wire and unreel while advancing. When the headquarters and the front lines are connected, the magneto phone is used to make calls [see anecdote].

Anecdote
During the French campaign of WWII, a signal corps soldier was stringing field telephone wires from headquarters of General Dwight Eisenhower to the front lines. As the soldier was splicing the wires of one reel to another, Eisenhower grew impatient for situation report. So he cranked his magneto phone just to see if he could reach his front line officers. The jolt of ringing current went through the hands of the soldier, who got very angry. Not knowing who cranked the magneto, he attached his own field telephone and yelled some colorful soldier language to stop phone use until after the entire system is hooked up and operating. Eisenhower, ever the gentleman, identified himself and apologized. He further complimented the soldier for the good work he was doing. The two even had a chance to meet. After WWII, the soldier worked for Bell Labs, now Lucent. The other application is to provide communications for right-of-way companies. Examples of such companies are electric utilities, railway, and pipeline companies, who own extensive right-of-way for their networks reaching places not usually serviced by public telephones. In remote stations, as with soldiers in the front line, magneto telephones are preferred over wireless systems. Although, due to the topology of the right-of-way, the stations are wired in a linear fashion, the telephones are used as in a ring, with each station assigned a ringing cadence.

Magneto Telephone Types

Although the voice signal is always send on the tip and ring wires of a telephone line, two methods are used to connect the magneto generator to the line. In the first, the magneto is wired to the tip and ring and so would be the ringer. Thus two magneto phones can ring each other and talk.

John Pan

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n the second, the magneto is wired to the tip and ground, and the ringer would also be across tip and ground. Again, two such magneto phones can ring each other and talk. However, another telephone with the ringer wired to the tip and ring would not ring. Thus this choice provide selective ringing of telephones on the same line.

Finally, some magneto phones have a selector switch that determines which of the above two methods the magneto signals should use. In this way, one user can select which remote telephone to ring.

In the Loop-AM3440 Magneto card design, the above three options are available. For the third case above, a universal Magneto Card is used that can automatically detect both ringing between tip and ring, or tip and ground (but not ring and ground). Then it will reproduce the ringing current on the same leads at the far end in a transparent way. (For ringing between ring and ground, just reverse tip and ring leads of the telephone line.)

Summary
Because they are self-contained with battery and ringing generator, magneto telephones, as old as they are, continues to this day. No central offices, or other central equipment are needed, just a pair of wires, to provide voice communication over a distance.

John Pan

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