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Tell me about a Deveau phone

Started by Bill, October 01, 2008, 07:13:57 PM

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Bill

Today I had a chance to buy a DeVeau phone. It is a desk set, looked a lot like a round base non-dial 102 desk set. Around the "dial", just outside where the finger wheel would be if this were a dial phone, were 8 pushbuttons.  It was attached to a rather small wood-cased ringer box - smaller than a cigar box. The reference to "DeVeau" was in the label in the center of the dial plate - nothing molded into any of the parts.

Can't find many references to DeVeau, although I have found some that refer to a DeVeau candlestick. Anyone have any info about the desk set? Including, of course, what I should be willing to pay for it?

Bill

Mark Stevens

Hmm...that is a mystery.  I found a nice photo of one, but that's it.  What are those buttons about anyway?  Surely they're not really push-buttons!

bingster

I've seen pictures of DeVeau phones, but I've never seen one in person.  Try searching google images for "deveau telephone" and you'll see lots of pictures of various models.  Any of 'em close to what you saw?
= DARRIN =



Bill

#3
Mark -

Yes, they really are pushbuttons, in the sense that they are spring-loaded and push with a finger. Who knows what function they served - I was thinking perhaps to ring one of 8 buzzers at 8 different stations. Can you post a link to the photo you found?

Bingster -

I can't get Google Images to behave. Although I have asked for return of only photos related to the words Deveau AND telephone (in the Advanced Search), it returns almost 3000 hits, most of which seem to have nothing to do with one term or the other (or both). There are photos of DeVaeau phones amoung the first 50 hits or so, but none look like a 102 desk set.

Kinda spendy at $125 asking price, which is why I asked.

Bill

Mark Stevens

Quote from: Bill on October 02, 2008, 09:39:38 AM
Mark -

Yes, they really are pushbuttons, in the sense that they are spring-loaded and push with a finger. Who knows what function they served - I was thinking perhaps to ring one of 8 buzzers at 8 different stations. Can you post a link to the photo you found?

Here's one at Live Auctioneers, another on Gary Goff's website, another here, and yet another here.  I found more this time!  I sometimes use Google images, but often have better luck by just wading through the text searches.  Hope this helps...no much variation between the De Veaux's pictured....they're pretty much the same!  ;)

Bill

No no no! Those are all candlesticks! I'm looking for a desk set, like the one in the Charter Member sig line you so kindly created for me. I'll see if I can get a photo and post it.

Bill

Mark Stevens

Quote from: Bill on October 02, 2008, 05:56:00 PM
No no no! Those are all candlesticks! I'm looking for a desk set, like the one in the Charter Member sig line you so kindly created for me. I'll see if I can get a photo and post it.

Bill

oops...
Are you sure you didn't dream this De Veau desk set?!  I've found no reference to such a phone at all.  If I see one, it's mine...  er, where did you say you found it?  ;D

Bill

#7
OK, here are some pics of the Deveau unit. Mark, tell me if this is too much.

I'm beginning to think that this is not a complete phone per se, but an intercom. The wooden "ringer box" contains a connection strip and a buzzer - nothing more. No network, no ringer other than the small buzzer. According to the diagram, the base didn't hold a network, so this must have been somewhere else. And there must have been a group of relays somewhere, to switch in the particular line selected by the pushbuttons.

By the way, the label in the center of the dial plate says DeVeau in the center, and Stanley & Patterson, New York, USA at the edges.

Kinda cute, though.

Bill

Dennis Markham

That's a neat looking phone.  I know absolutely nothing about them and have not seen one, or didn't pay attention when I did.  That handset almost looks like an AE 34 handset.  That phone would like nice on the shelf with others. 

BDM

Oh yeah, and intercom set. But, I'd bet the proper dial could be easily added. Oh, if you want the proper cord. Better place an order at The House of Telephones fast, before they go away.
--Brian--

St Clair Shores, MI

Mark Stevens

Quote from: Dennis Markham on October 04, 2008, 12:48:03 PM
That's a neat looking phone.  I know absolutely nothing about them and have not seen one, or didn't pay attention when I did.  That handset almost looks like an AE 34 handset.  That phone would like nice on the shelf with others. 

I'm with Dennis....I don't know what it is, but it's a very cool phone!  (And, without a doubt, extremely rare)  Condition looks swell, too!   :D

Bill Cahill

Never seen a phone like that before either. But, it looks neat....
How does it dial out?  Just get operator with hook button?
I might have seen a phone like that in an old BW movie years ago.
Bill Cahill

"My friends used to keep saying I had batts in my belfry. No. I'm just hearing bells....."

bingster

Phones like these weren't used for outside calls--they were strictly for internal point-to-point communication.  Outside calls were placed on a regular phone.  Remember in old movies and photos of executives' desks?  Often there were multiple phones on a person's desk.  This is why.  One phone might be on an internal phone system, one might be the outside "city" phone, and another might be strictly an intercom.
= DARRIN =



Bill

Many thanks for all the comments and advice. I have concluded that this phone might be "rare", but it is not "desireable". And $125 is too much for me to pay for it. I'll contact the seller again and offer maybe $50 - but that's it.

The problem is that it is not a "phone", and cannot be made into a "phone", even with the addition of a network or mini-network. The hookswitch is too simple, and an external relay box would be required - and now we're getting pretty far from the original instrument.

If the seller meets my offer, I'll let you know.

Bill

benhutcherson

I realize I'm rather late to this thread, but just thought that I'd comment that the base looks a whole lot to me like one of the old Automatic Electric desk sets.

Notice the handset, which is a dead-ringer for the earlier AE handsets(identical to the one on the AE34), as well as the single hook switch button in the middle of the cradle.

See this link for detailed pictures of an AE cradle phone

http://www.oldphoneworks.com/type-1a-deskphone.html