Phone Thread

[washernoob]

I have two western electric 500s. Both early 60s. One was a military phone labeled as unclassified line. I use the older of the two as it sounds a little clearer. Both use the old style 4 prong plugs.

 

[fnelson487]

Here's The

556a in operation-all lit up. Trunk lines on the bottom, station circuits up above.

 

[fnelson487]

And

Our own Terry Lattz manning the board.

 

[fnelson487]

And

The wiring behind the scenes. With tip and ring indicated on the trunk lines. That large wire on the left is the cable coming down from the board with about 200 wires inside.

 

[retropia]

That switchboard is wild! It brings back memories of using one at a Holiday Inn where I worked many years ago. Guests could dial from their room, but you had to connect them to an outside line first. All incoming calls to guests had to go through the switchboard. There were little plugs, like the red one in the photo above, that you placed in the socket for a room when the guest didn't want to be disturbed.

Wake-up calls were hand-written into a log, and there was a clock above the switchboard that had little lever switches next to each 15-minute interval. When a guest requested a wake-up call, you made a note in the log, and then flicked the switch on the clock for the appropriate time. It would then buzz to remind the desk clerk that one or more wake-up calls needed to be made, and he would consult the log to find out which rooms needed calls.

Ralph asked if there was a model number on my white Western Electric phone. I didn't see anything specifically identified as a model number, but the photo below shows what numbers there are on the bottom.

 

[appliguy]

Well here are two of my favorite phones from my telephone co

An Automatic Electric Monophone and a Kellog/Stromberg Carlson Candlestick phone. My phone guy thinks that the reason my candlestick phone has parts from 2 different manufacturers is because it was refurbished during the war by a local phone company and they had to get parts from what ever manufacturer they could get them from. Both phones have been restored and are in excellent working order....PAT COFFEY

 

[pdub]

OK Kelly!

I need to take some current pictures as I have added a few more. People keep finding them for me or I'll spot one at a sale when I am least expecting it. Here is a pic of a lot of them together.

Patrick

 

[retropia]

That's an amazing collection!

 

[mixfinder]

The Cubicle

Just one wall in a room, in an amazing house of collections, in The beautiful Garden City, collected, displayed and managemed by an incredible and talented man, Patrick.  Thanks buddy, no sense to let your phone go unanswered.

 

[rp2813]

Patrick, is that one of those round NEC phones on the far right?  I love those!  They're so easy to carry around. It seems they all came in that one color, as it's the only way I ever see them.

 

Nice chimes too.  I've got two of them in beige.  I've never seen them in any other color either, until now.  They seem to require a lot of current.  Having six old phones with mechanical ringers hooked up and all but one of them wired to ring, there's not enough juice to run the box's chime function and only the regular clanging bell will work, which will knock anybody within 20 feet out of their chair.

 

[pdub]

Ralph,

The round mocha colored phone was made by NT (northern telecom). It is a rather unique phone and they sold them in the Bell / AT&T Phone Center Stores back in the mid 80's. There was another one that was similar called the beanbag phone that was similar but sat on a bean bag that was attached to it.

I love the Bell Chimes. I have 2 hooked up in my house, 1 up and 1 down. They are very pleasant when they chime. I know what you mean about sensitive though. When I had local Bell telephone service I had no issues. When I moved to a GTE area is when I noticed that if you plugged in another phone with a regular ringer it would make the chimes ring continuously. Now that I have Comcast triple play and the phone service runs off the modem they seem to work just fine. I guess the modem puts out the right ringing current.

 

[drmitch]

Wow! you guys have some awesome phones.I have a few and use a couple of them. We just bought a house built in 1941 and would love to add a telephone niche in the hallway for one of my older ones. the kitchen was remodeled in the 80s with Harvest Gold appliances and I have two phones in that color, but the kitchen will change someday to accomodate my 40in range. Thanks for starting this thread.

 

[drmitch]

A little fun in B&W

 

[ptcruiser51]

@ whirlcool

The Card Dialer is what you're thinking of. In the days before speed calling, etc. You inserted the pre-punched card for the person you wanted, pushed a button, and off it went. We used one in the telco office I worked in to order equipment (1974), the cards were used to activate electronics similar to the "press 1" that is prevalent now. The phones themselves weren't on the market very long.

Those switchboards bring back memories of when I started as an operator at NJ Bell, 1972. I was one of the first men hired for that job. The first time I saw that bank of boards with about 80 operators on duty, I thought "no way can I do this". I was wrong, of course. Some of those old gals were a scream to work with, especially on overnights! We were able to place overseas calls to a few countries at the time, as well as mobile and marine.

One of the gals played a trick on me one night. She went downstairs to the lounge and dialed "0" and asked for the mobile operator; of course she got me. She said "I'm in my car and I want to call a ship in France". I nearly made in my pants before she started laughing.

We also had to "do the weather". You went into a closet-sized room. There was a thermometer and barometer, you pulled the NWS forecast off the teletype and read a script into a big recording device. The script was written to be idiot-proof. Not so. One new operator got sent in to do it one night when we were really busy. The supervisor didn't have a chance to check it for awhile, then had us all in stitches. It came out thus: "National Weather Service forecast for Northern New Jersey pause one a.m. temperatures pause Newark 43 pause Morristown 40 pause Asbury Park 38 pause winds from the south at 10 miles per hour pause..."

 

[58limited]

Ya'll have posted some very nice phones, I'm enjoying this thread. I need to get a '30s or early '40s phone for the breakfast nook built-in. It still has an old four prong jack that shouldn't be too hard to get going again. Something similar to Ralph's D-1 or Tim's Automatic Electric model 40 would be great, I plan on locating a good one sometime this year.

 

[frigilux]

OK, this one might not be vintage, but it can swear like a sailor!

 

[nanook]

This is as Vintage as I've Got -

A fabulous WE 510, 2-line phone complete with metal dial, G1 handset and rubber coiled handset cord from June, 1960.  It also sports a plastic phone dialer from WSRS Radio 1490 Cleveland - "The All-American Family Station".  Needless to say it still performs like a champ.  And its fabulous two-gong ringer makes receiving the few calls I receive via landline a pleasure, indeed.

 

Love the pics of the switchboard.  It brings back memories of both the 554 and 555 I had fun using way back when.  Thanks so much for sharing.

 

[70series]

My great grandmother had the phone in Replies 9 and 19. After she died it was stored away at my grandmother's house, and I would play with it every time we visited. Finally my grandmother gave it to me to take home, where I pretended to call everyone in creation. I kept it on the floor in my closet. Finally it was stored downstairs in my laundry room (as luck would have it) with numerous other phones that were phased out over the years. Finally we got rid of it when it came time for us to move. I always treasured that phone, but could never hook it up because somehow the plug was clipped off the wire. Fun times.

The other phone I used to play with was a black wall unit with the plastic rotary dial that was phased out when we switched to AT&T. Ah the memories.

Have a good one,
James

 

[rp2813]

James!

Your post directly above serves to support my reasons for loving the 5302 phone pictured in post #19.

 

You see, the phones in posts #9 and #19 are similar in looks but far from the same in technology and inner workings.  The phone in post #19 is actually a phone like the one in #17, but with modernized encasement.   Details are provided in post #19.

 

Doug, thanks for the close-up of your white phone.  I may have to post a picture of it on the Rotary Phone Forum and see what I can find out.

 

Ralph

 

[rp2813]

"I plan on locating a good one sometime this year"

David, even if you locate a not-so-good one, the guys on the Rotary Phone Forum can help you get it looking good and into proper working order, plus the Old Phone Works site has a wide assortment of replacement parts for anything that's missing or damaged, and, depending on the component, can be fairly reasonable with their pricing.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php

 

[ozzie908]

Bell Atlantic

Back in the late 90's I was working near Boston Mass and if you dialled the operator a mans voice said "Welcome to Bell Atlantic" I have no idea if that was a real voice or a simulated one but every time I heard it I got shivers down my spine it was such a seductive voice was it real does anyone know?

Austin

 

[jamiel]

That would be James Earl Jones, an actor. He was associated with both Bell Atlantic and Verizon.

 

[appliguy]

James Earl Jones was also

the voice of Darth Vader in the Star Wars Movies...PAT COFFEY

 

[dirtybuck]

James Earl Jones also did voice over PSA'S like this one. The way he accentuated some of the words in this commercial, it'd sure make me NOT want to start smoking! This debuted in 1968.

 

[kevin313]

What wonderful collections! Thanks to all for sharing these photos! The old switchboards are amazing!

 

[dirtybuck]

Back To Phones...

I like the way an older rotary phone rings and the sound it makes when you dial. I vaguely remember when we moved into our new house in 1960, mom and dad had a standard black phone in their bedroom, and a green wall mount phone in the kitchen. In 1966, things got changed around, and a new phone was put in my parent's room (blue Princess) and the black phone got sent to my sister's room.

Another phone I liked was the Trimline phones prior to 1985 when they still had the bell ringer in them.

Talk about nostalgia, does anyone remember when the phone company used to carry almost every different style of phone or phone repair piece in the back of their trucks/vans?

 

[polkanut]

Re: Post #524940

Allen, I saw a phone setup just like you are describing on an old episode of Hawaii Five-0 last week.  Did these phones start dialing the no. on the punch card once the handset was taken off the cradle?  Even my sister was impressed, and that's saying alot.

 

[frontaloadotmy]

Come on , come on , come on.......

more phones, please....

 

[whirlcool]

I knew those card dialer phones were not only in my imagination. Now that I know what they were called, I was able to find a photo of one.

 

[daveamkrayoguy]

RADIO SHACK, circa 1995:

The clock lights up w/ a neon tube in pink & blue, and it flashes when the phone rings, but unfortunately the neon is BURNT OUT!!!!!!

-- Dave