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What is missing in this picture? -- Bezel lettering and Manufacturer info needed

Started by ihunguponyou, March 28, 2018, 10:46:03 PM

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ihunguponyou

Why would the word "operator" be missing from the dial? Is this a WE or ITT?  :o
Nicole

twocvbloke

Probably a Canadian model, they omitted "Operator" from the dial as it wasn't french (Opérateur)...

EDIT:
As for the brand, possibly Northern Electric/Northern Telecom...

Ktownphoneco

The set is probably a Northern Electric set made at one of Northern's U.S. plants for sale to independents in the U.S.A.      They also produced a set with numbers only on the dial.   Page from a N.E. Tel. Cat. U.S. - 1969, showing sets without the word "Operator" and one set with numbers only, no letters.    Click twice to enlarge.

Jeff Lamb

ihunguponyou

Thank you guys for answering! I am very new to collecting and this forum and was curious. Learned something new tonight. 😊
Nicole

oldguy

Gary

poplar1

Quote from: Ktownphoneco on March 28, 2018, 11:37:25 PM
The set is probably a Northern Electric set made at one of Northern's U.S. plants for sale to independents in the U.S.A.      They also produced a set with numbers only on the dial.   Page from a N.E. Tel. Cat. U.S. - 1969, showing sets without the word "Operator" and one set with numbers only, no letters.    Click twice to enlarge.

Jeff Lamb


Are you certain that these sets were assembled in the U.S.? I always heard that they could not use the Northern Electric name -- rather had to use Northern Telecom -- for sets assembled here, because there was already an unrelated small company called "Northern Electric" in the US, that refused to give up its name.

All the 500s I recall seeing that were assembled in Northern's US plants in the early 70s had "Made in Canada" embossed in the metal baseplate along with a black ink stamp listing US Patents. All of these sets had "Operator" on the number plate.
"C'est pas une restauration, c'est une rénovation."--François Martin.

ihunguponyou

Nicole

twocvbloke


ihunguponyou

Nicole

Ktownphoneco

Quote from: poplar1 on March 29, 2018, 06:19:14 AM
Are you certain that these sets were assembled in the U.S.? I always heard that they could not use the Northern Electric name -- rather had to use Northern Telecom -- for sets assembled here, because there was already an unrelated small company called "Northern Electric" in the US, that refused to give up its name.

All the 500s I recall seeing that were assembled in Northern's US plants in the early 70s had "Made in Canada" embossed in the metal baseplate along with a black ink stamp listing US Patents. All of these sets had "Operator" on the number plate.

No I'm not certain of that Dave.   I was told by U.S. collector a number of years ago, that the sets came out of a Northern plant in Michigan.    The one in this post is stamped made in Canada.       If the parts were made at a Canadian plant and shipped to a U.S. plant for assembly, is the set made in Canada or the U.S.A. ?    It's basically a box of parts that can't perform any sort of function on their own.     Once someone puts them all together and the parts become a functioning telephone, and at that point what's the correct answer to the question "where was it made ?"   
The sticker placed over the ink stamp on the bottom of the set in this post, is something I've never seen up here in Canada, but then again, I live in Ontario, which is primarily Bell Canada territory with a few small telco's scattered across the province.   To the best of my knowledge, I've never seen a sticker of that type on the bottom of a Bell Canada 500 series set.

Northern also supplied 500 series sets to customers here in Canada with alpha-numeric, alpha-numeric with the word operator over the zero, and numeric only dial markings.      I've never seen a dial on a Northern telephone in Bell Canada territory without the word "operator" on the dial, but as I mentioned, I live in Bell Canada territory.       I have no idea what independent telco's do in other parts of the country.

Jeff