$16.3K for a SC Coffee Grinder! There are some deep pockets out there....Doug
https://www.ebay.com/itm/314093661100?
I'm sorry, I really don't care how rare it is, this has got to be the Ugliest telephone
there has ever been made and this is not a first seen opinion. I've seen these before in a
collection and my first thought was , not a whole lot of esthetic design went into it, in fact none.
Bells prototype has more going for it then this ever will. There are so many other phones just as rare
if not even rarer to spend ones money on. I'm glad to see that someone has the money I lack, I would hate
to think it was just lost, LOL!
This is just my opinion and nothing else and is not meant to anger or ridicule anyone.
Even more amazing is that Stromberg & Carlson started an empire with that phone. Shows what hard work can do. I think the phone is beautiful.
Here is another version of that phone - which one came first?
That one has variations from this one posted on "Top 50 Rarest Candlesticks" which ranks it as the 10th rarest candlestick.
Don't know which was the first design but I suspect it is this one recently sold for $16,000 in that its parts are much more crude than the refined design attached here.
It seems weird that very early phone was one piece & later phones had a phone & sunset🤔😳😁
The earlier version of this "coffee grinder" telephone, the one with the large-diameter faceplate, is a sound-powered telephone, meaning that it makes it's own electricity, rather than needing battery or central office power. It has a magnetic transmitter that creates a small electrical current as small coils are moved within an electrical field by voice vibrations. The version that was just recently auctioned, is an earlier version of the S-C "flip top" candlestick. It is sort of a transition from the coffee grinder to the flip top. It is also transitioning S-C from sound-powered telephony to more practical battery-powered telephony. This version, to my knowledge, has never been seen or documented before. It was the "talk of the town" at the recent phone show in Shipshewana, Indiana. There are only a very few coffee grinders in existence, also very few flip tops, and this unusual set straddles the two different versions. It may very well be the only one in existence. Most of the big-pocketed candlestick guys were in play on this phone.
Quote from: oldguy on August 13, 2022, 10:20:55 PMIt seems weird that very early phone was one piece & later phones had a phone & sunset🤔😳😁
Isn't that because the very first phones were magneto for the ringer and local batteries for the talk circuit? Pretty simple circuit, even using insulated barb wire in rural areas for the two conductors. Before my time, but I remembered this Forum reply (and a google search beings up a lot of hits).
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=25078.msg247687#msg247687
https://www.farmcollector.com/farm-life/it-all-trew/
I suppose the very-very early telephones were really sound-powered. That would neither allow long distances nor the use of fence wire because of the faint signal produced. In a German book I found drawings where apparently the transmitter magnet and coils are also used to produce a "ringing" signal *).
The carbon transmitter, local batteries and a dedicated magneto allowed much more powerful instruments, to use "makeshift" rural lines, single-wire lines with earth return or earthed ringers, etc.
*)(Das Telefon und seine Entwicklung, G. Mergelsberg, Bad Homburg 1996)
Interesting, thanks! Always learning new, historical stuff in replies to a topic post.
ISTR that the early farm lines were one conductor and ground. Also, don't forget the lines where phones were connected in series rather parallel. These required different ringers since the talk path of one phone was through the other phones' ringers, even when those phones were not in use.
Attached is a photo of a Stromberg & Carlson flip top candlestick telephone which sold in an auction earlier this year. This is the more refined, later version of the transition set under discussion.
Quote from: Jon Kolger on August 14, 2022, 10:31:24 PMAttached is a photo of a Stromberg & Carlson flip top candlestick telephone which sold in an auction earlier this year. This is the more refined, later version of the transition set under discussion.
So, is it safe to say the chronological order was the non-flip top design is first, the flip top that started this topic was the second iteration and the refined flip top you just posted was the 3rd?
Yes, as far as I know, that is correct.
If you look at the patents, it shows the fixed transmitter patent filed for earlier than the flip top but the issue date later so I'm assuming the fixed model came out first even though the patent was issued later.
US558859-Telephone_Apparatus(Coffee Grinder)-Stromberg-filed 10-9-1894 issued 4-21-1896
US545922-TELEPHONE_APPARATUS (Flip Top)-Stromberg-filed 3-29-1895 issued 9-10-1895
The first 2 have a magneto it appears the 3rd does not, Early common battery or wired to a magneto subset?