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This looks like a home built ... someone have a look please.

Started by shortrackskater, July 20, 2016, 12:50:45 AM

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shortrackskater

I still a novice at this but the dial looks way too new and just the general condition of the phone looks too clean and new. What does everyone else think? It looks home made to me.

http://orangecounty.craigslist.org/atq/5684147140.html ( dead link 04-21-21 )


Vintage American Bell Wall Mount Hand Crank Rotary Telephone
To my knowledge this it NOT a reproduction.
Can not get much more vintage than this.
It has a modern telephone plug on the end of the cord.
bells ring when cranked
and the phone rings when calls come in
the last time used it worked.
250W
Wooden box
Dimensions- all in inches
19 x 8 1/2 wide ( not counting amount ear piece bracket sticks out, nor the crank. )
if you count the ear piece on the hook then it would be about 13 wide
counting the mouth piece sticking out, depth is 10 1/2
the cord on the ear piece is 27 1/2 inches long not counting the ear piece itself.
The phone weighs 25 lbs . Heavy due to the brass parts inside.
Ringer sound can be adjusted by changing the space between the ringer bells.
The angle of the part you talk into can be adjusted .
USED. Good condition.
Price firm.
$400 
Mark J.

Jim Stettler

dial added, The fancier the phone the older it is. Plain top, plain front, can be as late as the '60's. The phone isn't worth much. To me the value is only $20-$50. I can see the value realistically being as high as $100-$135.00. 
JMO,
Jim S.
Shortrackskater PM me if you are looking for a nice example of a wood phone @ a reasonable price.
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

rdelius

This set is assembled of mixed parts.At least the dial was put inside so no holes in the cabinet .wooden sets do not bring as much money as they used to unless good quality rare sets.Nothing special here.

poplar1

Since the hookswitch is apparently a Western Electric 143-type, with the pileup equivalent to that found in a 500, this phone was probably "converted" to dial by one of the Western Electric Distributing House Repair Shops. There is probably a 685A subset (without cover) behind the plywood panel. The original ringers were usually not connected to the telephone line. This made the phone equivalent to a 500/554 set, so that it would not "harm the telephone network or personnel"!

For a one-time fee of about $25, WE would convert a customer-owned phone. The removed parts were given to the customer in a paper sack. Then, the phone company would charge the standard rental for an extension phone, usually $1-$2 per month, for the parts.

After customers were allowed to own their own phones, it's likely that the rented parts could be bought -- like all the phone co. owned standard telephones (other than the 750/2750 Panel Phone?) -- for around $19 per phone, under the SIP (sold in place) plan.

In later years, customers could have phones converted by the AT&T Service Center for a one time charge based on time and material, probably around $100.
"C'est pas une restauration, c'est une rénovation."--François Martin.

shortrackskater

#4
So is the wood case something original made by WE? a phone company?
It looks too new to me but perhaps it was just taken good care of. What would this have looked like originally, in that case? I'd think it would be older than 60s.
Mark J.

poplar1

"C'est pas une restauration, c'est une rénovation."--François Martin.

shortrackskater

Sorry. I fixed my post.  :-\
Just assumed since WE was mentioned in a reply, that it was partly Western Electric.
Mark J.

Kenton K

the modern electronics are probably WE, but he case is another made by another company. I have a candlestick phone that was converted by WE in the 70s. It was an original 50AL candlestick that was gutted and replaced with modern electronics. They replaced the hookswitch also.

Ken

Sargeguy

Western Electric made the TYPE 317 for many years.  In those years it went from being relatively fancy to fairly plain in design.  This is not any of those.  It looks like a phone assembled from parts from different sources, including Western Electric.  If it works it's worth maybe $50-75 I would think. 
Greg Sargeant
Providence, RI
TCI /ATCA #4409

shortrackskater

Who made the wood case? Would that have been some phone company or is this aftermarket?

Thanks everyone for the input on this phone.
Mark J.

rdelius

there were many refurbishers that built new cases and put your old but good parts back in .Brands were mixed ,all the telephone co wanted was a nice working set at a lower cost.Many were rebuilt in the war years when no or limited civilian production was available.Some might have been scrapped but if new sets were not available,the parts would have been valuable for rebuilds.That dial conversion was done much later after the set was rebuilt.

shortrackskater

Mark J.