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First US phone in my collection

Started by oldmoley2, March 06, 2015, 04:21:59 AM

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oldmoley2

Just picked this little beauty up on Ebay. It was already in the UK, which is a mite unusual, and came with a Northern Telecom version dated 1977. The date on the base is 1951, but the phone has clearly been through some kind of refurbishment process during its life, and not all dates match. Nice phone though, and works perfectly on my Panasonic 616 and home line.

oldmoley2

Here's the other picture, which failed to upload in the first post.

oldmoley2

I have indeed, mostly GPO/BT types ranging from 200 series to models from the late eighties. I'm in the middle of creating a display area, so that I can connect them all. The collection is ever-expanding, so I've acquired a few more PBXs to cope! I'm always on the lookout for more 500s, and other American types, but as I said earlier, the shipping cost from the States can be a bit prohibitive.

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Quote from: oldmoley2 on March 06, 2015, 04:21:59 AM
Just picked this little beauty up on Ebay. It was already in the UK, which is a mite unusual, and came with a Northern Telecom version dated 1977. The date on the base is 1951, but the phone has clearly been through some kind of refurbishment process during its life, and not all dates match. Nice phone though, and works perfectly on my Panasonic 616 and home line.

Any pictures of the Northern Telecom version dated 1977?

Doug / Autonut

oldmoley2

Photo of Northern Telecom phone attached. This was apparently used in Ireland, and actually has "made in Ireland" on the dial label. The base of the phone shows it as having been made in Canada, which I think is more likely!

poplar1

When Northern Telecom started assembling 500s in Michigan, c. 1975, they used bases embossed "Made in Canada." US patent info was stamped on the base in black ink. Is it possible that your white 500 was in fact assembled in Ireland with some Canadian parts?

"C'est pas une restauration, c'est une rénovation."--François Martin.

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So what you have is your first North American Phones in your collection.  :)

oldmoley2

Many thanks for the information, which has certainly cleared up a bit of a mystery. Just need to fit a new line cord to the Northern to get it going again (hopefully!)

twocvbloke

Quote from: oldmoley2 on March 06, 2015, 08:29:57 AMthe shipping cost from the States can be a bit prohibitive.

That's pretty much the reason I've all but given up on importing things from the US, it's too expensive, even by the slowest services offered, the shipping is often more than the value of the item... :(

Still, that's a nice set of phones there, I have a Northern Telecom 554 (the wall phone version of the 500) that claims to be irish too, even has a glued-on slot to add a rectangular number card as used on the 2500 and 2554 type phones, not sure why they did that!!