Could anyone help with the origins of this Western Electric dial card? Colorado or other?
Why does it have the half moon perforated area to bottom?
Thanks for any info.
The perforations were so they could tear away the top and bottom parts .The card would fit the number card holder that fit above the mouthpiece on old style non dial sets with a receiver instead of a handset
Have you checked the TEN project? They have listings for TRinidad in Oakland + San Leandro, Ca & Washington DC.
http://tenproject.cloudapp.net/tensearch.aspx
I've found this that says it was a Washington DC exchange - https://lists.h-net.org/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-dc&month=0603&week=c&msg=b8M8GyFcyyLxsjl44S7yiQ&user=&pw=
:)
Fab .... The card in your picture was made to fit not only the round style of dial number card holder, but also the older type 128-B number card holder used on desk stands. The holder was placed on the transmitter face plate by removing one screw at the top and to the right of center of the face plate, and which is one of four which hold the transmitter face plate to the transmitter cup. The mouth piece was then removed, and the round hole in the 128-B card holder was placed over the round opening for the mouth piece in the face plate, and held there while the mouth piece was re-attached. The hole in the top of the 128-B card holder should align with the one screw was removed earlier, and the screw is then insert through the screw hole in the 128-B and screwed back into the transmitter face plate.
You should see another perforated portion at the top of the card with a longer radius. It would also be removed when installing the card in the 128-B card retainer. See attached pictures.
Jeff
Thanks for that exchange info guys. Much appreciated. I wasn't at all successful when I searched.
Jeff, bizarrely I do have a W.E. desk stand the card would be right for, but it doesn't have one of those number card holders. I have seen the same model with it in photos, but I assumed were they not issued to all? And thank you - now I look more closely I can see the perforated section to the top too.
Amazing what finding this one little dialcard has taught me today.
Thanks all. :)
Fab .... The 128-B number card holder for desk stands aren't that common. When a lot of the old telephones were taken out of service in North America, in most cases the technicians removed the subscriber's telephone number card from the set before throwing the old sets in a bin or a pile at the work center. On a desk stand, they'd have to remove the 128-B card holder, remove the card and probably either tossed the card holder or threw it in a bin in their service truck. I suspect a lot went in the garbage.
Attached are a few pictures of an older W.E. Bell System desk stand with the separate transmitter lug and cup. It demonstrates how the 128-B card holders were mounted. Click to enlarge.
Jeff
There's alot of interesting info on the TEN project, although it does seem to list quite a few misspelled/erroneous entries.
Looking up DIamond 1, which I have a nice numbercard for, just found this entry:
These submissions are memory-drawn. We did not have a telephone (or a television, for that matter) until the late 1950s. When we left the farm, it was for Milwaukee, where you could pinpoint the area in which someone lived by his or her telephone exchange. The South Side was home to blue-collar Polish Catholic Democrat families, and featured EVergreen, ORchard, and MItchell telephone exchanges. EVergreen, to the best of my knowledge, was drawn from the many evergreen trees of the area. ORchard street was a residential street. Mitchell Street, by the way, was named for aviation hero General Billy Mitchell. And that's more than you wanted to know about the South Side, with its stoic, hardworking Polish people, and their neat gardens, and their trim, tight houses and their EVergreen, ORchard and MItchell exchanges, if they had telephones at all. Thanks for being interested. Will bookmark this site and follow your progress. Have already sent link to a friend in Baltimore.