My First Northern Electric Stick

[Doug Rose]

I found this at Brimfield last week and got to play with it a little yesterday. I didn't realize the base a Northern as the bad paint was thick. Hershey kiss perch but it has no marking. A real nice Northern cup. The transmitter plate has no marking at all??

The Receiver is a real nice WE144. I'm not sure where to go on this, but I think the base and stem should be black. I'd like to find a Northern receiver as well.

Any insight on this stick from our Collectors up North....thanks....Doug

[Ktownphoneco]

Doug  ....   You have a mix of parts.  If I'm reading the base markings correctly, it says "Northern Electric & Mfg. Co. Ltd".       The transmitter cup is marked "Northern Electric Company Limited".
Northern Electric & Mfg. Co. Ltd., existed between 1895 and 1914.      In 1914 ( I think officially it was July of 1914) the company was re-organized.     It acquired Imperial Wire and Cable in Montreal, and became known as Northern Electric Company Limited.
Initially, N.E. & Mfg. Co. Ltd., produced a desk stand stamped "20-B".    The base wasn't marked, and the Hershey Kiss perch was marked 20-B.   An oval head stem screw was used to secure the switch rack inside, similar to how some Western desk stands were made.    The cup was marked "Northern Electric & Mfg. Co. Ltd., Montreal"     The face plates were unmarked, and the sets were usually all equipped with the knurled transmitter clamping thumb turn.       
N.E. & Mfg. Co. Ltd., was added to the base at a later date, and my best guess would be somewhere between 1905 and 1910.       The Hershey Kiss perch was also replaced with the later type of perch, and my bewst guess would be sometime around 1905, give or take.   Around the time that the name was stamped on the base, the oval head machine screw in the stem was removed, and the rack was then held in place in the later fashion using the 3rd round head machine screw through the base plate.

Initially, Northern only produced the 1020-B with a nickel finish.    However I have a N.E. & Mfg. Co. Ltd., general catalog which includes some telephone equipment, dated 1914, which was probably the last catalog printed before the name change, and it offers the 1020-B in black paint as well, but it's still designated a 20-B.     
After the company re-organized and became Northern Electric Company Limited, the 20-B desk stand was re-designated as a 1020-AL for black finish, and 1020-PC for nickel finish.   

You need to swap the transmitter cup and a later nickel plated perch stamped 20-B, and then the set would be correct. 

Without opening books, that's my best over view of your set.

Jeff Lamb

[Ktownphoneco]

Doug   ....   I made an error in describing the early, or first generation  N.E. & Mfg. Co. Ltd 20-B perch.     It was "UNMARKED", and did not display the type number 20-B.    However in the production years that followed, the perch was marked 20-B.   But the early sets were only produced with a nickel finish as previously described.     
I've attached 3 pictures showing the early unmarked perch, and 2 pictures of the two pages from a reprint of an early N.E. & Mfg. Co. Ltd., bulletin.      It's marked as "Bulletin No. 1", so I'm assuming it was one of the first publications printed.     The pages describe the 20-B desk stand in detail, and the set provided with ringer, magneto and induction coil.

Jeff

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Nice find, Doug!

Is the base bare Brass, or Nickel?

[Ktownphoneco]

Doug   ....     Two mistakes in one day !    Jack Ryan just pointed out to me, that I made a mistake on finish, when I stated that in the latter stages of production, Northern Electric & Manufacturing Co. Ltd., produced both nickel and black painted finish of the 1020-B desk stand, but still referred to the black finish set as a 1020-B.      That was incorrect.      When N.E. & Mfg. Co. Ltd., expanded the selection of the desk stand finishes to include "black", the type number for black in the 1914 catalog is, or was, 1020-S.     Sorry for the error.

Jeff

[Doug Rose]

Christian it is brass.  Jeff thanks for all the good info. On vacation down on the Cape. It is a wonderful morning......Doug