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Flea Market Found Kellogg, Possibly an"Outdoor Phone model #4901" from 1941

Started by PhoneSeeker, March 26, 2014, 07:14:42 PM

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PhoneSeeker


A couple of weeks ago I was roaming a local flea market and came across a seller with a table of early black model 500's with metal finger wheels. I happened to look below a saw an unusual phone on the ground that was part home made but equipped with a old style receiver. I hadn't seen one like it before but recognized the Kellogg transmitter as I got close to it and started to handle it. Unfortunately it was missing it's receiver hook and at the time I thought the mouth piece had been sawed off. I eventually bought it and brought it home to research it and clean it up some.

After searching the Telephone Archives website I found a close match to a model #4901 Outdoor Telephone in the 1941 Section #5 on Pg 26 but it was missing the cast iron box and the transmitter was different.  As I looked more carefully at the mouth piece on my transmitter it didn't look  like it was  a sawed off  cup type.  Although it looked a bit chipped. Looking further into the archive website I found a match for the transmitter  in a 1923 catalog. There's a test set from Kellogg numbers #1016 and #1020 in Catalog #6 pg. 146. Instead of a cup shaped transmitter mouthpiece there was a flat disk type mouth piece that screws in instead.

So I wondered if this phone might be an earlier version than a 1941. The next earlier Outdoor phone from Kellogg was in the 1936  catalog and was a  #4883 but it seemed too different than the #4901. 

So I've posted three pictures. The first showing the phone after I cleaned it up some and added a cap to replace the missing received cap. Unfortunately I need to order a replacement receiver hook. The second picture is a comparison between this phone and my Kellogg Candlestick to show that the transmitter is the same but with the different mouth piece. The third phone is from a page  from an Automatic Electric catalog showing  their "Flush Type Wall Phone"  for comparison.

My question is if any might have more definitive information about what phone I might have. I was speculating that it could be a model #4901 Outdoor phone from Kellogg but that since it was from the war years that the components were just what might have been available at the time as recycled components and so it wouldn't have to match the catalog exactly, or maybe the phone is Kellogg's version of Automatic Electric's Flush mounted wall phone.

Any comments are welcomed.