Manual Green 500

[jsowers]

Paul, thanks for posting that BSP. Very interesting to see!

Does the lack of mention of the black card holder frame mean the chrome card holder frame came on the color phones with black dials and fingerwheels in the early days? I've seen some black dial color phones with those chrome card holders and wondered if it could have been original to the phone or something someone put on later.

It really draws attention to the dial being different and doesn't look right to my eyes, but I guess if it's original, then it should stay that way. With those phones, matching the parts isn't exactly what was on their mind. They used gray cords, black dial, color housing and handset--and they called it a full color phone. Only gray, brown and ivory really matched in the very early days.

[paul-f]

Does the lack of mention of the black card holder frame mean the chrome card holder frame came on the color phones with black dials and fingerwheels in the early days?

There's a risk if we make any assumptions based on what is NOT said in a BSP!

We've also learned that BSPs occasionally had errors, so they should be treated as just one more data point when trying to reconstruct history.

The info in the posted BSP applies ONLY to the full color group (e.g. non-black dials).  I haven't run across a BSP that has the same level of detail for black sets or dials yet.  The BSPs on apparatus blanks I've seen also don't mention the holder details.

The early BSPs I've seen that show photos or drawings of black sets all seem to have black card holders.  In fact, if I recall correctly, all the research we did around D/P's set only turned up examples in the literature with black card holders on black dials.  This covered the period from the late prototypes through the mid-1950s.

Before concluding that chrome holders were purposely provided on black dials, I'd want to see some evidence in the written record.  Since both chrome and black parts were available, it's obviously possible that black holders were replaced by chrome over the years or that chrome holders may have been used by installers who just liked the look.

[Adam]

Hey, look what I just noticed on eBay:  Another one of those General Electric logo number cards!

[HarrySmith]

Hey Dave,
HMM, interesting! Looks to be in pretty rough shape. I did a quick search and could not find it. Did you save a link or item number for it? Thanks.

[Adam]

Sorry, the item is closed now, I didn't note the auction number.

Edit:  Here it is:  http://tinyurl.com/3m6dtuv