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Well, its not a find but I thought it was... Dial from Cuba

Started by WesternElectricBen, April 23, 2013, 07:24:42 PM

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WesternElectricBen

Hello,

My mom just got back form cuba (don't ask how she got their) and went to somebodys house who used old telephones still. A candlestic with only a button, the phone was brown. And a wood wall phone in which this dial was on. I was at first confused on the lettering system though I remembered back.... To something a teacher tought me on how they dial in some countries. So I'm guessing it is the thing where its like a math problem when dialing a phone.

Am I right about the math problem type dial? Check out the picture.

Ben

LarryInMichigan

Life is great in the socialist workers' paradise.  People are still using 80 year old telephones.  I wonder if the government's eavesdropping equipment is also that old.

The letters on the dial were probably for dialing party (but not as in the communist party) line numbers.  The last character of the subscriber's phone number was a letter which determined which phone would ring.

Larry

WesternElectricBen

Quote from: LarryInMichigan on April 23, 2013, 09:14:46 PM
Life is great in the socialist workers' paradise.  People are still using 80 year old telephones.  I wonder if the government's eavesdropping equipment is also that old.

The letters on the dial were probably for dialing party (but not as in the communist party) line numbers.  The last character of the subscriber's phone number was a letter which determined which phone would ring.

Larry

Ah, I do too wonder if the govs equipment is that old... haha

Ben

rdelius

Worked on a couple of sets from Cuba The AE type 24 dials had the alphabet as shown but I think the letters were red.The sets were truly frankinphones.Is that dial on a Federal set?

WesternElectricBen

Quote from: rdelius on April 23, 2013, 09:34:18 PM
Worked on a couple of sets from Cuba The AE type 24 dials had the alphabet as shown but I think the letters were red.The sets were truly frankinphones.Is that dial on a Federal set?

Not exactly sure...

Ben

rdelius

The dial is a Federal or a Standard type.ITT once owned the Cuban telephone co.Federal or Standard were parts of ITT.I can see part of the box and the eusc appears  to be WE or NE.

G-Man

The arrangement on these dials did not have anything to do with party-line ringing.
The letters were arranged that way because Havana, Cuba had the first Strowger Director (common control) System in the world. London was the second city to install Director systems.

The telephone it is mounted on could very easily be an Automatic Electric set since they supplied the first dial instruments to Cuba and ITT had not yet entered the manufacturing business at the time that Havana was cut-over to dial.

It was not until 1925 when ITT purchased International Western Electric and started to manufacture their own telephones under Standard, Federal, Bell Telephone Manufacturing and other brands.

G-Man

Quote from: WesternElectricBen on April 23, 2013, 07:24:42 PM
Hello,

My mom just got back form cuba (don't ask how she got their) and went to somebodys house who used old telephones still. A candlestic with only a button, the phone was brown. And a wood wall phone in which this dial was on. I was at first confused on the lettering system though I remembered back.... To something a teacher tought me on how they dial in some countries. So I'm guessing it is the thing where its like a math problem when dialing a phone.

Am I right about the math problem type dial? Check out the picture.

Ben


Ben-

I forgot to mention that you must have a cool mom since she most likely realized that you enjoy old telephones and thought enough about you to take a photo!   

G-Man

My memory is seriously lagging the older I get!

I also forgot to mention that Roger Conklin on the TCI list who used to work for ITT and managed some of their South American telephone companies has visited Cuba and has met with their telecom officals and toured the Havana and other old Cuban central offices.

He is our resident expert on the early Cuba dial installations so you may want to contact him for more details on the Havana Director System, etc.

WesternElectricBen

Quote from: G-Man on May 01, 2013, 04:15:34 AM
My memory is seriously lagging the older I get!

I also forgot to mention that Roger Conklin on the TCI list who used to work for ITT and managed some of their South American telephone companies has visited Cuba and has met with their telecom officals and toured the Havana and other old Cuban central offices.

He is our resident expert on the early Cuba dial installations so you may want to contact him for more details on the Havana Director System, etc.


Thank you for the contact!
BEn

AE_Collector

Quote from: G-Man on May 01, 2013, 03:25:13 AM
The letters were arranged that way because Havana, Cuba had the first Strowger Director (common control) System in the world.

Wouldn't the letters likely be the first letter of the name of the various exchanges in Cuba or at least the ones in and close to Havana? Once they converted to dial the first office might have had numbers beginning with 1 and a name that started with L. The next exchange had 2xxxx numbers and it's name began with B. AE would provide any sort of custom arranged dials like this.

Terry

G-Man

Yes, that is what I stated; it was used with a Strowger Director System. The concept was based upon Western Electric's panel and rotary switches along with Bell's Blauvelt numbering scheme for large cities. This has been discussed at depth on the TCI and Strowger lists.