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I just won a Telegrafverket phone - New pictures posted

Started by LarryInMichigan, December 20, 2009, 07:15:35 PM

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talkingtime

Thanks Hobiesport, I've collected phones off and on now for about 6 years now. Had lots of trouble working on them so kinda gave up on it until recently when I came across this board. Been reading some of the topics here and I have a million questions to ask but can't seem to find how to post. My screen doesn't show START A NEW TOPIC.  Maybe it is like some of the other boards where you have to reply to a certain amount of threads before you can post anyways love this board

LarryInMichigan

#16
The phone arrived yesterday, and it was rather dirty.  I cleaned and polished it and moved the frayed part of the handset cord up into the handset.  As you can see in the picture, it has a backwards 'Oslo' dial.  The dial face shown in the ebay listing picture included a paper overlay sticker which was loose and somewhat crumpled.  On the bottom of the phone is a small sticker with the phone number of Phoneco Inc., so I assume that someone must have bought this phone from them.  The phone works, but the sound from the transmitter is weak.  I tapped the transmitter several times, but it did not seem to help.  The ringer gongs are steel and very rusty.

Larry

dsk

Not bad looking after cleaning, you have done a nice job.
The bells should have been galvanized, or nickelplated brass.
The spring on the ringer is bent out on the wrong side of the rest, quite common to do in stead of correcting the polarity of the prong/jack.

The dial could be relabeled, or you could use a dialgizmo,  If you use the dialgizmo you should move red or yellow from terminal 7 or 8 to terminal 2 together with the white from the line cord. It may be possible that you may put in an old W.E. dial plate on this dial too.

The transmitter is a 60 ohm carbon granulate (W.E.?) from the Belgians same as used in some Standard Electric phones. It is not a critical value, but is typical in Local battery telephones like US signal corps telephones.  Probably will almost everything do the job.
These transmitters have quite big granulates inside, this may even be heard when shaking them.

If the ringer takes to many REN you may put in a resistor or capacitor as a replacement of the strap between terminal 15 and 16.

dsk

HobieSport

Interesting curves in the design of your Telegrafverket, Larry.
"Pleasant" and "friendly" are words that come to mind in the design and color.

d_s_k; I have always been curious about the reverse "Oslo" dials.
What was the reasoning behind the design and functional use of the reverse dials?

-Matt

dsk

It is some theories about it.

One is related to the WW1 and the German torpedoing the ship with the exchange.
The replacement happend to bee...

But The ship who sank had a logbook, it was rescued together with some persons. It shows racks and cables.

The phone pictured in a newspaper from 1914 shows reverse dial.
Due to export restrictions the exchange was shipped from USA post WW1

This was quite special, and the last pulse was longer than the others.  Correction 24/04-2012: The first pulse of a 0 was 2.5 times longer.
The dials on all the phones made for this exchange was made by W.E.

Do you know about similar systems used in America.

This delay was the reason for Skin to be the first City in Norway with automatic telephones.
Next was Bergen, also with reverse dial, but the exchange burned down before it was finished...
later they got a normal dial.

Maybe not an answer, but this is still a mystery for us.

dsk

LarryInMichigan

The phone is nice looking, but unfortunately, it is suffering from the same issue as my Dutch PTT Standard phone.  There is frequent crackling static noise coming from the transmitter.  Like the PTT phone, I have eliminated all other components from suspicion.  I am wondering if there is something about the European phones that is incompatible with my phone line.

I think that I remember reading somewhere, but I don't remember where, that the reverse dial configuration had something to do with AT&T's stubbornness to give in to the concept of dial phones, which had been pioneered by Strowger and AE.  They didn't give in to the idea until an operator strike left their customers without phone service, and then they intentionally made their dials different than AE's by placing the finger stop in a different position and reversing the numbering order.  The reversed numbering idea did not go over well, so it was abandoned everywhere but Oslo and New Zealand.

Larry

HobieSport

#21
It sounds like a good mystery story to me.

"The Extraordinary Case of the Reverse Dial Telephones"
By Sir Arthur Conan Dial.
(Yes I just made that up.)

If the story involves world war one submarines and secret electronic communication codes then I am interested.

Thanks Larry for adding to the mystery. :)



-Matt

LarryInMichigan

Also, I should mention that dialing on the phone is actually much easier than I thought it would be.  One simply has to mentally subtract each digit, except 0, from 10, and dial the result.  The last four digits of my number: 0892 are dialed "0218".

Larry

dsk

If you are able to measure the current through  the line = transmitter capsule, it should not be far more than 35 milliamps. (never had a problem with it, and it is designed to cope with 20 - 60 milliamps)

What about the sound if you put in a random well working transmitter capsule from another of your phones.

A resistor of approx 200-300 ohms in parallel with the capsule may lower the signal, a resistor of 200-300 ohms in parallel with a cap. of 1-3 microfarad as a replacement of strap 15-16 would make the telephone believe the line is some mile longer.  Non of these should be needed, but may help. My guess is an old transmitter.

Please tell us how it turns out.

dsk

dsk


LarryInMichigan

I just measured the current through the transmitter at 38 mA.  I added a 470Ω resistor in parallel with the transmitter, and that seems to have significantly reduced the static.  I also replaced the strap between terminals 2 and 3 with 5KΩ, and the phone now rings enough to hear it without keeping my other phones from ringing.

Larry

Adam

I was just outbid on one of these on eBay.  (If you got it, it's a nice phone, congrats!)

I would like to find a set with the reversed dial that is as modern as possible.  How long did they make phones like this for Oslo?  When were they replaced by "normal" phones?  When were the reverse dial phones replaced in New Zealand?

If you have a newer phone with a reversed dial that you would like to sell, please email me.  Thanks.

-Dave Haber
Massapequa Telephone
C*NET 1-798-7619
Adam Forrest
Los Angeles Telephone - A proud part of the global C*Net System
C*Net 1-383-4820

dsk

In Norway, the last rotary was made in the early 1980ies, usually like this:

I, may try to get you one, in exchange with a 2500 set without modular cords?

Just pm me.

dsk

dsk

If modern is the issue the "tastafon" Norway's first push button telephone was made with pulse dialing from 1980 to about 1990. Inside you have a plug to configure reverse or normal pulse dialling.
Looks like this one but no * or #.
Probably possible to get one of these too. (some of these suffer from dried capacitors, so they may have a limited lifetime. Earlier models needs to be killed!

dsk

LarryInMichigan

Dave,

Be aware that many of the Oslo dial phones appearing on ebay and elsewhere have paper overlays with numbers in the 'normal' order on top of the original number plate, so the original plate is not visible.  So a phone that you see with normal numbering may actually be an 'Oslo' phone underneath.

Larry