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Got a Stromberg-Carlson 1543 with frequency ringer for Christmas

Started by Phonesrfun, December 26, 2014, 06:14:31 PM

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Phonesrfun

NOTE: The first post of this phone in Merry Christmas!. It is still there. The following is a quote of that post. The discussion of the phone split out of that topic into this one. Further discussion of that phone should take place here.

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Quote from: Melanie W. on December 26, 2014, 01:12:52 PM
Merry Christmas All!  I hope you all had a lovely, blessed Christmas.  Was nice to get back on here and read through everyone's greetings and well-wishes and humorous pictures. :)

This Stromberg-Carlson 1543 (wall version) was under the tree for me.  Apparently the word is out among the family, my brother-in-law had me for the gift exchange this year and I was quite surprised to get this.  I believe there must have been some colluding between him and my husband because this phone is a mess!  I could just hear him wrapping saying, "this outta keep her busy for awhile!"  Stamped on base: "1543G  50-"  I'm guessing 1950?  Anyway, its my first SC.  :-*

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year fellow Phone Lovers!  -Melanie

The SCs are interesting phones.  In your case, it looks like it was configured as a wall phone with the dial in the reverse (upside-down) position.  I would guess it is equipped with the hookswitch hangers for wall phone use.

Merry Christmas
-Bill G

Dennis Markham

Melanie, nice Christmas gift.  Is it possible the "50-" is actually 50~?  That would mean the ringer is a 50Hz ringer.  Often the "frequency" ringers were used in phones of the smaller, independent phone companies.  A view "under the hood" might tell.  A 50~ ringer isn't going to work on today's lines.

unbeldi

Quote from: Melanie W. on December 26, 2014, 01:12:52 PM
Merry Christmas All!  I hope you all had a lovely, blessed Christmas.  Was nice to get back on here and read through everyone's greetings and well-wishes and humorous pictures. :)

This Stromberg-Carlson 1543 (wall version) was under the tree for me.  Apparently the word is out among the family, my brother-in-law had me for the gift exchange this year and I was quite surprised to get this.  I believe there must have been some colluding between him and my husband because this phone is a mess!  I could just hear him wrapping saying, "this outta keep her busy for awhile!"  Stamped on base: "1543G  50-"  I'm guessing 1950?  Anyway, its my first SC.  :-*

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year fellow Phone Lovers!  -Melanie

Glad for you!

1950 is a bit too early for the 1543-series.
The 50 indicated the AC frequency of the ringer that was originally in the phone.
The same is indicated by the G suffix, so a 1543G is a partly line phone ringing at 50 Hz. It should have a No. 73G ringer in it. If you open it up, you may find that stamped on the ringer mounting bracket.
Don't know why they doubled up the specification with a 50, but SC is known for that.

See here for other frequency ringer designations:  http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=11938.msg126866#msg126866

Melanie W.

thanks for the helpful info, it is marked "50~".  So much to learn!

The "look under the hood" was a treat.  I believe it must've been buried in a barn for years.  White, chalky substance falls from the handset, dirt caked all over and a mud-daubers home built around the wiring inside.  I suppose you all  have come across your own critters when working on your phones!

I would love to date it correctly, does this tell me anything?




unbeldi

From the stamps on the ringer bracket you can see that the ringer was changed at some time after manufacturing.  The ringer actually in your phone is a 73K-30, which is a 30Hz ringer in the synchromonic system.

The 73-series of ringers was the first type of ringers in the 1500-type SC phones, later they switch to 83-series ringers, but there were also some other ringer series for special purposes (e.g. 74, IIRC). Given the type of dial on your phone I would say this was made in the second half of the 1950s.

The 1500 series was Stromberg-Carlson's response to the Western Electric 500-series. It was based on the 1243 made through the 1940s. At first they upgraded the 1243 (and other 1200 models) to the 1443 (and 1400 models), which weren't around very long until the 1500 series came out around 1955, I believe, but I don't have a definitive year.  Later, Stromberg-Carlson continued to upgrade the phone with new components creating a variety of model nuances.  The later models in the 60s were more precisely dated.  I think there is a date on your ringer next to the ringer designation.  It says 5 35, and I suspect it means the 35th week of 1955.

unbeldi

Here is a comparison (from my collection) of some of the visual outer changes from the 1443 (left) of the early 1950s to the 1543 in the 1960s (right), most notably the dial and number ring design. Yours is much more like the early type.


Melanie W.

I would have never deciphered that as a date stamp.  I love to learn the history of evolving phone designs and haven't yet learned much about the SC's, thanks for the info!

Nice collection, hope I can get this one cleaned up as pretty!

unbeldi

Quote from: Melanie W. on December 27, 2014, 04:02:31 PM
I would have never deciphered that as a date stamp.  I love to learn the history of evolving phone designs and haven't yet learned much about the SC's, thanks for the info!

Nice collection, hope I can get this one cleaned up as pretty!

I am not certain about the identification as a date, but S-C had the habit of labeling by the week number in other cases, but in four digits, IIRC.  But the ringers, were more consistently dated than other parts, I think.
Other companies had even stranger dating habits, compare to the dating of metal housings of 302s, or the F1 handsets, to be found in other threads on this forum, and nowhere else on the Internet, BTW. Searching this forum you will find many more nice S-C examples.

In this thread, http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=10328.msg109648#msg109648, you'll find some examples of the standard wall phone of this series, the 1553.  This was available a little later than the first 1543s, which at least supported the wall mount modification as in your set.