Unclassified Army Western Electric Phone fun!!!!

[washernoob]

Look what I found!!!!

An old Western Electric phone!
I Love my grandpa! Its amazing what I find in his 1915 mansion!

He has a "collection" so to speak of old telephones in his basement. He uses a 1940s Bell wall phone in his work shop all the time. He has various dial phones around as well.

Well we got into a discussion whilst pouring hot tar into the cracks on his driveway today. We were talking about electronics, and we drifted to early phones. rotary phones to be exact.
___
He talked about when he worked for TWAs mantinence field, late nights all the workers wanted to call their lady friends to talk, but the boss locked the dials on the phone. My grandpa used to "hack" the phones. Cant remember the term, but what you do is tap in the phone number, morse code style.

I was so fascinated by it that he showed me how it works on his Bell. I asked if I could have one of his old rotary phones. And of course he said yes!

I dug out the one that appealed to me the most. This is an old Western Electric 500 series.

I brought it home and cleaned it up. And to my surprise I discovered something!

Its a US army issue phone! Stamped on the top of the housing it clearly states US Army.

And I ripped off the old sticker on the front of the old area code. And under it it reads... Oh I was so thrilled!---

Fire
95
6452
Unclassified
Only
AE Label 45 (?)
2 Nov 54 (or 64?)

I still have some tape gunk to remove on the body and badge. The phone has no scratches on it!

 

[washernoob]

Cord

The old replacement RJ11 type jack. My grandpa has some adaptors that he is going to find so I can use it.

 

[washernoob]

Base

Here is the base.

Some paint on it it appears. Some magic eraser will remove that.

 

[washernoob]

Its a model
GA-51859

only info I can find about it-

Single line with Military markings on case: Signal Corps US Army, Telephone Set TA236/FT, Western Electric. (No Bell System markings.)

More pics soon.

 

[washernoob]

Needs a good thorough cleaning through. But that will come later.

 

[washernoob]

Some more pics.

 

[washernoob]

Whoops

Thats obviously not an Rj11 jack. I dont know what I was thinking when I typed that. It should read, old 4 pin style jack.

It was surprisingly extremely clean on the inside. Didn't do anything at all to it. This is how it came!

The dial still needs to be cleaned. Its got lots of old sticker gunk on it. Its hard to remove!

 

[washernoob]

Label

Here is the label that was under that sticker.

 

[bugsyjones]

Love me some rotarys

I've got a few around the house. They all work too!

My oldest is an Automatic Electric model 40. Real art deco looking. It's been restored.

I have two western electrics with the clear fingerwheel. A red and a pink. The pink has the four prong plug. I bought a modular adapter for it.

~Tim

 

[bugsyjones]

The red one

~Tim

 

[washernoob]

Wow!

that is cool! Mmhmm. I can see it now. A kitchen of pink appliances, with a prompt fitting pink Western Electric!

I am going to order an adaptor from oldphoneworks.com

Great site. Lovely old restored phones too.

I need to find me a 30s/40s art deco WE phone. Model 302. A bit more artistic in design than the 500 style, but both are great classic standard phones.

Antique Phones

Oldphoneworks offers a huge selection of antique phones, and phone parts to individuals and businesses around the world.

www.oldphoneworks.com

 

[bugsyjones]

The Automatic Electric

model 40. Not the best picture....

~Tim

 

[rp2813]

Signal Corps sets were built to higher standards than the average model 500 phone. I believe the term used is "climatized" in order to withstand humid environments.

Your set has components that indicate 1964 as opposed to 1954, such as the network block and clear fingerwheel on the dial, and clear switch hook buttons. All components should have a date. Check the ringer, the dial (on the back) and network block (on the side) on the chassis for dates. The case should have a two-digit year of manufacture embossed inside above the dial opening. Handset will either be stamped or embossed, usually inside the receiver end. If you unscrew the caps, both the receiver and transmitter elements should also be dated. The caps themselves may or may not be. The receiver looks like it could be bakelite rather than plastic, which is a plus, but the caps appear to be plastic.

I would be very conservative about cleaning the bottom. You don't want to remove any of the information along with the paint. I don't think the GA-51859 is a model number. In collector circles, it's just a Signal Corps 500. While there are no "Bell System" markings, "Western Electric" means the same thing. It wasn't until much later that "Bell System" started appearing on the case and handset, but the manufacturer was still Western Electric, which was owned by the Bell System.

And yes, if you were really good, you could make a call using the switch hook buttons to reproduce the pulsing speed of the dial mechanism. I was never able to get the hang of it. The most I could manage was dialing the Time of Day recording using the three-character prefix and then depressing the switch hook button four times.

All in all, a very nice phone and it should clean up nicely. No abrasives! I presume your grandfather can help you hook it up and make it ring, but if you need additional advice, feel free to e-mail me directly. These phones always work, but sometimes the network connections are different for sets that operated off a PBX (and I suspect yours did) as compared to just a single line residential application. If you don't get dial tone with it wired as is, it's probably just a matter of moving a wire or two onto a different terminal. Let me know if I can help.

Ralph

 

[lordkenmore]

Nice phones everyone!

A house I lived in a few months ago still had an old dial telephone in the basement, by the washer. It seems to me it was a "clear dial" type, and certainly had a "newer" vintage color--avocado. Too bad I didn't have an avocado washer to go along with it. I never tried the phone. I assume it worked--it was still wired in--but the land line was disconnected.

I have thought from time to time I'd like to have an old phone in service. I like how solidly they were made. But, practically, I'm not sure I'd ever go back to a landline. At least where I live now, with my current phone patterns. It's cheaper using a cell phone, and cable Internet (even without cable TV). Plus, no one I know likes the company providing landline service where I live.

What would be nice is an adapter that allows a rotary dial phone to work on cell service.

 

[paulg]

Count me in.

I keep a couple wired Western Electrics running. I firmly believe in keeping a phone working that doesn't rely on house power. Unfortunately they are of boring colors of black or tan.
The guest room phone has the adjustable volume feature in the handset which I like although I am not hearing-impaired.
I also have a Stromberg-Carlson rebuilt wall phone from about 1957. It was my main phone in the old house. It was funny how people would talk to me on the phone and remark that I sounded so clear!

 

[Sanisonic]

GA5-1859

This almost sounded like it could have been the phone number from back at the time that this phone was made. But I don't think they stamped the phone number on the bottom of the phone. Maybe just a serial number?

 

[washernoob]

GA 51859

When I typed that number into google, I came up with a great site that told details about that number. It seems like it is a model number. Thats where I got that info that indicated "no bell systems markings"

Thank you all so much for the information! Ralph, I will put your knowledge to good use! I am really thrilled of this phone and cant wait to get it hooked up! Ill keep everyone informed.

 

[gansky1]

Great phone, Brandon, you'll love the ringing sounds!

I love my Western Electric phones. My step-dad worked at the W.E. Wire plant here in Omaha for 36 years so we have a great respect for these old "sets". A year or so ago, I went to an estate sale of a former Northwestern Bell technician. The basement was loaded with goodies and I stocked up. One of the best things was this wall set. Pictured pre-cleaning Still in the box and with a spare NIB replacement handset and cord, I grabbed it along with the matching desk model (same color). When Fred N. was here visiting, he saw this phone in the basement and just about fell over. "This has to be upstairs!! Do know what this is worth??" Well, I moved it up to the kitchen now and it proudly jingles out each incoming call as it should. I also have a small collection of Trimlines, Decorator box-phones and a couple of 500 series desk sets. Along with the beautiful phones at that sale as a huge box full of parts, parts & parts - all new in their packages.

 

[cadman]

Nice score!

Just what is it I'm seeing in your 4th photo that looks like a black switch under the hand grip?

I see your set was configured for a separate ringer ckt. If you want it to ring on today's lines, you can either bridge the yellow and green wires in the 4-pin connector, or move the black 'cloth' wire (connected to the yellow wire leading out) one set of screws over so it's on the same ckt as the green wire leading out.