Not your usual flea market find...

[AdamAnt316]

Another use for card dialers was for in-house ordering from a bell company to WE.  The part #'s were put on the cards.

Interesting. I kinda figured that most of these probably saw internal use within the Bell System itself. My guess is, most of the subscribers who leased these were businesses where they had to dial certain numbers numerous times per day. By the same token, I'm guessing that most of the leased card dialers were of the multi-line type. Might my theories be correct? It doesn't seem to have had a long lifespan as a viable product, being quickly eclipsed by magnetic and (especially) solid-state repertory dialers once they were developed.
-Adam

[HarrySmith]

Yes, I would agree it was probably short lived and not very popular since dialing was just as fast. Also I seem to remember computers used the same type of punched out cards way back when!

Harry

[Jim Stettler]

Almost all card dialers I have seen have been single line phones. I think the JKL museum has a multi-line set. I suspect they may of finally gotten an autovon card dialer recently.

I have also seen several case variations on card dialers, The plastic housings wouldn't be able to swap with a standard set. I also saw a 1-holer. It only had a cardholder on the left.

Card dialers also came in lots of colors, which I find interesting. I can understand beige,black, white and even green (military?). But I think you could also get pink and baby blue.
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Some of Bell's early field research on repertory dialers used the magicall dialer to gauge customer opinion on automatic dialers.

Somewhere I have a Bell labs file of automatic dialer info. It includes overhead slides of some proto-type repertory dialers as well as lecture notes.


I think the info was dated 1956.
Jim

[AdamAnt316]

Almost all card dialers I have seen have been single line phones. I think the JKL museum has a multi-line set. I suspect they may of finally gotten an autovon card dialer recently.

I have also seen several case variations on card dialers, The plastic housings wouldn't be able to swap with a standard set. I also saw a 1-holer. It only had a cardholder on the left.

Card dialers also came in lots of colors, which I find interesting. I can understand beige,black, white and even green (military?). But I think you could also get pink and baby blue.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some of Bell's early field research on repertory dialers used the magicall dialer to gauge customer opinion on automatic dialers.

Somewhere I have a Bell labs file of automatic dialer info. It includes overhead slides of some proto-type repertory dialers as well as lecture notes.


I think the info was dated 1956.
Jim

Yeah, that makes sense; not all businesses used multi-line phone systems, after all. Multi-line Card Dialers seem to show up on eBay with some frequency, though at least one of them has been listed multiple times. The JKL Museum card dialer photo gallery shows various pairs of multi-line and single-line card dialers sitting next to each other. If they've gotten an Autovon card dialer, they haven't added it to the photo gallery, at least as far as I've seen lately.

Not sure what the purpose of the one-holer might be. My guess is some sort of prototype. Every photo I've seen of the production card dialers shows two storage bins, and even the crowded 664 likely has room for both bins.

My guess is the oddball colors were made in order to make the card dialers seem more acceptable to regular subscribers. Haven't seen many WE military-issue desk phones which were green; moss green was popular for home customers, owing to the popularity of avocado-colored appliances and such, methinks. Oddly, a lime green-looking 660A1 recently sold on eBay, which I find interesting because lime green isn't listed in the 660/663/1660/1663 BSP as one of the available colors.

Interesting that the Magicall was used, since my understanding is that it wasn't made by WE. I once saw a Magicall at an estate sale, but (stupidly?) didn't pick it up, since I wasn't sure how useful it'd be without the security system it seemingly went with. Did the 1956 presentation include the magnetic dialers like the Call-A-Matic as well as card dialers, or did it just show the card dialer? The Call-A-Matic was available in a 10-button version, meaning it was available fairly early, but I'm not sure how common these were.
-Adam

[Jim Stettler]

Yeah, that makes sense; not all businesses used multi-line phone systems, after all. Multi-line Card Dialers seem to show up on eBay with some frequency, though at least one of them has been listed multiple times. The JKL Museum card dialer photo gallery shows various pairs of multi-line and single-line card dialers sitting next to each other. If they've gotten an Autovon card dialer, they haven't added it to the photo gallery, at least as far as I've seen lately.

Not sure what the purpose of the one-holer might be. My guess is some sort of prototype. Every photo I've seen of the production card dialers shows two storage bins, and even the crowded 664 likely has room for both bins.

My guess is the oddball colors were made in order to make the card dialers seem more acceptable to regular subscribers. Haven't seen many WE military-issue desk phones which were green; moss green was popular for home customers, owing to the popularity of avocado-colored appliances and such, methinks. Oddly, a lime green-looking 660A1 recently sold on eBay, which I find interesting because lime green isn't listed in the 660/663/1660/1663 BSP as one of the available colors.

Interesting that the Magicall was used, since my understanding is that it wasn't made by WE. I once saw a Magicall at an estate sale, but (stupidly?) didn't pick it up, since I wasn't sure how useful it'd be without the security system it seemingly went with. Did the 1956 presentation include the magnetic dialers like the Call-A-Matic as well as card dialers, or did it just show the card dialer? The Call-A-Matic was available in a 10-button version, meaning it was available fairly early, but I'm not sure how common these were.
-Adam

Adam,

Wayne was looking for autovon card dialer BSP's. That is why I think they finally found 1.
I have no opinion on non-standard shapes, except that They should be examined closly to determine if they are field trials or proto-types.

As far as colors, I think the intended end user were business settings. I would think "profesional" colors would be the norm. I would expect "other" colors to be painted special order sets..
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I won an auction for a sparkly red magicall dialer w/ sound activated security and listen in. It supposedly got lost before shipping and I only got a refund.
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Magicall was made by a slot machine designer who sold the basic patent to AE.
Part of the feild trial stuff was to measure elasped time of calls using an automatic dialer.
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My info predates typical card dialers. It was exploring the idea of offering repertotry dialers. I checked the bookshelf where it used to be , but it got stored away when I was rearranginging.

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I do have a clear touch-a-matic, which predates the touch-a-matic  "S" (early 1980's). My touch-a-matic  is 1/2 the size of an "S" . If you set a stand-alone touch-a-matic dialer adjacent to it, then they are the same size as an "S". It is still packed away from displaying at the Lyon's show, I did run the auction photos on the forum a few month's ago. It reminds me of a mini-Merlin.
Jim

[paul-f]

The JKL Museum does have at least one Autovon card dialer:
   http://www.paul-f.com/weAutovon.html#CardDialer

They also have an interesting Field Trial set.

The Bell System sold Magicall dialers for several years.  There were several other models, including Telerapid, Rapidial and the Call-a-matic.  I'll eventually get a page up with the chronology and some photos.

In the meantime, the 660-style card dialers were made in numerous variations for many years.  They were available in all standard production colors.  The Bell System kept trying to market them for non-dialing applications, such as automatic banking, order entry and inventory control.  I doubt that they had lots of success there.  However, they seemed to do well as prestige sets -- something interesting for the executive's desks.

http://www.paul-f.com/we500typ.htm#AutomaticDialers
http://www.paul-f.com/we1500typ.html#Dialers
http://www.paul-f.com/we2500typ.html#Dialers

[AdamAnt316]

The JKL Museum does have at least one Autovon card dialer:
   http://www.paul-f.com/weAutovon.html#CardDialer

They also have an interesting Field Trial set.

I know their Autovon gallery shows a photo of an Autovon card dialer, but the description text states that they don't have one, and like your page, the photo is stated as having been contributed by Wayne Merit. Also, the card dialer gallery doesn't show one, as they probably would if they'd had a physical specimen in the museum when they were taken. Have things changed since then? Just trying to clear things up.

The field trial card dialer is an interesting one. IIRC, standard cards don't fit it, but a smaller punch card that had arrived with another of their card dialers just happened to fit.

The Bell System sold Magicall dialers for several years.  There were several other models, including Telerapid, Rapidial and the Call-a-matic.  I'll eventually get a page up with the chronology and some photos.

Yeah, I'd definitely like to see that. These early automatic dialers intrigue me, since the technology and execution is (usually) different from what's used nowadays. If you'd like a picture of a 660 for your site, I can contribute one.

In the meantime, the 660-style card dialers were made in numerous variations for many years.  They were available in all standard production colors.  The Bell System kept trying to market them for non-dialing applications, such as automatic banking, order entry and inventory control.  I doubt that they had lots of success there.  However, they seemed to do well as prestige sets -- something interesting for the executive's desks.

http://www.paul-f.com/we500typ.htm#AutomaticDialers
http://www.paul-f.com/we1500typ.html#Dialers
http://www.paul-f.com/we2500typ.html#Dialers

Didn't know they were available in all colors. The BSP I've seen (dated September 1965) shows them available in black, green, yellow, white, pink, light beige (likely the color I have), light gray, aqua blue, and turquoise. I can definitely see the "prestige set" factor; mine looks rather impressive on my computer desk! I used to keep my '40s 302 there, but the 660A1 looks right at home, since early computers used punch cards for data input.
-Adam

[paul-f]

I know their Autovon gallery shows a photo of an Autovon card dialer, but the description text states that they don't have one, and like your page, the photo is stated as having been contributed by Wayne Merit. Also, the card dialer gallery doesn't show one, as they probably would if they'd had a physical specimen in the museum when they were taken. Have things changed since then? Just trying to clear things up.
<snip>

Didn't know they were available in all colors. The BSP I've seen (dated September 1965) shows them available in black, green, yellow, white, pink, light beige (likely the color I have), light gray, aqua blue, and turquoise.
<snip>

Wayne is the JKL Museum curator, so you'll see his name on most of the museum photos.  When I visited the museum several years ago, I photographed an Autovon card dialer that had some operational problems.  They since replaced it with the one that's currently on their site.

When tracking colors, it's important to remember that the Bell System had promoted and non-promoted colors, and that the colors in each category changed over the years by model number.  BSPs tended to show only promoted colors that were available on the issue date of the BSP.  Earlier or later issues of the same BSP may show different colors

[Phonesrfun]

It just so happens that I am going to be going to the JKL museum next week-end as a stop-off on my vacation.