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Bell / Western Electric - "Mod 1 Picturephone"

Started by MagicMo, November 18, 2012, 02:35:03 AM

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MagicMo

Dan,
Holy Carp! Can you tell me a little about the phone so I don't have to read through 65 pages to figure it out? I'll be on my computer for the whole weekend if I had to read through it all. Was it what you thought it was?
Please fill me in (condensed version)
Thanks!
Mo
Practice Kindness :)

HarrySmith

Mo, you really should read the whole thing, it is a fantastic story!!
Harry Smith
ATCA 4434
TCI

"There is no try,
there is only
do or do not"

Sargeguy

Mo you should look through some more boxes and see if you have one of those as well!!!
Greg Sargeant
Providence, RI
TCI /ATCA #4409

Dan/Panther

#243
Mo;
"now the story can be told", covers every detail from How I found the phone, down to detailed photos, of the complete tear down, and restoration, and help received from other members.
Basically, Dennis and myself,  noticed an unusual phone on Ebay, the pictures were very poor, and luckily, not too many noticed it. It turned out, the be a Field test set from we figure, about 1947, or 1948. I paid $220.00 for it, and Dennis was the only other bidder.
We set up a conference call when I finally finished it, and something like 35 people participated.
In my mind, It is the oldest known 500, so far still functioning. At least no one else has come forward, to dispute the fact. It has many pre-production  parts, that never made it into regular production. And several of them may be unique in themselves. Unless someone like you uncovers a stash of parts. I highly recommend you at least study the photos, to see if you may have any matching parts.
I didn't mean to sound arrogant about the thread the phone was in, just extremely excited even still about the phone.
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

Dennis Markham

Nice summation of the events of that phone Dan.  That was an exciting time and a great story.

MagicMo

Dan,
All I can say is WOW! What a wonderful story, I'm excited for you.  What is the value of something like that?
You certainly got me interested enough to read the whole story! See you in a couple days! LOL

Sargeguy,
Weirder things have happened. It would be like winning the lotto twice!. My glass is always half full. ;)


Harry Smith,
You talked me into it. I'm gonna check it out!

Mo
Practice Kindness :)

MagicMo

Interesting tidbit. I was contacted (through ebay) by a Bell Labs engineer that was part of the Picturephone team and he knew the engineers that I listed in my EBay description. I looked up his name and he is legit. Geez, I don't know what to say. What questions should I ask him?
Thanks,
Mo
Practice Kindness :)

Dan/Panther

Have him come on the forum, we would love to talk to him, he probably has many answers, to many of our questions. A living resource at our disposal. It seems we have had a terrible time, getting actual Bell Employees to talk to us.
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

MagicMo

Quote from: Dan/Panther on February 09, 2013, 10:44:24 PM
Have him come on the forum, we would love to talk to him, he probably has many answers, to many of our questions. A living resource at our disposal. It seems we have had a terrible time, getting actual Bell Employees to talk to us.
D/P

I told him all about this forum. We'll see if he makes an appearance.
PS. I'm on page 33. :o I'm impressed!
Mo
Practice Kindness :)

Phonesrfun

33 is just about half-way through.  That was, indeed an exciting thread.  It was great to be a part of it.
-Bill G

Dan/Panther

Bill;
Yes, and a very informative part you were.
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

Doug Rose

From the TCI List

The picturephone the JKL Museum purchased recently on eBay arrived safely.  And it is as good as everyone thought it might be.  The sellers were very nice and did an outstanding job packing it.  We had it sent in 4 different boxes; monitor, tel set, power supply and documentation.  The docs seem very inclusive.  It is just amazing that things like this survive the years.


We gave it a small test:

Plugged the tel set and the monitor into the power supply.  Everything is very well marked.

The only thing with an on/off switch is the power supply.  So we turned it on and stepped back.

Nothing popped, no smoke...  just the hum you would expect.  The light by the switch came on.


No picture.  Pushed the 'view self' button, nothing happened.  And we didn't take the back off the monitor to see what might be going on there either.  The tel set speakerphone worked.  The transmitter is in the base of the tel set, the speaker below the screen on the monitor.

We are just now getting into the documentation.  It seems pretty inclusive so we are hopeful for a happy ending to this story.  It would make a great JKL Museum display.


Stay tuned...

Wayne Merit
Kidphone

MagicMo

#252
OMG!!!
So cool! We packed it as if we were sending our firstborn.
Thanks for sharing, I'm glad it arrived safely. ;D
Mo
Practice Kindness :)

DavePEI

I don't know how many of you have seen it, but this month's TCI newsletter has an extended article on Maureen's phone by Paul Fassbender....

Dave
The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island:
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit!
C*NET 1-651-0001

paul-f

It's just a short summary of info already found here for TCI members who haven't read the entire topic.  Perhals some will be motivated to follow the link.

I did photoshop some of Mo's photos.

Hopefully Wayne will submit a longer article highlighting the museum's ongoing experiments with the phone.
Visit: paul-f.com         WE  500  Design_Line

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