Please help me identify this device in my basement

Question

I hope this is simple. I'm trying to figure out what this thing is.

This device was in the basement of my house when I moved in. It's dusty and covered in cobwebs, so I would think that nothing has interacted with it in a while. It's near the electric panel, and it's almost as far away from any door in the house as you can get. It is under a bedroom.

The text on the bottom says "Northern Electric" and "98A". The text on the round part says "Patented 1938".

The wires that come out of it wind around the basement some and then disappear into the ceiling.

What is it?

I think it is for an old telephone or maybe a doorbell. Quite sure a similar picture was posted on here last year or more and for telephone was the answer. — crip659, Jan 07 '24 at 22:43
@popham Search does say telephone lighting protector, so the answer is correct. I should have searched before comment. — crip659, Jan 07 '24 at 22:47
@crip, fortunately I had time to edit my incorrect guess. The unidentified thingy in my basement was a doorbell transformer, so of course that's the unidentified thingy in anybody else's basement. — popham, Jan 07 '24 at 22:52

score 5 · Answer 1 · answered Jan 07 '24 at 22:43

5

It is a vintage (late 1930s/1940s) lightning/surge protector for telephone lines.

answered Jan 07 '24 at 22:43

UnhandledExcepSean

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Please help me identify this device in my basement

1 Answers1