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Japanese or Chinese Candlestick Telephone

Started by wds, September 05, 2017, 08:32:35 PM

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wds

Can anyone translate this label on my candlestick telephone?
Dave

unbeldi

Quote from: wds on September 05, 2017, 08:32:35 PM
Can anyone translate this label on my candlestick telephone?

I am told that these are "Traditional Chinese" characters.
Many Chinese immigrants in the late 19th century to the US preferred them, before simplified characters were adopted or standardized.
Modern learners of Chinese can't read them, as is the case for my source.

wds

I've tried the google translator for Japanese and Chinese and neither one yielded any valid responses. 
Dave

HarrySmith

I found a Japanese telephone collector website. Of course it is in Japanese biut maybe you can use google translator to send a message??

http://www.naonao.jp/
Harry Smith
ATCA 4434
TCI

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

twocvbloke

My smartphone set to chinese mode comes up with "Tokyo" and "Meeting of the group of people with gas", which kind of seems a bit odd if that's right........  ;D

LarryInMichigan

Quote from: twocvbloke on September 06, 2017, 09:52:27 AM
My smartphone set to chinese mode comes up with "Tokyo" and "Meeting of the group of people with gas", which kind of seems a bit odd if that's right........  ;D

That is one meeting that I would NOT want to attend ;)


Larry

wds

thanks for the link.  I sent them an email and hopefully someone will reply.
Dave

twocvbloke

Quote from: LarryInMichigan on September 06, 2017, 04:39:11 PM
That is one meeting that I would NOT want to attend ;)


Larry

Same here, they probably need to have good ventilation...  ;D

19and41

If you have a translator that will show pictographs as a translation, you might try translating the words "electric" or "telephone"  that might give a clue.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
— Arthur C. Clarke

wds

Here's pictures of the candlestick.  The phone and receiver weighs in at 2 lb 4 oz.  Compared to a 20B that weighs in at 4 lb 5 oz with 122 ost.  The phone is so light that at first I thought maybe this was a toy phone.  The 122 ost weighs 14 oz, the Japanese receiver 9 oz.  I included a picture of the transmitter - I'm guessing that there should be carbon in the middle where the screw is.  The metal on the base and stem is very thin, not like a western electric candlestick. 

Western Electric had a majority ownership in Nippon Electric (NEC), and started exporting phones to China in 1904.  If the tag on this phone is Chinese, then maybe this is one of those sets that was exported. 

There is more writing on the side of the transmitter that I will take pictures of after I clean the phone up.
Dave

twocvbloke

When I was playing with the translation thing, the words "gas", "electric", and "corporation" seemed to come up, but the top two characters were pretty unsure as they popped up as both Tokyo and as Beijing, two very different places in very different countries...

AL_as_needed

Tokyo Gas and Electric was a pretty big deal in that hemisphere until WWII put a damper on everything. They were known for making a little bit of everything (not unlike the US GE) across several industries. I would not be surprised if they made phones for export to China, as China had a fairly limited industrial capacity (and little "tech") in the 1900s until fairly recently (Thanks to Nixon and out-sourcing).
TWinbrook7

wds

#12
Here's a few pictures of the phone after I cleaned it up.  I see definite W.E. influence on the way the phone is assembled.  I also saw some GPO influence - the way the base plate fits on with a notch, and only one center screw in the base.  There was some writing on the edge of the transmitter, and the underside of the receiver arm.  I also updated the pictures of the tag on the base. 

The receiver and mouthpiece are a nice brown - I tried to install a W.E. mouthpiece, but the w.e. threads were too large.  Not off by much.
Dave

19and41

I wouldn't have thought it could be made to look that nice.  Good work!
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
— Arthur C. Clarke

Greg G.

Quote from: twocvbloke on September 06, 2017, 09:52:27 AM
My smartphone set to chinese mode comes up with "Tokyo" and "Meeting of the group of people with gas", which kind of seems a bit odd if that's right........  ;D

That would describe politicians.
The idea that a four-year degree is the only path to worthwhile knowledge is insane.
- Mike Row
e