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Pics of 2003 model 500 series Cortelco Rotary unpacking

Started by McHeath, December 27, 2008, 07:33:55 PM

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McHeath

So this is what the last of the line looked like.  The model 500 was introduced in 1949 and discontinued by AT and T in 1986, from what I know.  Kellogg telephones, who became ITT who became Cortelco, made a licensed copy from about 1951 to the end of 2006.  A nice timeline of the development of the Kellogg/ITT/Cortelco 500 model can be found here:

http://tinyurl.com/9zn257 ( dead link 05-19-21 )

This Cortelco 500 was made in July of 2003 and seems to have never left it's box.  I paid a whopping 20 dollars for it on e-bay.  It works fine, as it should.  A couple of oddities, the dial is very tight to spin, and very quiet, quieter than any of my Western Electric 500s.  The rubber feet actually grip a surface and keep the phone in place while you dial.  The ringer sounds pretty much like a WE ringer, and can be shut off by moving the slider all the way to the right.  The handset has a volume control and it works very well, at it's loudest the phone is loud but not deafening like my 1966 WE 500 with a G6 handset.

The overall quality is certainly a notch below WE.  It's amazing how closely this 2003 made phone follows the original pattern, it's still basically 1940's technology.




McHeath

The owners manual was more interested in giving legal warnings about not using the phone in the bath and near water than actually being helpful.  It assumes that you know how to use the rotary phone as it nowhere tells you how to.

The phone was wrapped in a plastic bag with the usual warnings about not sticking your head in it or a babies head or letting children stick their heads in it. 

McHeath

Notice that the plungers are now just white plastic and not clear.  I think the Northern Electric, Canadian, did that as well in the 70s.  The color is called "ash" and is pretty generic and all, I would rather it were black.

McHeath

Inside it's got the modified ringer of 1989 that Cortelco holds a patent on.  Rumor has it that they break a lot, but my school is loaded with late model Cortelco 2500s and 2554s which use the ringer and they all seem to work fine.  The ringer uses a magnet to bang a steel ball back and forth.  The network is a printed circuit board job, but it still has all the same markings as the old potted WE ones did.  The hookswitch seems identical.  The inside of the case has the same moldings as my 1951 WE model 500. 

McHeath

There are no date codes on anything inside.  The only date code is on the base plate, which I forgot to photograph, and it has a sticker claiming it was "Assembled in USA" inspected by "A Moore" and built on "07/03".  Along with the usual disclaimer and such.  The contours of the base plate match my 1951 WE 500. 

On the big aluminum or steel gear you will notice it says "ITT", which was also on the transmitter.  Hmm, interesting considering that ITT went out of this business in 1989.



McHeath

And one last shot of the inside chassis.  This phone will pretty much live in it's box, though right now it's hanging out next to my turquoise 66' model on my desk.  I know that such late model rotary phones are not really collected right now, but in 50 years it will be a rare prize I'm guessing.  It really is a weird oddity, a rotary phone being made in America during the 21st century?  Who would buy such a thing in a time of Blackberries and cordless digitals?  Clearly there must have still been a market as late as 2006.