People baffled by 'mysterious black box' hidden away for decades in 1905 home
A homeowner has been left baffled after he came across a mysterious electrical box in a brickwork crawl space under his home.
Now, he has taken to Reddit to search for clues about a mysterious electrical box from the turn of the century hidden underneath his home
He explained how the strange object, described as a “black box with wires attached” which was about five inches long, was “found in my 1905 home’s crawl space”.
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Taking to Reddit, he said: “It felt kinda heavy when I tapped the side. It was not nailed down rather just sitting on the brick ledge that separates the two halves of my crawl space.”
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The mystery box, which has almost certainly sat undiscovered for decades, is very hard to get to. “It’s in the depths of my very dirty crawl space I have to army crawl to get to [it],” the owner explained.
The black box has a handle and six metal circles arranged in a semi-circle on the front, with the owner saying the numbers 0,4,6,8,10 were written under the circles. Reddit users had a wide range of theories about what the object might be but many shared concerns about the state of the electrical wiring in the picture.
“Yikes on the wiring,” said one user. “Get it replaced when you can. Until then don't touch it. Particularly not liking the exposed cable on the left and the exposed connectors on the transformer. Not to mention the exposed taps on the front of the transformer.”
One commenter speculated that the mystery box could be an “old school phone interchange” while another suggested: “With those numbers it could be related to Amateur Radio (Ham radio). Maybe an antenna selector to switch between the 4-metre band to the 10-metre band.”
But, many were able to identify the object as a very old electrical transformer. “This is a selectable transformer that puts out 0,4,6,8,10, or 12 volts. it is currently set on 12, common for most doorbells. This one is an antique. Beautiful,” one user said.
“What it was used for you can only guess by seeing where the wires go,” another commenter explained. “It could be for a toy, or a fan, or lighting, or really anything that it was desirable to alter the output voltage.”
Internet sleuths even managed to find an image of the original, which had been sold to work with toy train sets, identified as a Little Jeff Toy Transformer from the Jefferson Electric Company of Chicago. This would make the device around 100 years old.
What it was doing in the crawl space remains a mystery. The owner had a theory, saying: “One wire went towards the front of the house up into the ceiling of crawl space (floor of house). Perhaps towards front door for doorbell?”
Meanwhile another commenter suggested it may have been left down there by a child many years ago. “A kid could have left it under there 100 years ago while playing with his train set. Crazy cool,” they said.
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