Hi everyone,
I have this phone that I picked up for a song at a flea market. It works and looks great. The only problem is that when the dial returns to zero, it has a squishy, noisy bounce at zero instead of a distinct stop. Any ideas how to adjust the dial to eliminate it?
Thank you,
Tina
Quote from: cloyd on May 03, 2016, 03:18:34 PM
Hi everyone,
I have this phone that I picked up for a song at a flea market. It works and looks great. The only problem is that when the dial returns to zero, it has a squishy, noisy bounce at zero instead of a distinct stop. Any ideas how to adjust the dial to eliminate it?
Thank you,
Tina
Tina, it is a feature, not a defect !
I am serious. Your dial is probably one of the later versions of the 1960s.
The dial has a kind of flywheel as part of the governor which does not come to sudden stop, but keeps winding down for a second or so.
It is actually a very nice dial. Mine is very reliable and after decades has kept its speed perfectly, at 9.5 PPS, much unlike the Western Electric dials of same age which always slow down considerably.
Let's see a picture of your set!
The Heemaf 1955 is one of my all-time favorite designs.
Oh right, it has the newer type transparant dial. It was designed by Krone, Berlin. It has a unique feature where the contacts are made and broken by 2 small metal balls.
It indeed does have a flywheel that makes the noise after the finger wheel has come to a stop. It kind of wheezes.
By the way, I have a field trial test specimen of this dial. See here: http://www.matilo.eu/heemaf-1955/schoonheid-zit-van-binnen/?lang=en
I'd like to see pics too. It is one of my favorites too. :-)
OK you two, here are loads of pictures.
It does have a crack in the front corner that I think I can fix alright, if I review the techniques given under bakelite repair beforehand. Should it have some sort of dial card in the center of the finger wheel? What else can you tell me about this phone? Is that a phone extension number on the card under the handset?
Thank you for your interest
Tina Loyd
More pics. The numbers printed inside of the caps have different fonts. Are they from different time periods?
Tina
This is the finger stop that I think is bent. Is it?
And, for the reference of others, the flywheel.
Tina
Ow, that is a nasty crack in the corner. Pity!
Otherwise in good condition. Couple of details: the dail has been replaced at one point. The phone is from sept 1959 (9 59), the dial is form 65. But it is identical to the original dial except for the round piece plastic with numbers on it. It is made by DFG in Germany.
The original one was made by Heemaf themselves and had a bakelite part with porcelain number ring.
Also the receiver cap has been replaced. It does not have Heemaf markings.
The number under the handset is the subscriber number. It is really old. From the 60s or earlier. They can even be 3 digit numbers in that period.
The finger stop should be straight, yes. It is also bent a little bit inward and seems to touch the finger wheel. And that may be the cause of your dial problem. It is a common problem with this dial. The fingerstop tends to get bent.
Quote from: Matilo Telephones on May 04, 2016, 05:47:29 PM
Otherwise in good condition. Couple of details: the dial has been replaced at one point. The phone is from sept 1959 (9 59), the dial is form 65. But it is identical to the original dial except for the round piece plastic with numbers on it. It is made by DFG in Germany.
The original one was made by Heemaf themselves and had a bakelite part with porcelain number ring.
When you say that "the dial was replaced and it is identical to the original except for the round piece of plastic with numbers on it" are you referring to the finger wheel? Please explain why so many pictures of these phones have the same black finger wheel with the bolt head in the middle. BTW, I think it helps make the phone cool. I don't doubt you at all, it is just one more piece of history that I am missing! ::)
Where could I find the correct receiver cap?
Tina
Here is what I mean, see picture. On the right is an Heemaf dial, on the left a DFG dial. Please note that the Heemaf dial has a seperate porcelain number ring and the DFG does not.
The mechanism and fingerwheel etc are identical on both models. PLease not the bent finger stop on the left one. :-)
I have such a cap, if you like. But the model cap on yours seems to be correct. Only the markings on the inside are different.
I have to hand it to you Arwin, you have an eagle eye! I looked again at the photos I posted and I don't see enough of the dial to be able to tell which type it is. :P Do many Heemaf 1955's have a dial made by the DFG? If so, why would that be?
I wish I knew the history of my particular phone. You mentioned that the "Made in Holland" sticker on the bottom means that it was imported into the U.S. Why would anyone go to the expense of importing phones when the market was already robust with phones?
If the receiver cap that I have is appropriate for my phone, I think I will keep it and call it another "feature!" "And the receiver caps don't even match!"
Tina
The telephone companies in Europe operated very differently than the Bell System in the US.
Over there, it was usually the case that the local postal and telecommunication agency, in the Netherlands it was the PTT, developed specifications for their telephone network and then solicited bids or invited companies to make equipment according to those specs. Often, or most commonly, this involved multiple companies, making the same equipment types. This resulted in perfectly interchangeable parts, and the sets were refurbished by the telephone operator, with parts in stock. They usually were not returned to the manufacturer. This is the reason for having different handsets, dials, even ringers, condensers, ..., in the sets.
For example, the Heemaf 1955 is often found with Ericsson handsets. The transmitter and receiver capsules are standard across the various handset types.
Quite a different operating model than the monopolistic Bell System.
Quote from: cloyd on May 05, 2016, 02:18:36 PM
Why would anyone go to the expense of importing phones when the market was already robust with phones?
Well, this was the whole reason for breaking up the Bell System, because people wanted the freedom from the monopoly, and make money themselves. The telecom business has always grown, with the exception of perhaps two or three time periods, so there was never saturation. In fact the Bell System was running behind in satisfying demand for a good portion of their existence.
Quote from: unbeldi on May 05, 2016, 04:28:26 PM
Well, this was the whole reason for breaking up the Bell System, because people wanted the freedom from the monopoly, and make money themselves. The telecom business has always grown, with the exception of perhaps two or three time periods, so there was never saturation. In fact the Bell System was running behind in satisfying demand for a good portion of their existence.
These surplus phones were purchased by the boatload and sold to retail customers by Radio Shack and others, long before the Bell System breakup (1/1/84). However, not only the Bell operating companies, but in fact most phone companies, did not allow customers to purchase and connect their own phones until the 1970s, and even then, they had to be on the FCC registered list, if not "grandfathered" equipment. Not sure that these models were ever on the Part 68 FCC list.
Quote from: poplar1 on May 05, 2016, 04:42:11 PM
These surplus phones were purchased by the boatload and sold to retail customers by Radio Shack and others, long before the Bell System breakup (1/1/84).
Well, true, but they surely tried decades before that, so the process to liberalization was long underway. I remember buying phones from Radio Shack years before 1984 and nobody asked me what I connected to my phone line.
Radio Shack imported large quantities of these Dutch sets in the Mid 70s .They were not legal to connect to your telephone line unless you used an interface you rented from them.Instructions were given with the set and 4 prong plugs were available at Radio Shack also.No problem if you had your own intercom system or private PBX or PABX though.
Radio Shack also sold a "Deluxe" colored 2 tone 706? set from England.Cheepest sets were mixed part refurbs most likely from TE&M.New NE 500 sets were imported also.People forget what a Monopoly Bell was and most likely most larger independents also.Lines were pinged to determine how many ringers were on the line and compared to your records of what you were renting from them.That is why many sets have ringers disconnected .
Never saw any Telephone Engineering Co., Simpson, PA phones for sale at Radio Shack. (TE&M was the "fortnightly" magazine Telephone Engineering and Management). They may have had different suppliers in different parts of the country. We shipped approximately 400 phones per week from Hallmark House in Springfield, MA to the Radio Shack warehouse in Braintree, MA, at least while I worked there 1972-1973. If I recall correctly, the phones from Holland were a couple of bucks cheaper than the phones they got from us.
I recall seeing sets and parts from BECO (Bohnsack, Germantown, NY) for sale at Radio Shack in the late 60s. You could always tell Warren Bohnsack's phones because of the orange stickers on the bottom, and the paint that got all over your hands when you picked up the handset.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/Antique-Table-Rotary-Dial-Telephone-Storage-Box-Black-Model-Vintage-Phone-/231911439639
1973 Radio Shack catalog, page 108, shows the Catalog #279-385 imported phones @ $7.95 each. The US-made phones such as the ones from Hallmark House were $11.95 -- Catalog #279-371.
http://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/catalogs/1973/
The American made phones pictured look like AE phones.
I put TE&M when I thought Telephone Enginering
Interesting thread. I had just about forgotten about those odd looking phones offered by Radio Shack.
They might have shown a type 80 but they could be almost anything.Remember getting a SC 1243 with an improvised ringer with one ringer coil and a bent piece of metal shipping strap.Did not work well at all.Also saw Kellogg 1000 series sets and North 7H? sets.I was surprised how new some of the Dutch sets were,some fewer than 10 years old when imported in the early-mid 70s
Quote from: rdelius on May 06, 2016, 05:58:38 PM
I was surprised how new some of the Dutch sets were,some fewer than 10 years old when imported in the early-mid 70s
Very true. I found a Heemaf 1955 set that was likely one of the very last ones made in the last quarter of 1970. It was virtually in mint condition.
It appears that the 1950s models (1951, 1952, 1955) were simply removed from service no matter how long they had provided service.
Quote from: rdelius on May 06, 2016, 05:58:38 PM
They might have shown a type 80 but they could be almost anything.Remember getting a SC 1243 with an improvised ringer with one ringer coil and a bent piece of metal shipping strap.Did not work well at all.Also saw Kellogg 1000 series sets and North 7H? sets.I was surprised how new some of the Dutch sets were,some fewer than 10 years old when imported in the early-mid 70s
The buzzers were something Merrill (Hallmark House owner) invented. We used a single coil from a harmonic ringer and a short piece of metal band, the kind used to secure loads to pallets. We had to bend the metal so that the air gap was close enough for the buzzer to work. We threw the brass gongs in a box for recycling. We had two prison release guys who buffed the phones. They looked a lot better buffed than the painted ones they did before I worked there.
The AE 80 was certainly not typical of what we shipped out in 1973. I recall one that came in from one of the independent companies that sold to us. It was apparently never installed, but Don gave it the usual treatment: remove the finger wheel to clean underneath, clean the whole outside of phone with a mixture of Lestoil and water, using clean surplus rags from a linen service, replace cords if necessary, test dial, transmit, receive, and ringer. (Don said he thought everyone was crazy when on his first day he heard everyone whistling into the phones, which, in addition to being able to hear yourself, also dimmed the light on the test box. We had a toggle switch for talk or ring.
We sold WE and NE 302s, AE 40s, North xH6s, S-C 1243s/1443s/1543s. Never sold Kellogg 1000s because the boss though they were junk. We sent all the paystations and color phones and magneto phones to Bohnsack, who was a friend of the boss.
Brecks of Boston showed a WE 500 in their catalog, which was just as misleading as the AE 80 in the Radio Shack catalog. After I complained, but probably just a coincidence, they changed the photo to. A 302. Their lawyer answered my inquiry about connecting them in spite of Bell's tariffs: He wrote that "no one can stop the sale of legal merchandise in the USA."
I remember seeing telephones for sale in a U.S. General catalog. I even ordered a few from the catalog and this was in the 1980s after the Bell breakup. The phones even had ringers in them that worked. Most were sent back because they didn't work right. The only one that wasn't sent back was a black AE80. The rest had issues with the dial or the handset didn't put out enough volume to hear the other party. In short, U.S. General didn't turn out to be a good source for rotary phones. As I understood it, they were supposed to be reconditioned phones! I guess to them "reconditioning" was just simply putting a good shine on the phone!