Lenz cord advertisementCan you believe it? There was actually a time when the House of Telephones wasn’t the only place to go for cords! The Lenz Electric Manufacturing Company, and others, served the needs of the smaller (non-Bell) telephone companies, offering cords, wires and cables of all types. This advertisement appeared in a 1947 issue of Telephony. I’ve been unable to find much history about Lenz, but they were in operation at least as early as 1917.