Automatic Electric Model 40Automatic Electric’s Model 40 is a fine example of art-deco design, a desirable, if not particularly rare, telephone. A colored AE 40 however, is something special, particularly when it’s been restored to the level of excellence seen on this example. The phone itself is “Old Ivory” with gold trims, and has a most recent patent date of 1948. Before Jorge Amely began work on the phone its condition could best be described as fair, nothing more. Jorge, an electrical engineer, has been restoring vintage phones for less than two years, but you wouldn’t guess it by looking at his work. He places the blame for his phone addiction squarely on the shoulders of long-time friend Dennis Markham, another expert at telephone restoration. And make no mistake, in spite of his limited time with the hobby, Jorge deserves the title of expert. Immersing himself in his new passion, he joined Telephone Collectors International and has already completed a number of beautiful restorations, including a North Electric 7H6 and a number of WE model 500s.
Automatic Electric Internals With the exception of cords Jorge’s AE 40 was pretty complete, but it would need some work to make it functional again. Just the thing for a restoration project. He tended to the wiring first, soldering one wire back into place before focusing on the ringer, which was found to have an open coil. Many, if not most, defective ringers are left in their damaged state and replaced, but Jorge opted to repair the original. Each coil consists of 3,500 feet of thin copper wire, the winding process taking 25 minutes with a manual coil winder. The next step was the dial, a Type 51 that features some additional hardware to quiet the wind-up sound. Given that Automatic Electric components aren’t dated in the fashion of Western Electric parts, Jorge thinks that the noise-reduction hardware could be used to properly date these phones. Once the dial had been completely disassembled it was cleaned with the same care as had been applied to the rest of the phone. It should be noted that the gold details found on these phones originally had a satin finish, but years of handling and cleaning have resulted in the smooth, shiny surface found today. Both line and handset cords were missing and the perfect replacements were needed to give the proper look. A distinctive feature of Automatic Electric telephones was the “Extensicord”. The Extensicord, not found on phones today, was a handset cord design patented by AE, one that consists of four woven cords with a flexible, extensible core. Fortunately Jorge was able to acquire a NOS example from David Winsen, and with the new cord in place one can really appreciate the distinctive look of these phones. Also replaced was the rubber gasket that resides between the base and body of the phone, using a reproduction item from Gary Goff.
When it comes to serious telephone restoration, a bit of thought has to go into just how far it should be taken. This debate is highly subjective and not likely to go away, but the results achieved by Jorge Amely and others provide an undeniably valuable service: they allow each of us to step back in time.

Note: More photographs of Jorge’s AE 40 can be found on Picasa.