A cornucopia of telephony

[petek]

It was like a magic day again today on the thrifty circuit where the stars were all in alignment for me to find these four.
A nice pinky Contessa 2702 with the transformer, I think the lightbulb for the dial needs replacing, an easy fix. This one is the Northern Electric, Cdn version of the Western Electric Princess phone, the 2 in the model # denotes touch tone over a 702 rotary dial..still waiting for one of those.
Two very nice touch tone Norhern Electric Contempra phones, I have a dial version somewheres here. These came out in 68 I think, can be wall mounted as well like a Trimline.
Lastly another fabulous Swedish Ericofon. I have another one already, they are getting scarcer than hens teeth. The only N.American phone company that offered them I think was Manitoba Telephones. This is an earlier dial model, touch tone did come later but of course isn't as vintage. The big red button in the center of the dial pad is the hangup button when you put the phone back down. Love these phones but would like one in another color. ( I think it will go well with my new sofa LOL )

 

[petek]

Another view

Nice thing about these phones from Northern and Western Electric is they're indestructible and heavy. Does anyone know if the Contempra phones were used by BELL in the USA? Both Northern & Western were all at one time part of the Bell family. Ach I forgot the ITT desk set I also got with the group, you basic bell 502 touchtone looking deskset but with a flash button. I think ITT paid a license to Bell to utilize their designs because it's identical.

Someone else on here has the Ericofon..who was it?
Anyone else with interesting sets?

 

[jamiel]

Don't think that the Contempora was used very widely in the US--there was a definite hierarchy here of telephone companies...the Bell System, the independents, and the rurals. Independents/rurals didn't use much Western Electric gear--the two main sources for them were Northern (aka Canada) and Automatic Electric (which was owned by GTE, as I recall). The big Independents were (let's see how well I remember)...GTE, Contel (bought by GTE), Centel (bought by Sprint), United Telecom (Sprint), LT&T (bought by Alltel), Rochester Tel, Alltel, Century.

My grandparents lived in suburban Chicago near o'hare in an area near Centel's headquarters that was served by them (rather than Illinois Bell). I always thought it curious that they had a real small phone book (for just Park Ridge and Des Plaines) and their phone was never quite the same as ours at home (believe it was from Northern)

 

[petek]

Independents

Telephone history I find quite interesting. Apparently the Ericophone was manufactured for a time in the US by a company called North Electric in Ohio, not affiliated with Northern Electric or Western Electric, and was becoming increasingly popular for a while. Bell however wanted little or nothing to do with "foreign Europeans" attached to their networks and so developed the Trimline to counter it. GTE quickly followed suit with their Styleline. Interestingly there are still a number of those small indepenedent local phone companies still in operation. There's one in Ontario in the town of Forest which is surrounded by Bell Canada territory. It serves a small little town of only a few thousand. I think it's called the Peoples Telephone Co. of Forest.

 

[dalangdon]

misc phone thoughts

There was a HUGE Western Electric plant in west Omaha that was surrounded by a HUGE lawn. I don't know if they did that for aesthetics or future expansion, but it was one of the most "suburban" factories you would ever imagine.

I dimly recall a grim warning in the front of the telephone books for quite a few years - something about phones with transformers catching fire? That was in the Northwestern Bell issued phone books, so it probably had something to do with Western Electric equipment.

I have an Ericophone, but I don't use it because the ringer is SO obnoxious! I can't stand that ring! It's a dial phone, but the ringer sounds like a newer phone, so I don't know if it was a reproduction or what - it also has a light that flashes when the phone is ringing.

 

[michaelman2]

Western Electric Switchboard

Hey Pete..I have a great ol Western Electric Cord Switchboard,from the schematics it was built in the 40's and is in great condition. I have played on this thing for years. I'll try to get a pic and post it...

 

[drmitch]

I have an ericofon like that. All the vintage phones are fun! Sometimes I get so used to the newer ones at work that when my phone with bells rings at home it scares the $--- out of me!

 

[rinso]

I had an old PBX switchboard, the kind used in answering services. It was an old Western Electric 557B. I sold it to a local exchange, who actually put it to work because it can handle dedicated incoming lines instead of DIDs. Wish I woulda kept it now. One advantage of it is that it has never had a software crash or needed rebooting.

 

[gansky1]

Western Electric - Omaha

My stepfather worked in the Western Electric plant here for 34 years, retired in 89. The bulk of their product was wire, cords and connectors but branched out into circuit boards, etc. in recent years. I've found many W.E. telephones around this area, some GTE and lots of Northwestern Bell brand phones which were W.E. products.

I love the old-fashioned jingle of the telephone ringing and have a couple around the house just for the sound of them. My 6 year old nephew was over playing in my son's room one evening when the phone rang. He came running down the hall with a terrified look on his face - he thought it was a fire drill like they have at school! He'd never heard a telephone with a real bell!

 

[petek]

KIds

My mom keeps her old 500 model beige deskset (dial) in her bedroom as a backup phone for when the other junk ones in the house fail or there's a power failure. My sister was telling me a couple of years back her kid, my nephew, went to use it and had no idea how to.

 

[michaelman2]

Switchboard/Rinso

Hey Rinso...what a cool story. I know that the small city where I live outside Atlanta keeps one for emergency use with their mobile communications unit. I once heard that during the attacks on 9/11 one of the cordbords would have been welcomed because much of the electronic communications were severely damaged and hendered rescue efforts.

 

[spiralactivator]

I have a Western Electric Sculptura (otherwise known as a Donut Phone) in brown and a cherry red Trimline, both with rotary dials. I love them dearly. The great thing about rotaries is that you don't have to push buttons for 20 minutes to get through a list of options. Just stay on the line and get a real person to direct your call.