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Northern Electric/Telecom 554 in glorious Black...

Started by twocvbloke, June 01, 2014, 05:44:33 AM

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twocvbloke

Finally got myself a 554, it's not a WE, but an NE, which is good enough for me... ;D

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111361942803

Took my time mentioning it as I've been busy moving my uncle into the house nextdoor, but I have a 554 at last, even if it's put my black phone total up to 9 (I think), but as they say in the north of england, it's better than nowt...  ;D

Seems to date from the end of March 1978, not sure what all the markings mean on the back of the phone though, only have the ebay pics to work from at the moment and I think the long one is as follows:

P & T
554BOC NT = 78 101D MK903TX542?

(last digit seems to be partly erased, unless it's just a bit of stray ink)

Anyway, pictures for now... ;D

DavePEI

#1
Quote from: twocvbloke on June 01, 2014, 05:44:33 AM
Finally got myself a 554, it's not a WE, but an NE, which is good enough for me... ;D
You know, this is a point which P's me off. Northern Electric phones are the same quality as Western Electric - in some cases even higher quality. They are made from the same specifcations, of the same materials, using the same mold design. The early ones were not clones, they were made under license to WE.

It is only in later years that NE began designing their own phones and they were in great demand, even in the States. Their Princesses were better balanced than the WE early Princesses, as from the beginning, the non ringer ones included a base weight to compensate for the missing ringer. Unlike the US Princesses, they were never known as phones you had to hold down to dial. I must admit they had their own problem, though - faulty glue on the base rubber, which resulted in many of them arriving with the base pad having fallen off. As a result, they were jokingly called Barefoot Contessas.

They did produce a few phones which were extremely superior - the Uniphone, which was offered as a 302 substitute to non Bell operating companies. It had a superior thick and heavy bakelite shell as compared to the thinner plastics of the 302. It takes a lot to break a Uniphone. I have dropped Uniphones from 5 feet without any damage (never intentionally, though).

Their Millennium series of Payphones are still considered the most secure payphone. Perhaps unnecesarily complex, they were alarmed from here to doomsday providing automatic alarms should anyone break into them, long before the others caught up.

Your 554 is just as high quality as a WE.  Made in the USA doesn't make it a better phone. That is only a matter of national pride. But we have national pride, too.  In most cases, you are getting the same phone, only with a different name on it.

Dave
The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island:
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit!
C*NET 1-651-0001

twocvbloke

I will say that my WE versus NE count is definitely on the NE side, as my two 2500s, the base of an ITT-shelled 500 and now this 554 are canadian, but the only WE phones I have are my two black 500s, it just so happens that NE phones seem to be easier to obtain here as WE gets the bids and NE is left behind, but that's a good thing for me cos either way, I have the phones I want, regardless of their make, it's like comparing GPO 700 phones to the Israeli versions, most of them are identical, but the latter are cheaper to buy... :)

Mr. Bones

     I have a number of NE phones, and am highly pleased with all of them. Definitely no lack of quality and workmanship.

     They are somewhat less common here in the States than WE. As twocv so aptly pointed out, they seem to get passed over by most bidders. Most I have purchased, I was the only bidder. Suits me just fine, allows me to get some very nice telephones at bargain prices.

     Getting rarer phones at lower prices seems win-win, at least to me. ;)

Best regards!
Sláinte!
   Mr. Bones
      Rubricollis Ferus

twocvbloke

Yep, I'm happy that I've got "a" 554, I've seen a few others over the past year of all the makes (WE, NE, ITT, Stromberg, etc.), but never got a chance to bid or was outbid on them, it's just pure luck I got this NE version, I just like the style of the 554 so doesn't matter what brand is on it... :)

twocvbloke

Well, the phone's arrived, has a smell of "damp house", and the inside looks like it's been kept somewhere a bit on the moist side, but I'm sure it works fine... :)

Dial's rather dry and noisy, but it's all there, just needs a good clean and oiling and it should be fine... :)

The phone does seem to be well-used though, either that or stored badly, but, it's a part of it's history, and I've yet to brave attempting to sand these scratched phones I have incase I ruin them... ;D

I did noticed that it has a 2nd number card holder glued onto the shell, in a similar position to a 2554, odd considering they could just stick one into the dial as normal... ???

And as for the dial card, it was made in Ireland apparently, which is apt as the Republic Of Ireland seemed to settle on US/Canadian telephone systems, aswell as use phones from across the pond, and I think Northern Electric/Telecom/Nortel had a branch in the ROI, so that works for me, but either way, I have a 554 at long last... ;D

twocvbloke

The dial's a bit different, it has an extra set of contacts on Yellow wires, looking at the wiring diagram pasted inside, it's a transmitter cutoff, but, I'll show the network wiring later, still working on cleaning it up inside & out, it's a bit different to see though, makes me wonder if it had another purpose... ???

twocvbloke

#7
Well, I have it cleaned up, still smells musty, but that'll pass I'm sure, though I've yet to take pics of the clean article, it's just one of them days where the ol' grey matter's on a go-slow... ::)

Unfortunately the dial card is mouldy, so, I don't want to put that back in the phone, but the internet is helpful in that I've downloaded a vector file of the pictured NT logo, so I can make up a replica card on clean card with ease... :)

twocvbloke

Next set of pics, including the dial with the extra wires:

twocvbloke

Last set for now:

poplar1

#10
QDB1B (letters and numbers) and QDB1D (numbers only) are the replacements for NE-7G, NE-7H and NE-9H. The extra shunt contacts are normally for use with a speakerphone, to mute the dial pulses in the speaker.

The yellow wires appear to be connected to C and RR. This is not muting the transmitter (B and R), but rather shorting the entire phone when offhook, since C and RR are the input to the network for tip and ring after going through the hook switch.


501-1631-500F
"C'est pas une restauration, c'est une rénovation."--François Martin.

twocvbloke

Strange setup then, should I leave the Yellow wires as they are or disconnect & store them? ???

poplar1

Unless you are using this phone with a Dialgizmo or simlar pulse-to-tone converter, you can disconnect them or just move both yellow wires to G.
"C'est pas une restauration, c'est une rénovation."--François Martin.

twocvbloke

Got the yellows on G now, not got any dialgizmo type devices, just my 616, though that hasn't been set up since moving to this house, I haven't figured out where to mount it... :)

I'm not too impressed with the ringer in this phone, seems NE changed the design from the original C4A to this, and on full volume setting, the clapper can't even get anywhere near the right-hand gong as they eliminated the thicker wire used to limit the clapper's travel according to how the volume is set, and instead putting a little metal lump on the base of the clapper to stop it going too far over, it's a bit disappointing really, means the ringer can't reach it's full potential... :-\

twocvbloke

I hate inkjet printers, I don't think our printer has printed more than 3 full sheets (it's mainly done partial sheets for small things like dial cards and whatnot), and it's out of ink, and there's none left in the house, so I can't print off my replica of the NT dial card for this phone... ::)

Just for the heck of it, a comparison of the current mould-stained card and my replica below... :)