Western Electric 2 Line Rotary 511 C/D for 1A Home Interphone System

[John S]

I bought this phone on eBay, it arrived yesterday.  The phone is very nice, the cord will need some help.  When I opened the phone up, something odd was inside.  Has anyone seen anything like this before? What is the purpose of this?  Did all the 2 line desktop phones have this?  Here are a couple of pics.  Overall I am very pleased with this phone...

John

[LarryInMichigan]

John,

I expect that it is a warbler/ringer for the second line.  The main ringer could only be connected to one line, so this was probably for the other line.  When I was young, we had a second phone line installed in our house, and the technician installed ringer boxes in several rooms.  When my mother asked him why they were needed, he explained that the ringers in the phones would only ring for calls on line 1, and these were connected to line 2.  The thing in your phone would have been in place of the extra ringer box.

Larry

[Dan/Panther]

Why in some phones and not others. My two line 500 doesn't have that additional ringer.
It appears your phone is more than just  two line phone the cradle area also has the plunger switch, I can't find the reference in Paul's site for it, but seems it was for a hold.
D/P

[HarrySmith]

Nice phone! I was looking at that one also That is a strange looking ringer, make sense one would have to be added for the second line. I would guess what kind of ringer installed where would be up to the customer, the phone company and or the installer, as Larry stated the installer there added ringer boxes.

[LarryInMichigan]

The extra ringer looks much newer than the rest of the phone.  My guess is that it was added long after the phone was made, by the phone company, a refurbisher, or the owner.  If you remove the extra ringer, you will probably see that it was not made by WE.  Is there a capacitor built into the base of it?

Larry

[Dennis Markham]

John, is the phone marked 510 on the bottom?  I believe Jorge just picked up on of these....with the additional plunger/switch at the back.

[Dan/Panther]

Mine is a A/B-510 (12-60), but doesn't have the ringer or the plunger switch.
D/P

[AE_Collector]

Quite often two or more multiline phones were installed in an office and everyone didn't need both lines ringing on their set. One phone would have its ringer across line 1 and another pohone would be on line two. That way everyone would know when there was an incoming call without too much noise in the office.

So in most cases, a single ringer in a multiline phone was all that was needed. Occasionally a second ringer of some sort would need to be added though.

Terry

[jsowers]

That could be an interphone mike. See the BSP photo I attached. Sorry it's not any better than that. I can find it and scan it later on. I have a 511X from 1961 with one of these mikes in it. The speaker for the phone was mounted on the wall and the mike was inside. You have to have an interphone controller before it will work as intended.

[LarryInMichigan]

I never would have guessed.  So those old rumors about the phone company hiding a microphone in your telephone to eavesdrop on you was really true

Larry

[Dennis Markham]

Earlier this morning I got an e-mail from John, before he posted this here.  He sent me a photo and asked me what I thought the device was inside the phone.  I replied in part............


Very interesting.  No, I have never seen anything like that before.  I wonder if it's some type of speaker for hands free operation?  I think you should post it on the forum.  No doubt someone will know. 

Obviously John did then post the photos on the forum.  After reading that it may be a secondary ringer I thought that I should have thought of that but it just looked like a two way transmitter/speaker to me.  It sure looks like the one in the photo in the BSP Jonathan posted.  I guess my guess may not have been that far off track.

[JorgeAmely]

John, is the phone marked 510 on the bottom?  I believe Jorge just picked up on of these....with the additional plunger/switch at the back.

No presidential bug in mine.

[John S]

Thanks guys for all the replies, here are some more photos.  Its very interesting.

John

[JorgeAmely]

Is this phone from the state of Michigan? 

[Russ Kirk]

Here are a couple of BSPs on the subject.

501-230-100
501-230-101

If you need any other just let me know the BSP number and I'll check my archives.

Russ....