Wartime Restrictions

[poplar1]

"Due to a shortage of materials and manufacturing facilities, a number of substitutions and changes are necessary...

"Wire: Station, DU and GN.  Lead coating with brass flashing being used in place of tin on conductors. More care required in skinning."

WR-C24.021, Issue 2, 1-18-43 Station Wiring, Supplies

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"This WR sheet covers the use of a new acetate cloth tape which has been made available for repairing station cords and inside wiring cables."

WR-C24.022, Issue 1, 1-4-43 KS-8950 Acetate Cloth Tape

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Linoleum flooring used in place of rubber to repair telephone booths.

WR-C44.121, Issue 1, 5-6-42 Telephone Booths, 1, 2, 5, 6 and 7 Types, Maintenance

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"1.02 In view of the rubber situation it has been necessary to discontinue the manufacture of certain station cords and reduce as far as feasible the demand for station cords...

"3.01 It has also been necessary to revert to the use of textile insulated cords (double cotton braid insulation on conductors) which are wax treated to make them water repellent.

"3.02 Existing stocks of new and repaired cords with rubber insulated conductors should be reserved for use in humid or damp locations.

"4.01 The manufacture of the retractile hand set cords has been discontinued. Accordingly, the sale of these cords is being discontinued, and the existing stocks are to be used only for maintenance replacements at stations where the customers have already contracted for this type of cord."

WE-C36.101/WR-C63.701 Issue 2, 1-18-43 Station Cords, All Types

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[poplar1]

1.01"....Issued to call attention to the fact that the manufacture of colored station sets has been discontinued."

WR-C30.011 Issue 1, 8-5-42 Colored Station Sets

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"Wall war sets" were converted from the upper housings and back plates of pay phones.

653-AX (individual line type), 653-ATX (four-party line type) and 653-BCX (tip party stations on two-party selective message rate lines.)

WR-C31.145 Issue B, 12-23-44 N.Y.Tel.Co. Common Battery Wall War Sets, Description and Installation

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[paul-f]

Interesting topic.  These BSPs would make nice additions to the TCI Library to go with...
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This WR sheet modifies Section C42.102to give information concerning coin collectors and associated coin collector parts which are either no longer manufactured or are now made of substitute materials because of wartime conditions.

(a) Coin Gauge: Cold rolled steel with a nickel finish is used instead of stainless steel.

(b) Coin Return Escutcheon and Coin Return Plate are made of cold rolled steel finished black instead of stainless steel.

(c) Coin Return Chute parts are now made of sheet steel with a zinc-plated finish instead of nickel-plated and stainless steel.

(d) Coin Hopper are now made of zinc-plated steel instead of nickel-plated brass. The brass, nickel silver and phosphor bronze coin vanes and traps are now made of steel with the same heavy chromium finish used heretofore.

(e) Other Changes: The equalizing spring is now zinc plated steel instead of nickel silver. The various screws and nuts used throughout the coin collector were formerly made of brass and in some cases were nickel-plated. They are now being made of zinc-plated iron except where they are in the magnetic circuit of the coin relay and these are of brass without a plated finish. A number of other minor parts are also made of zinc-plated iron instead of brass.

WR-C42.102 lssue 2, 10-28-43   COIN COLLECTORS MULTI-SLOT TYPES
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Substitute RK302 Varnish for shellac now specified...
Add to the List of Marterials... KS-7435 Thinner (Solvent for RK302 Varnish).

WR-B502.531/WR-B502.535/WR-B502.541 Issue 3, 1-11-44  Substitutes for Shellac
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Connections of converted 305, 401, 410, 411, 440, 441, 460, 461 and 462 type telephone sets for use as 302 type telephone sets... and of converted 105, 205, and 208 type hand telephone sets for use only as 302A, B, C or D telephone sets...

WR-C63.411 Issue 1, 4-23-43  Telephone Sets converted to 302 types

[Sargeguy]

I'd like to get me some of that RK302 Varnish

[cihensley@aol.com]

Did I miss something. Does someone have these war time practices that are cited?

Chuck

[unbeldi]

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[unbeldi]

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[JimH]

Very interesting.  In 1942 my grandparents, who lived in Detroit, didn't have a telephone.  When my grandmother went to work assembling machine guns, they allowed them to get one since she was away from the house during the day.  I guess they weren't taking on new customers unless you had a good reason. They had the phone number, VInewood 2- 2798 until they moved out of Detroit to the suburbs in 1968.

Jim

[Babybearjs]

WOW! how did people call for help then? I guess party lines were quite popular.... providing you could find a telephone..... Did AE, SC, and Kellogg have the some problem?

[unbeldi]

Very interesting.  In 1942 my grandparents, who lived in Detroit, didn't have a telephone.  When my grandmother went to work assembling machine guns, they allowed them to get one since she was away from the house during the day.  I guess they weren't taking on new customers unless you had a good reason. They had the phone number, VInewood 2- 2798 until they moved out of Detroit to the suburbs in 1968.

Jim

Highland Park?

[JimH]

Very interesting.  In 1942 my grandparents, who lived in Detroit, didn't have a telephone.  When my grandmother went to work assembling machine guns, they allowed them to get one since she was away from the house during the day.  I guess they weren't taking on new customers unless you had a good reason. They had the phone number, VInewood 2- 2798 until they moved out of Detroit to the suburbs in 1968.

Jim

Highland Park?

It was southwest Detroit.  Fort Street/ Springwells Ave / Vernor Ave (the root beer, "Vernors" is named for it, if anyone is familiar) area.  It's now known as Mexican Village.   They've got a couple of really good restaurants there.

Jim

[unbeldi]

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[unbeldi]

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[jsowers]

What people did when they had no phone...

My grandmother on my dad's side didn't have a phone during WWII and my dad was drafted near the end of the war. His younger brother was in the hospital with peritonitis from a burst appendix in a city about 25 miles away and the only way my grandparents had to communicate with the hospital was at her sister's house about five miles away. I don't think they were able to get a phone until Granny went to work for Manhattan Shirt Factory, about 1947. An AE 50 with a spitcup handset on a party line.

As a contrast, my mom's family ran a general store in a small rural town and they lived above the store. They always had a phone and electricity (mom was born in 1929). The store served as a community meeting place (it even had a pot-bellied stove) and many people got their phone calls there and they would take messages for people. They sold the store about 1953 and built a house next door. The phone service changed and they went from a magneto wall phone with batteries (two longs and a short) to a black 500D with a BRoadway 8 phone number.

[JimH]

What people did when they had no phone...


As a contrast, my mom's family ran a general store in a small rural town and they lived above the store. They always had a phone and electricity (mom was born in 1929). The store served as a community meeting place (it even had a pot-bellied stove) and many people got their phone calls there and they would take messages for people. They sold the store about 1953 and built a house next door. The phone service changed and they went from a magneto wall phone with batteries (two longs and a short) to a black 500D with a BRoadway 8 phone number.

How cool is that!  These are stories that unfortunately will one day be lost to future generations.  Magneto wall phone...BRoadway 8.  I suppose it will soon be "Remember when Grandma had that big black Nokia that you couldn't even text with!"