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Need Help Restoring my N293GP Telephone from the Maritimes

Started by Fairbanks Morse, December 17, 2017, 04:56:23 AM

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Fairbanks Morse

I also have recently acquired a N293GP from the Maritimes which was used just prior to Dial Installation C. 1950.

     http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=8138.msg88877#msg88877

Would you be able to put up pictures of the interior of the one shown above, as the phone here can dial out and Receiver works.

Bells do not ring, and Transmitter not working.

There are Two 2 binding posts on bottom of wood case inside, one of which is connected to one side of the Transmitter.

This telephone has a Phillips Dial.

The Dial Number Tag says 902 584-2xxx =  Lawrencetown, Nova Scotia.

Would there be wiring diagrams for the N293GP or N293G telephones somewhere, Please?

Thank You.

Ktownphoneco

GB  .....    Does your set have the "radio frequency" (RF) filter installed ?    Can you post a picture of the set with the door open, showing the the connections on the door and showing the set's interior and of a high enough resolution and size to see some details.

Jeff Lamb

Fairbanks Morse

#2
N293GP Connections.


Dear Mr. Lamb,

Yes this telephone has a small square tin-covered device similar to the one partially shown in the above dial image, I was not sure what it is for?

I do not have a camera, the last one I owned using film, and it expired, years ago.

The plan now is to acquire a ' Device ' in the New Year with a built in camera as I can see, daily, where it would come in handy for occasions such as this.

When I received the telephone, two wires had been broken off the Induction Coil in Transit. I resoldered them and the phone had dial tone and could Dial out, but bells did not ring when dialing the Ring Back number.

The X-Mitter does not work as one blue wire just ends at right binding post on bottom of case.

There are two binding posts on bottom of case, Right one of which has a blue wire from one side of the  X-mitter. The Left binding post also has a Blue wire which is soldered to the upper right post of the old round induction coil.

The left wire of the Induction Coil, which is bridged to both upper and lower post was broken off. Same for lower wire on right side of Induction Coil. Very brittle connections, cloth-covered rubber wire.

The two blue wires are of a more-modern insulation and not cloth covered.

The condenser is the flat grey tin covered style.

The ringer coils are marked 2150 2-49. Ringer frame stamped 8JA.

Dial marked Phillips Type 24. Did not remove it, and has Rd Bk Gray wires left to right.

The binding posts on right side of case are lettered G L1 L2 2 C on a white paper strip.

When acquired there were external wires thru hole in rear connected to C L1 L2 and the 2 binding posts on bottom of case w/ blue wires to upper right Induction Coil and thru harness to upper TRANS on door.

On the left side of case are Receiver Connections STAMPED REC in edge of wood case.

On door are 3 binding posts on left, the BOTTOM two stamped  G and V. The top one has the wire harness stapled over letter.

A centre binding post over X-Mitter on door is stamped  R.

Two binding posts to right on door are stamped B Above, TRANS between.

Below right posts is stamped N293GP, the ' P ' stamped deeper.

This is also stamped top on rear of phone on Switch Hook side. the ' P ' deeper, also.

The Filter has Rd wire terminating on V on door. The Yl on top left post on door. and Bk to centre R on door.

I would prefer not to move any of the wiring inside as some of their solder connections appear to be VERY Fragile from the Factory. The harnesses are NEATLY done, add 'class' and I do not want to open them, if possible.

YES, a CAMERA is on the list for the New Year, and I will ask some friends who are Device Junkies on a model to get.

Thank You, Sir, for replying so promptly.

F-M.

Ktownphoneco

F-M   ......   I'm attaching a Northern Electric schematic for your set, in both "jpeg" and in "pdf" format.    Regarding the ringer;  make sure the set is wired for "bridged ringing".     In it's past life, it may have been configured for "ground ringing".     More modern telephones are configured for bridged ringing, and in your set, the ringer is wired with one lead attached to "L1", and the other to terminal "C".  is connected to one wire from the condenser, with the other condenser wire connected to terminal "L2".   
If you ensure each conductor is connected to the terminals and components shown in the schematic, your set should function properly, assuming the individual components are not faulty.

N.B *  This schematic is hard to find, so anyone else needs this schematic, now's the time to grab a copy.    I'll post this in the schematic section of CRPF as well.    Page size format : 8.5" x 11.0"

Jeff Lamb

Fairbanks Morse

#4
Dear Mr. Lamb,

Thank You! for the wiring diagrams for the N1293GP telephones!

With these I am sure I can get it to work, unless some of the components are bad order.

I see that terminals 3 and 4 of the Induction coil here are bridged.

I am deciding whether to wait until a friend shows up with a Device and we can take interior photographs of the telephone ' As Is ' before attempting ' Repairs. '

I still do NOT know the reasoning behind the TWO binding posts at bottom of case which each had an external wire attached along with three other wires to C L1 L2.

I have another similar telephone which uses the door hinges as part of the circuitry, it having the older Transmitter with the Screw In Cup but 5H Dial.

Receivers are all a mix up, with the magnet style w/diaphragm or the Capsule type.

The N393G painted Black has a network I 38 and a 4H Dial.

The Diagrams are PRICELESS in this case.

Thank You to You, Sir.

Thank You to Mr. Markham and the CRP Site.

This Forum and the Internet have found results in less than a day, that may have taken months to find out by using Telephone Calls, Surface Mail, Photocopiers and so on.

Just FINDING pertinent texts and BSPs in reality could be a task involving travel to larger centres or much surface mail to and fro.

I had surgery Tuesday past and will be housebound for at least another week.

Once I get mobile, I will take Diagrams to Staples and run them off on paper.

Have to love how easy many things have become with Technology.

P.S. NOT my photographs.

Phones now in my possession.

Fairbanks Morse

#5
Thank You for posting these two diagrams! Sir.

Here is a N293GP as found from Nova Scotia, Canada, in ' As Is ' condition.

It has a Phillips Dial rather than a Northern Electric dial and also has the radio filter inside on door.

Apparently these telephones were sold to smaller telephone companies in the late Forties early Fifties w/o a dial, a wood apparatus blank in dial opening with the intention that the instrument could easily be converted to Central Battery Dial operation by adding the dial unit in the field when change over time arrived.

Other than NE dials may have been used as the NE plant may not have been able to keep up with new dials for their own in-house sets for Bell as dial usage expanded greatly in Fifties.

It seems NE refurbished these older phones to keep up with the demand, some having Induction Coils, as does this one, others with a Network similar to that found in a 302 set.

In doing so, NE added 100 to number = N393, and painted some of these sets BLACK.

More details needed, please!

Another set I have has a 4H Dial and a I 38 Network. And another, a 5H Dial, old style Transmitter.

Was this style of ' Wood ' Dial wall telephone manufactured by WE in the United States?

NE manufactured wood case Magneto telephones well into the Fifties using a monophone receiver, network and a small crank magneto unit. 

A nice compromise with the blend of the wood from the early 1900s with the modern of the Dial Era.

Photos from Internet.

Best Wishes.

Fairbanks Morse

Another N293G Story.

Around 1979 I was wandering around a local Antique Store and spotted this ' Wood ' Northern Electric DIAL Wall Telephone!

I knew immediately that it was a Nineteen Thirties predecessor of the NE 354 Wall set, but had never seen one in reality.

I checked the price, Ninety Dollars in 1979, steep, but I HAD to have it! ( About $350 currently. )

I gave the shop keeper $10 to hold it whilst I rushed to the bank, opening at 1000 long before ATMs and such and raced back with the funds.

I sped home, just dying to try it, as we, then, still were on a small 600 number Step by Step exchange in a trailer.

I knew the Bulldog Transmitter was an upgrade and the lower screw was not even in, scarring the face of the phone, so I bent a piece of strap iron to fit and mounted with screw thru lower hole in Xmitter Bracket.

Put it on the wall and connected it up.

Worked perfectly, 4H dial, and all.

EVERYONE went crazy over the Dial and Ringer and had to try it out. I found, later, the local Mine had purchased Dial Phone Equipment to connect the various levels in the Mine, Concentrator and Iron Plant and other locations such as the Front Gate, Fire Hall c. 1948.

The switchboard and the PBX being in the office.

Other lines were run into town to various merchants and shops, they still on a Manual Switchboard set up, THEIR Dial not arriving until 1955, GTE Juke Box style wall phones, some with chrome rings on Monophone. LUdlow Exchange. Town nearby received Dial at same time, JUniper Exchange.

SAME DIGITS, but, Long Distance! When Seven digits came in c. 1962, became 427, 426.

The GTE instruments USED to be common as SAND thirty years ago in thrift stores in this area, but, the NE ones were the rarest.

( There was a steam explosion at one of the plants c. 1970 which killed two, and shut the plant down forever. Around 1976 a friend found the shattered remnants of another N293 inside, the back of the case split, this one converted from front transmitter to a Monophone handset and hook switch. I made a new back and had it routed for mounting wires, painted it brown and his son still has it. )

After Dial arrived in town, apparently BOTH sets were still left side by side  in in some locations for years.

As mining retrenched in the Sixties, older portions of the plant were decommissioned and their phones wound up in Thrift Stores, as this one did.

Anyway, in 2012 a friend of mine showed up, took these photos and fell in love with the phone. He is a good kid, and I later gave it to him, as shown, Bulldog sticking out, and all. Needed a new cord, which I bought on-line.

Still looking for a Factory Mount for insetting into door.

It will be in a Good Home long after I am gone.

Passing on history to those that care?? Just like these Forums?

Thank You.

Ktownphoneco

F-M   ...   Your very welcome.   I enjoyed reading the story in your last post.   Have a great Christmas and New Year.

Jeff

Fairbanks Morse

#8
Radio Suppression Filter.

Another Story from the Fifties.

In the early Fifties we ' Got TV! ' One, then two channels and rabbit ears on top of the RCA Victor 17 inch Black and White 13 channel set.  When shut off, the image shrank to a dot in the centre of the screen and would burn a brown dot on the inside of the face of the picture tube.

We later  had an earlier set from Emerson that had a round picture tube with a mask on the outside of the cabinet to simulate the screen shape as rounded.

Cabinets wood.

There was a high voltage circuit with a ' Fly Back ' Transformer that had lethal voltages, and a tube enclosed in a metal cage.

Anyway.

My Aunt and Uncle lived way out in the bush, seventy miles from the Broadcast Transmitter and wanted TV, Too.

Magneto Telephone System thru 1961. 40 AMP 110 Volt ( not 220 volt ) power service, where when one refrigerator started on the circuit on the road, all the lights served from that transformer in other homes, dimmed, then brightened as the belt-drive compressors built up speed and kicked out the Starting Windings.

Stove wood fired. Furnace wood fired, water heater side jacket on stove, or water boiled on top or from reservoir built in.

Water from a ' Ram ' in a spring box down the hill. ( Google it ) to a 500 Gal. tank in the barn above the stable.

Ice house w sawdust for ice from the river, brought up by team and sleigh as the tractor would never make it.

Horses in use for sleighs. Daily Train Double-headed with two Pacifics, the big event at the Station, Telegraph inside, in the Village. Creamery for milk across the road, and so on. A Christmas Card.

So, they found a hundred foot pine tree and felled it, turning it into a mast. Sunk two others stubs in the ground adjacent, and mounted the mast between = TV Antenna when the Antenna mounted.

Lightning arrester near base, and ground rod. Hmmm.

YES! They NOW had TV much of the time, but other times it was Snow and Sound, Image, No Sound, or diagonal lines, and Hiss and Image.

But. It WAS TV, and it glowed and added instant status.

Another problem.

When automobiles and trucks approached, you could hear in the Audio, the ' Spark ' from the Distributor as the Rotor turned and the Points opened sending the HV to each Spark Plug in each cylinder.

Most vehicles could be heard on the Audio long before the actual vehicle could be heard audibly.

You could hear them ' Shift ' as buzz reached a peak, then fell way down and climbed again, usually only ' Into Third ' for cars and light trucks.

The buzz would stay level in frequency, but, get louder and louder on the Audio until you could finally hear the vehicle approaching outside, then fade.

When closer, the Ignition interference on the TV would eclipse the SOUND, and when closest, the Video, also, then taper off as the vehicle moved away.

A large truck would shift more times, move slower and be audible much longer.

Saturday Night was the BIG Hockey Broadcast and everybody gathered in the TV room, (  once a Parlour with a new door cut in the hall, the TV became an exalted resident, while the children still slept two to a bed. )

The Hockey Game was THE event of the week and the Adults would gather, with a ' Little ' alcohol, soaking up the heat from the wood furnace below and cheer or boo per the action on the screen.

As the game progressed the Alcohol would work and the audience would become more animated, and sweat.

( There was a fancy bracket in the hall with chains down thru the floor to operate Dampers on the drafts on the furnace, below.

The Doorbell was in the centre of the kitchen door and operated on a clockwork with spinning clappers inside bell from a butterfly key on the door, outside. )

At the end, before Instant Replay, the best action or last goal breaking the Tie would happen just as  series of vehicles droned past interrupting all Reception.

Then the REAL SWEARING would start.

Wives would move the children into the Kitchen by the wood range, or put them to bed.

I was surprised to learn the Radio Filter on older telephones was to filter out Dial Pulses, not the other way around FROM AM Radio.

Every day I find something new about Dial telephones on this Forum from experts out there.