What do I have?

[Momo]

Hello everybody. I found this phone at an auction for charity and I bought it. What do I have???

[Doug Rose]

Welcome to the Forum....It looks like a Western Electric 553 A Wall Phone.    Nice find, you can easily make this work. Receiver hangs opposite of how you have it, it is upside down.....Doug

[HarrySmith]

Welcome to the forum! Nice find! Yes, Western Electric 553 A. In picture #4 the stamp is clearly visible.

[Kenny C]

it has a #2 right?

[bingster]

Yep, that's a #2 dial.  Nice find Momo!

[Doug Rose]

Good eyes Kenny, looks like a #2 dial. Check the writing on the finger stop. Should be 2AA or2AH etc....Doug

[Doug Rose]

Very Similar to the one Janet found this summer for me....Doug

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=3176.0

[LarryInMichigan]

That one is a beauty, probably worth around $200.  With a bit of cleaning and polishing, it should look great.  The transmitter may need a bit of adjusting.

Larry

[Momo]

Thanks for letting me know the receiver was upside down. I'm new to the old phones.
It says 2AA on the side of the dial. There is a star in the middle of the microphone.

[LarryInMichigan]

The original WE spit cups have a star in the middle.  Yours looks like it is in excellent condition.  They tend to break easily and are not cheap to replace.  Unscrew it carefully before cleaning.

Larry

[Momo]

It is my understanding that I need a straight line ringer to make the phone ring. Where can I find one and how much do they cost?

[Jim Stettler]

The original WE spit cups have a star in the middle.  Yours looks like it is in excellent condition.  They tend to break easily and are not cheap to replace.  Unscrew it carefully before cleaning.

Larry

There are also repro WE mouthpieces with the star in the middle.
most of the repro mouthpieces are pretty easy to tell that they are repro (if you look close and handle them).

There were some really nice repro mouthpieces from the 1970's, These are not easy to identify, they look right but don't quite feel right. I don't think I have ever seen the 1970's "quality " repro with the star.

Thought I would mention it,
Jim


99 % of the phones that had transmitter horns used 1 of 4 thread patterns.
WE,KE,SC and AE . I have a cross referance list I compiled 15+ years ago, I used every cross referance list I could find and compiled them into a master list. Next time it turns up I will post it to a technical page.


Paul Vaverchak used to sell WE,KE,SC replacement horns. He probably still stocks them.

[Doug Rose]

It is my understanding that I need a straight line ringer to make the phone ring. Where can I find one and how much do they cost?

This ringer should work, mine does. The phone should work if all the other parts are operational. Connect a line cord to the green to L1 and Red to L2 on the wood blocks. You have a loose wire coming off the ringer, connect to the "R" on the wood block. This should now work. If it does not work try connecting the loose wire to the Ground. Nice find!....Doug

[Greg G.]

Like mine, except I have a bulldog transmitter.

[dsk]

It is my understanding that I need a straight line ringer to make the phone ring. Where can I find one and how much do they cost?

This ringer should work, mine does. The phone should work if all the other parts are operational. Connect a line cord to the green to L1 and Red to L2 on the wood blocks. You have a loose wire coming off the ringer, connect to the "R" on the wood block. This should now work. If it does not work try connecting the loose wire to the Ground. Nice find!....Doug

It looks like a capacitor is missing. My guess is anything between  0.5 and 1 microfarad rated at 150V or more just do the job. This telephone may have a high REN no, but I'm not sure how important that is in real life.

dsk