Phillips Electrical Works Phone

[DavePEI]

Please post pics when it arrives.

Still awaiting the arrival of the new one. However, here are photos of another of the plant's products, a subset I have had for a couple of years...

Dave

[DavePEI]

Back to the original Phillips Electrical Works Monophone I opened this thread with.

It arrived this morning, very well packed, and completely undamaged except for one ringer wire which came loose in shipping. Just a matter of re-soldering.

Inside it is as clean as the day it was made. And speaking of the day it was made, there is an inventory/inspection tag inside which reads as follows:

Type Number: Z 5196-A5
Amount 19
Tested 27/12/1945
By
Tester # 2933
B.E. Johnston
Order No. 10-019-3

As I mentioned below, I had several of these in my early collection as a kid. When I went to college, my parents discarded all of them, scared to death the phone police would catch up to them! That despite the fact that they weren't hooked up. Besides that, they saw them as obsolete junk of no value.

You can imagine how I felt when I came home and discovered this. Along with them, several 11 digit strowger wall phones went into the landfill. Eayyyyh!

Anyway, I have spent the last 40 years trying to find another of these made at the Phillips plant. I have had several chances to buy US versions, but the important thing to me was to maintain the Brockville connection in these.

This phone was made at the Brockville Phillips plant 7 years before I was born, and 9 years before phone production moved up Schofield Hill to the new AE plant on 100 Strowger Blvd.

So finally, a very important part of my bucket list is stroked off!

Dave

[HarrySmith]

Congrats Dave! The insides are amazingly nice looking! Too bad the outside is not as nice, looks like it might have gotten wet. Not that it is terrible looking but it is surprising the inside managed to say so pristine. Do you plan on refinishing the wood?

[DavePEI]

Congrats Dave! The insides are amazingly nice looking! Too bad the outside is not as nice, looks like it might have gotten wet. Not that it is terrible looking but it is surprising the inside managed to say so pristine. Do you plan on refinishing the wood?

Actually, what I think you are seeing is the darkened section on the lower left hand side of the door? It is simply a natural darker more dense part of the wood that took the original stain more than the rest. It isn't damaged, though in the photo it looks like it. But I won't be doing any more than the polishing and cleaning I did after I took the photo. With a little lemon oil and dust removal it all looks great.

As you say, the inside is incredible - not even any rust on the magneto. I hooked the phone up to my switchboard this afternoon, and it works like a charm. The only thing wrong with it was one wire had broken off one terminal of the ringer.

It has to be the first magneto set I have which still bears its inspection tag!

Dave

[AE_Collector]

Hi Dave:

I am glad that it arrived undamaged and am happy that you finally replaced this item in your collection. What do you recall about obtaining the first one you had years ago?

It looks like the model number per the tag should be Z 5196 not 25196 per the stencilling on the inside of the door.

I am guessing that the "Amount - 19" on the tag is the quantity of these on that particular order. Do you think that is likely it as well?

Terry

[DavePEI]

Hi Dave:

I am glad that it arrived undamaged and am happy that you finally replaced this item in your collection. What do you recall about obtaining the first one you had years ago?

It looks like the model number per the tag should be Z 5196 not 25196 per the stencilling on the inside of the door.

I am guessing that the "Amount - 19" on the tag is the quantity of these on that particular order. Do you think that is likely it as well?

Terry

Yes, I agree with you regarding the number of phones in the order. Neat to get it with the tag...

I actually had three of these when I was a kid. They were thanks to a call from an employee at the plant who called when they were discarded into the plant dump to let me know they were there. i had a couple of "informers" there happy to help out a kid. Amazing how the good things stayed perched on top of the pile

These were fairly common in the Brockville area when I was young. Two complete ones and one partial one. While, of course they were no longer used in the city, at least a couple of my friends families had one in their basement. I do remember there was a fad amongst kids to take the magneto out and turn it into a worm shocker. Sad for that to have been the fate of many of these..

Dave

[HarrySmith]

Actually, what I think you are seeing is the darkened section on the lower left hand side of the door? It is simply a natural darker more dense part of the wood that took the original stain more than the rest. It isn't damaged, though in the photo it looks like it. But I won't be doing any more than the polishing and cleaning I did after I took the photo. With a little lemon oil and dust removal it all looks great.

As you say, the inside is incredible - not even any rust on the magneto. I hooked the phone up to my switchboard this afternoon, and it works like a charm. The only thing wrong with it was one wire had broken off one terminal of the ringer.

It has to be the first magneto set I have which still bears its inspection tag!

Dave

OK, great! It did look like water damage at first glance, glad it is not!

[DavePEI]

OK, great! It did look like water damage at first glance, glad it is not!

I'm glad it isn't, too. Mind you, I would have been just about as pleased with it if it were - I have been looking for one for so long.

If you look closely, you will see that the front is made of two edge joined boards. The left hand board seems to have been cut in a different direction from the other, resulting in its darker colour, or perhaps it was a bit more sappy section of wood. If you look at the photo fully enlarged, you will see the darker portion ends at the join in the boards.

The tongue and groove edges of the board are tight and perfect. I paid $200 for it, but I feel it as well worth it to have been able to replace the ones I had when I was a kid. Though I was only two when Automatic Electric moved to the new plant and British Calendar Cables took over ownership of the Phillips plant, I still remember both well. Less than a block away the vice-president of Phillips lived. He was the gentleman who encouraged my interest in electronics and phones when I was 11 by giving me a pin guided screwdriver.

So many of my friends parents worked at one, or the other plants.

Dave

[DavePEI]

Now, here's something. Just a few weeks after I finally found my Phillips Electrical Works Wooden Monophone, I see a U.S. AE Wooden Monophone on Ebay:

http://www.ebay.ca/itm/Automatic-Electric-Monophone-Telephone-Rare-/111356727412?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item19ed60d074

Now this is essentially the same phone, only not built in the Phillips plant which to me was one of the most important parts of my find.

It is priced above mine, but looks to be in just about as good shape. This one has a Kellogg magneto.

Just an FYI if anyone is looking for one of these.

Dave