Colored 283B plugs?

[Kenny C]

I just spotted this on a pink 500 on ebay. I didnt know they made these in any color besides brown and Ivory.

[Adam]

Yes.  I've also personally seen one in Western Electric 51 green.

[Jester]

I have examples in black, ivory, brown, dark beige, light beige, light gray, aqua & turquoise, and have seen some in red, yellow & pink, as well as the dark green that Adam mentioned.  I haven't run across dark gray, med. blue or white, but it would not surprise me if they actually exist.

[jsowers]

I have turquoise (pictured below). Except for brown and dark beige, which also were faceplate colors, most of them seem to be from the later palette of colors.

[Sargeguy]

I have a pink one, a blue one, and a gray one.  The gray one is on a Trimline, so they were still using them into the late 60s early 70s.   It seems like hey would be easiar to use with a transformer on phones that used them.  

[K1WI]

   Dark gray does exist !  (So does light gray)  Never knew it was so hard to photograph gray !
 
  Andy    K1WI

[Jester]

Since we're on this subject, I thought it might be helpful to mention that there are two different styles of cover used with the 283-B base.  The covers pictured so far are the later style, with the two ears molded into upper edges of the cover & a mousehole opening for the cord.  The earlier cover was a little shallower in its side profile.  It also had a molded ridge around the outer walls that would have doubled as a grip for removing the plug from the jack, and the cord opening was a 3/8" dia. hole with a buildup around the outer circumference that is the same height as the ridge around the cover.  I have seen these earlier covers in black, ivory & brown.  An example in ivory is pictured below.  Notice also that the plug base uses nuts to secure the brass prongs to the base block-- another indicator of an early plug.

[K1WI]

Jester,
   Do you know of any time frame for the earlier plugs ?  I have 5 phones with the earlier type 283B and coincidentaly all are colored 302s !  Two in ivory , a peking red plastic ,an early red metal and a painted gold metal 302 which has absoloutely no dates on it.   Except for the gold 302 the plugs are all ivory , the one on the gold phone is very white.   Ihave one other colored 302 in rose and has the later version plug in brown.
   It would be interesting to see when these plugs changed although I can see why.

            Andy   /  K1WI

[Jester]

Andy,
As you mentioned above, none of these plugs seem to have a date stamp, so pinpointing the time of manufacture, even generally, is mostly a guess.  My belief is that most of them we run across were made starting just after WWII.  I think the cover with the ears was introduced around the mid-fifties, but I'm not clear on the exact year.  There was a thread started last year on the general differences of four prong plugs that had alot of great stuff in it.  Jonathan posted some useful information & pics., and paul-f provided a link to a BSP on the subject.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=3365.0

[K1WI]

Jester,
  THANKS ,  I have learned so much on this forum , it really is amazing.
             I actually started "collecting" phones in 1958 , the gentleman that taught me morse code for my ham license was a stationmaster at a snall local train station. When it closed he gave me his telegraph key and his  nickle dispatch phone. I still use them !
   Been "playing with phones and electrical "stuff " ever since. Retired from Ma Bell after 35 years.

Andy / K1WI