Old Houses rule.
My parent's house is a big Edwardian place that used to have those bells in the rooms for calling the 'servants'. Only one button remains, and the wood that the bells hung on in the basement.

They also have a cool crawlspace that stretches under the lounge, dining room and kitchen. Absolute heaven for a grubby kid to explore. When I was 13 (many moons ago), I found a whole load of these: www.geocities.com/bioelectrochemistry/leclanche.htm Leclanche Cells were very early batteries, which they used to run the bells.

Most were broken, but I cobbled the working bits together and took one into my Physics lesson. The Teacher filled it up with Ammonium Chloride, and tested it. Amazingly, it still worked, and had the same power as a Duracell AA. Best thing was, the cylinder in the middle still had the date and place of purchase written on it in pencil - 1928, which is kinda weird when they were superceded years earlier.

Pretty cool though.
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