Receiver Carrier WB400A
From Object Wiki
| Receiver carrier WB400A | |
|---|---|
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| Manufacturer | (Unknown) |
| Production years | 1960 |
| Production location | (unknown) |
Receiver carrier WB400A, c.1960 This small item was a significant part of Britain’s nuclear early warning system. It was located in police stations and emergency services buildings across the UK. In an emergency these units would have distributed warnings of imminent air or nuclear attack.
[edit] How it works
This is a special telephone receiver that was only able to receive one channel, the emergency hotline which warned of nuclear attack.
[edit] Memories
As an ex-BT engineer I remember these all too well. Every major Trunk Switching Exchange would have one sitting in a corner somewhere bleeping away loudly to itself about once a second. Little wonder that the staff in many exchanges would either turn them down or completely off!
— M. Butler
I too remember maintaining these things as a BT man. I well remember periodically going to an underground shelter/bunker in a rural area in a small fenced-off compound in the middle of a field and having to have get a key to it from the Territorial Army Observer Corp base to unlock a hatch in order to go a narrow shaft (rather claustrophobic!) and check the receiver was working and change the battery if needed. There were bunks in there, ni-cad battery lighting, supplies and, rather ominously, a bomb blast indicator! Trouble was, the line to it was over-head fed on poles! Don't think it would have lasted too well if the bomb dropped, eh? I also often wondered how on earth any observers were supposed to have made the twenty-five minute trip from the local HQ to the bunker if all hell HAD let loose!
— DP
I was in the fire service and every fire station at one time had a carrier receiver as did police stations.
They were normally switched off in peace-time but they ticked away all the time. Every 3 months or so they were tested as if the balloon had gone up. We switched on at the allotted time. A very loud warbling sound followed by a code word and a message. We would fill in the questionaire and send it back to wherever in deepest government.
We also had a hand-wound air-raid siren to go with it!
— Dennis Wills, ex-Auxiliary Fire service.
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[edit] In the Science Museum
The Museum acquired this object in 2004 from the BT Group plc Inv. No: 2004-207
This object is currently on display in the Dan Dare & the Birth of Hi-Tech Britain exhibition at the Science Museum, London.