This box is solidly made with the bells on the front rather than the top. The edges are held together with dovetailing. The four corners of the base show holes where it could be affixed to a wall. The inside panel of the box contains its original instructions for operation and the patent sticker.
Weight: 5.0lbs
Size: H. 4.0x W. 6.5x D. 10.0"
Age: 1900
Material: Oak
Marks: Western Electric
History: A ringer box is a telephone signaling device housed in a bell box or subscriber set (subset). It usually contains an electromechanical gong and was used with most early desk stand telephones, including the candlestick telephones and the Western Electric model 102 and 202 telephones, which were too small to hold a ringer or other needed electrical components. Many pay station telephones also used a separate ringer box.The ringer alerts a call recipient to incoming calls by ringing one or more metallic bells creating a ringtone.Ringers were commonly placed in the same housing as the subscriber set, which consisted of other electrical components, such as induction coils, capacitors, and, if required, a magneto generator. The subscriber set interfaced a telephone set to the telephone network, while magneto generators where used in manual service station to generate a remote ring signal.In 1936, the Western Electric Model 302 telephone was the first widely used Bell System telephone to include the phone ringer and subscriber set inside in the same housing as the telephone set.

Some patination darkens the wood, but it is in otherwise great condition with minor surface damage.