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Western Electric Picturephone MOD II on ebay for ~13k

Started by 5415551212, June 23, 2022, 09:54:51 PM

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5415551212

Interesting Western Electric Picturephone MOD II on ebay for ~13k

https://www.ebay.com/itm/115431670290
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5415551212

More photos

TelePlay

But does it work?

Didn't see anything in the listing that said it was working.

Doug Rose

Kidphone

TelePlay

Quote from: Doug Rose on June 23, 2022, 10:23:19 PMMagic Mo's went for 22K......Doug

That was a complete Model I with a full set of original operating and maintenance manuals and its original shipping crates. It was not tested for condition due to the age of its components.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=8649.0

FABphones

#5
Magic Mo's auction listing for the Mod 1 Picturephone model she sold:
A collector of  'Monochrome Phones with Sepia Tones'   ...and a Duck!
***********
Vintage Phones - 10% man made, 90% Tribble
*************

5415551212

Looks like it sold for 9999.00 + shipping.
I hope the new owner posts a thread on here

TelePlay

Quote from: 5415551212 on June 29, 2022, 08:07:00 PMLooks like it sold for 9999.00 + shipping.

I was watching that listing and about a week ago received an offer from the seller for $9,999.00.

I suspect everyone watching that listing got the same offer and one of them acted on that "deal."

5415551212

Does anyone have a working one setup? Did it use a normal POTS line? I'd love to see one working in person.

Doug Rose

I thought the JKL Museum bought Magic MOs dads ...Doug
Kidphone

HarrySmith

Yes, JKL bought it and had it hooked up at one time, not sure if that was before or after the fire.
Harry Smith
ATCA 4434
TCI

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

Jon Kolger

JKL has a special display of WE green telephone sets, so perhaps they bought this green picturephone as well.  I never saw any indication that this phone had sold, the last I saw the auction was ended and the "item is no longer available."

5415551212

#12
Quote from: Jon Kolger on July 01, 2022, 11:22:17 AMJKL has a special display of WE green telephone sets, so perhaps they bought this green picturephone as well.  I never saw any indication that this phone had sold, the last I saw the auction was ended and the "item is no longer available."

Good catch here it is for sale here:
https://www.oldphoneshop.com/products/western-electric-picture-phone-mod-ii-bell-systems.html

5415551212

There was a neat old article on the picture phone from the JKL that came from beatriceco.com
However that page has been deleted.

I found it here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20210302160625/http://www.beatriceco.com/bti/porticus/bell/telephones-picturephone.html

To answer my own questions they said:
"The PicturePhone was connected to the Central Office via 3 standard wire pairs (for comparison, a regular telephone line uses a single wire pair). One pair carried the 1 MHz PicturePhone video signal in one direction, the other carried video the in the opposite direction. These had to be specially equalized to carry the signal but were still otherwise just ordinary telephone wire. The third pair carried the normal 2-way voice call plus carried the TouchTone dialing to set up the call.

A PicturePhone Central Office had a second switch (an electromechanical "crossbar" switch in those days!) operating in parallel to the regular switch for those making PicturePhone calls. That takes care of local calls."

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