Weird outlet in apartment...what is it?

[jhoff]

phone jack

[ibr_adam09]

That's something to brag about.

[coletrain]

That's something to brag about.

"Sup ladies, wanna come in a check out my weird hook thingy?"

[92turboaccord]

how high off the ground is this?
looks like some kind of buzzer

[jhoff]

think morris code

[honda_kid]

^^ How bout Morse code?

[visualpoet]

Is it possible your building housed a speakeasy? It looks like you could hang a coat or something on the hook closing the circuit and turning on a warning light or something of that nature when the police raided the joint. It's definitely a switch as opposed to a buzzer. If you had a wire follower ( emits a tone through the wires which a handheld device picks up, allowing you to trace wires), you could track it to it's origins and see what's on the other end.

[nine_deuce]

I wonder if that is for Morse code? looks very interesting

[fatboy1185]

Ask the landlord?

[mj213]

How high off the ground is it located? Is it near a door? Could be that the room its in used to be a lobby of sorts? Kind of looks like a doorbell to me.

[Brandoncb7]

It's turns on the red light to let people know he's ready to do work.

[mj213]

It can't be a telegraph because that design is for a repetitive motion like a buzzer/doorbell.

[cp[mike]]

ive been in a lot of weird old buildings and ive never seen anything like that, so I too am very curious as to what this setup is.

can you scrape that round part in the lower right corner clean, and take pictures of that? its another component that would help to see, perhaps it is some sort of input jack for a handset, which you would hang on the hook. so far we at least know that its a hook switch of some sort, and when the hook is lifted, the switch in the back is connected.

judging by the 3 wires out of the many that are running through the conduit, i would believe this to be a node in some sort of larger system, not an isolated thing. and judging by the gauge of the wires, its something low voltage, communications (or alarm?) or something.

is that the only one in your apt? where is it located, by one of the doors? at arm's height?

my immediate guess would be that it is some sort of intercom for the apartment complex. or at least something along those lines. if i could see and inspect it, and see where each of the wires lead to (pull back that black shield covering everything) and it would provide more clues im sure.

[coletrain]

This building was built in 1920.

I am on the 5th floor.

This switch is the same height as a light switch on the wall.

It's located in the foyer just inside the apartment.

[coletrain]

Here are some more suggestions from other people:

Every few hours this outlet makes a loud clicking sound...similar sound to flicking a breaker switch.

Sounds like a relay. That's exactly what they sound like. When it does, does the hook move up or down? In theory it should.

It's a contactor switch. When the hook is in the down position the circuit is open. When the hook is in the up position it is closed.

It could have been used as some sort of notifier or occupancy sensor. Say I hung my hat or keys off of it when I got home. It would open the circuit and turn off a light. When I left and picked up my hat/keys, the switch would close and turn on a light.

Hmmm, did some more thinking and I think I have wild ass guess. It is a contactor relay and when current is added to the leads, the middle contactor should move. This will cause the hook to move. But if you look at it, it doesn't move very far. More like a quick up and down motion. So I thought, why would you need to close a contact to move a hook just a very short distance. Then it hit me. You hang a bell on it. You run the wires to a button and when the button is press it closes that circuit. That circut then activates the relay and moves the hook. That quick jiggle would then ring the bell. It's probably a hook so you could put different kinds of bells or chimes to customize your tone.