Annoyingly loud electrical outlet.

Door buzzer maybe? But as to why they have little grates in front of them...i have no clue, never seen that

yeah.  Might still need to upgraded.  Slight hum that came back that adjusting the center screw got rid of.  Meh. 

I don't have the same fear of electric that I do deep water but it's all hoodoo stuff to me.  Angry Pixies. 

nutherjrfan said:

Here we go. No clue as to what I'm looking at.

Ones the doorbell and ones the transformer feed from the power at the switch. Its a guess but googling provides some positive feedback.

if it is the transformer, that is the source of your hum.

Guessing a front and rear door ringer.

Why the noise I still want to know cause that aint right. If doorbell, then there might be a transformer in there causing the buzz.

Pete

In reply to NOHOME :

that's funny as for an apartment it actually has a front and rear door which I love.  I'll take a look to see if there might have been a rear doorbell. 

I tried Googling the name across the top, "POWACALL" but came up with zilch.  I also agree it looks like a low voltage transformer likely for a door bell (adding "door bell" to the search didn't help).

As much as I'm curious, I wouldn't try to dig much deeper as that looks like old cloth insulated wiring. Which can very easily crack and break apart if disturbed.  So unless you are in the mood to potentially rewire a lot of someone else's house, I wouldn't touch it.

The noise is due to electro magnetostriction. At least thats what I've told for big transformers that are humming.

Humming electrical sounds usually aren't bad.

Zapping and frying sounds usually are.

Looks like this is the transformer, I can't find the speaker.

From what I can gather, it's not just a doorbell, it's an intercom. 

Edit:  Maybe it is just a doorbell:

https://archive.org/stream/McLaughlin_201806/McLaughlin_djvu.txt:

THE POWACALL Replaces the old-fashioned bell ringing trans¬ former. Neat and convenient — it becomes a part of the unified signal set-up. Powacall requires the space of only one gang unit, however, at least one of the other units or an outlet must be used on either side. Cannot be used in single, or two-gang box. Underwriters' listed.

Cat. ,-Voltage-, , -Std. Pkg.-^ Sched- List No. Primary Secondary No. Wt. Lb. ule Each

666 115 V. 8 V. 3 12 S $2.80

Far out.

In reply to WonkoTheSane :

"Smart home" circa 1931.

If you are renting this house and you don't call your landlord and say your POWACALL doorbell intercom isn't working, you're missing a huge opportunity to provide us with some laughs.

 

In reply to Brett_Murphy :

lol.