A Couple of Norths

[kleenax]

One last North wall phone that I want to share: This little wall phone to me, is probably the RAREST of the North's in the modern age. Anybody have one? Did they come in any other colors? This is the only one that I have ever come across....period!

Also, a few more pics of Norths to fill out my -6- ration/post of photos!  

[WesternElectricBen]

I really like that blue one!! Is that color as rare as medditerranian blue?
Ben

[kleenax]

I really like that blue one!! Is that color as rare as medditerranian blue?
Ben

Ben, "rare" is such a misused word in my opinion. I like "desirable" much better!

Yes, it is much more rare and/or desirable than the WE Mediterranean Blue 500.

The Blue North 541 that was in my collection is literally the only one that I have ever seen. I know from speaking with others that there are a few out there in collections, this is the only one that I have ever seen. I have seen dozens of WE examples. What is strange is that SOME of the 541 colors have HOLLOW plastic handsets, and some have heavy, solid handsets that seem to be made of Tenite. The lighter-colored examples all have hollow/lightweight handsets.

The earlier Blue North 7H6 is even MORE "rare". The last one that I witnessed being sold went for $1800.00  Next would be the baby-poop brown 7H6 (Rose-Beige to purists:); I was bidding on a very nice example of this 7H6 color at the Morphy auction last year, and bid it up to (if I remember correctly) $1200, and stopped, awarding it to Walt Aydelotte as the winning bidder at something over that price (there was 1 other bidder against him I think when I dropped at $1200).

[rdelius]

I think North electric 541 sets are hard to find is after the mid 1950s they started selling ericofons and they also sold some ericssion designed desk sets.North made lots of military equiptment also

[poplar1]

I used to visit independent phone companies looking for old phones. There was one in upstate New York that had 3 North 7H6 sets hooked up on a table in the central office---all different colors! They had WE 5J dials. The tech told me that they didn't like the North dials; so they ordered them with WE dials.

A woman in the business office told me that they were the first phone company in the US to offer color phones at no extra charge. There had been an article about this in the weekly Telephony magazine. I was able to get a few on that trip.

I knew they still had a lot more color 7H6 sets in the warehouse, so I stopped there with my collector friend from Montréal when we were visiting various phone companies in Pennsylvania and New York state. But, as was often the case on these hunting trips, my friend and I got all the way to the warehouse only to get the runaround. The employee said he had forgotten his keys.

On the third trip I was finally able to get some more. The tech told me that blue was the rarest color. We couldn't find any blue ones, but then a brown painted one I got was blue underneath! As for the other colors, the most plentiful in this warehouse  were mahogany, followed by red, maroon, gold (ochre?), and green. There were no ivory or black.

I got two wall phones: red and green.

[WesternElectricBen]

I really like that blue one!! Is that color as rare as medditerranian blue?
Ben

Ben, "rare" is such a misused word in my opinion. I like "desirable" much better!

Yes, it is much more rare and/or desirable than the WE Mediterranean Blue 500.

The Blue North 541 that was in my collection is literally the only one that I have ever seen. I know from speaking with others that there are a few out there in collections, this is the only one that I have ever seen. I have seen dozens of WE examples. What is strange is that SOME of the 541 colors have HOLLOW plastic handsets, and some have heavy, solid handsets that seem to be made of Tenite. The lighter-colored examples all have hollow/lightweight handsets.

The earlier Blue North 7H6 is even MORE "rare". The last one that I witnessed being sold went for $1800.00  Next would be the baby-poop brown 7H6 (Rose-Beige to purists:); I was bidding on a very nice example of this 7H6 color at the Morphy auction last year, and bid it up to (if I remember correctly) $1200, and stopped, awarding it to Walt Aydelotte as the winning bidder at something over that price (there was 1 other bidder against him I think when I dropped at $1200).

Oh.... Wow, with all of those phones you could pay back U.S.'s debt...

[Doug Rose]

What an outstanding thread!!! Thanks Ray for all those wonderful pictures. This is what its all about. ....Doug

[Gilas]

I have always loved the North phones and seeing them in all the colors is amazing.  Thanks to all that have posted pics, since this is probably the only way I will get a chance to see some of them.

Mike

[kleenax]

OK, one last set of photos on the North 7H6 variety. Anybody ever run into one that is faded like this?

LOOK what is underneath this nasty brown-colored North! Also notice that it has a Western Electric dial. These could actually be ordered from the factory with either Western Electric, Automatic Electric, or with North's own dial (with like-colored fingerwheel; the rarest of all!).

[AE40FAN]

Those colored North's are beauties!  They must be extremely rare as this is the first I've seen one in other colors besides black, brown, white, and green..

[LarryInMichigan]

I reassembled the desk phone yesterday.  I used the handset, dial bezel, and finger wheel from the wall phone because they were in much better condition.  All of the plastic parts and cords got a bleaching with hair peroxide.  I had to do heavy sanding to remove the deep gouges which were all over the shell.  Although the phone looks mostly shiny now from a distance, the surface of the shell is actually very scratchy from the sanding.  I tried sanding with 400 and 600 grit sandpaper and various micro-mesh pads, polishing with ScratchX and Novus polish and buffing, but I was not able to remove the scratches.  Fortunately, my eyesight is not very good.  The phone does work well, including the North SL ringer and dial.  Filling in the deep gouges in the other handset and caps will be a challenge.

Though it will likely be anticlimactic after the pictures of the beautiful colored Norths in this thread, here is a new picture of my ivory 541.

Larry

[Dennis Markham]

Looks very nice, Larry.  Nice work.  I don't see any scratches.......

[LarryInMichigan]

Than you Dennis.  When you see the phone up close, you will see scratches.

Larry

[kleenax]

I reassembled the desk phone yesterday.  I used the handset, dial bezel, and finger wheel from the wall phone because they were in much better condition.  All of the plastic parts and cords got a bleaching with hair peroxide.  I had to do heavy sanding to remove the deep gouges which were all over the shell.  Although the phone looks mostly shiny now from a distance, the surface of the shell is actually very scratchy from the sanding.  I tried sanding with 400 and 600 grit sandpaper and various micro-mesh pads, polishing with ScratchX and Novus polish and buffing, but I was not able to remove the scratches.  Fortunately, my eyesight is not very good.  The phone does work well, including the North SL ringer and dial.  Filling in the deep gouges in the other handset and caps will be a challenge.

Though it will likely be anticlimactic after the pictures of the beautiful colored Norths in this thread, here is a new picture of my ivory 541.

Larry

Careful buffing would eliminate ALL of the scratches. I am NOT a fan of using ANY sandpaper whatsoever on soft plastic phones for that very reason......scratches. Careful buffing actually slightly melts the surface, melding scratches into a smooth, homogeneous surface.