Bell Indicator Board from Holloway Sanatorium.
What does this remind you of? An avant garde art installation or something from Downton Abbey?
The latter is a close guess. This glass-fronted wooden box-frame featuring 36 names and coloured markers is an electric bell indicator board invented by local electrical engineer William Blenheim http://just-williams-part-6-some-of-the-victorian-tradesmen-who-shaped-egham-high-street and installed in staff quarters in Holloway Sanatorium.
When a patient or member of staff rang a bell from somewhere within the sanatorium, the white space on the board would be replaced by a red marker, showing the room in which help was required. The device was worked by electromagnetically operated spring mounted contacts.
The back, usually against the wall, shows the many wires which would have been joined to a series of cables connected to each room.
William Blenheim patented the idea in 1914 so it is reasonable to assume that that this board dates from around that time.
His patent diagram bears a strong resemblance to the appearnce of the board:
Similar boards were installed in the servants’ quarters of homes of local wealthy families: Egham Museum possesses two from houses in Englefield Green – Castle Hill and Englefield Lodge. For these the boards were labelled with the names of the family members. It is irresistible to wonder who rang the bell most often!
MC633 Bell indicator board from Castle Hill, Englefield Green.
The room labels read: Night Nursery, Mr Oscar’s Bed Room, Young Gent’s Room, Nursery Bath Room.
MC424 Bell indicator board from Englefield Lodge, Englefield Green.
Chertsey Museum also has a mount for an electric bell to be used with the system .
(Chertsey Museum CHYMS.2013)
Margaret C Stewart
[1] Espacenet Patent search https://worldwide.espacenet.com/publicationDetails/biblio?DB=EPODOC&II=0&ND=3&adjacent=true&FT=D&date=19141008&CC=GB&NR=191329581A&KC=A [Accessed 2 March 2023]