Phones Without Dials Great Dial Blanks

[Doug Rose]

I have always had a soft spot for telephones without dials. Dial blanks are cool, but I really like the "ornate" dial blanks. How about posting some phones you have with a really different dial blank??

I'll start it off with an Automatic Electric 34, AE34. This was obviously made for the Navy. I just love it, one of my favorite phones. I bought this at a Flea market when I was just starting out in collecting. This phone looked as if it had been under water. It had dried muck all over it and I could not even tell it had the Navy insignia dial blank. I thought it was a muck covered dial. Didn't know what a dial blank was way back then. It was old and I just wanted to play with it.

It cleaned up great, another braided handset cord and was i shocked at the heavy brass dial blank. The most amazing thing was once I cleaned it up, I connected it to Dial tone and it worked!! This is all original, as i found it. just a tad cleaner.

[GG]

I like plain round dial blanks but that definitely gets major cool points for its likely history in the Navy. 

Now what are we to do with all of our manual telephones? 

There's a device available that you can plug any phone into, that provides voice-recognition dialing.  It's made in Israel and sold via online outlets that provide accessibility devices for people with disabilities.  Cost is about $250.

The existing versions of this work with spoken speed-dial lists, e.g. "Call Aunt Martha."  However we should be able to build one using Asterisk parts and software, that says "Number please?" and then responds to the digits 0 - 9 , star, pound, flash, and hang up.  At the end of a series of digits you'd say "thank you" as the "end of dial" marker and it would reply "one moment please" and process the input up to that point.   In other words, an operator simulator. 

Once the device has dialed a number, you could recall it with a hook flash and it would reply "Operator" and take more digits etc. as input.  Various refinements could be made to fine-tune it.   

Restricting the input to the digits and a few simple commands would make it speaker independent, and it wouldn't care if you were using a solid-back transmitter as long as you enunciated clearly. 

Thus it would enable all those non-dial desk stands and local battery wooden wall sets to be put into regular use without need of an outboard touchtone adaptor.  Using Asterisk architecture it could also interface with VOIP lines.  Using Bluetooth it could interface with cellular handsets to use them as the equivalent of outgoing lines.  (Bluetooth is horribly insecure, it can be picked up by hackers at a surprisingly long distance and is easily decrypted.  However, if people want to take those risks, who are we to stop them?)

In short, you could stick with "natural & organic" unmodified telephones, in factory original condition, no outboard touchtone devices, and still have full outgoing call and feature access capability including with voicemail systems.  It wouldn't be "cheating" any more than using a Panasonic PBX to interface dial phones to touchtone-only CO lines. 

OK, what do y'all think? 

[Owain]

As long as it has authentic operator voices

[Doug Rose]

One more..... Cool metal Kellogg Red bar with an RCA dial blank...Doug

[Greg G.]

I have always had a soft spot for telephones without dials. Dial blanks are cool, but I really like the "ornate" dial blanks. How about posting some phones you have with a really different dial blank??

I'll start it off with an Automatic Electric 34, AE34. This was obviously made for the Navy. I just love it, one of my favorite phones. I bought this at a Flea market when I was just starting out in collecting. This phone looked as if it had been under water. It had dried muck all over it and I could not even tell it had the Navy insignia dial blank. I thought it was a muck covered dial. Didn't know what a dial blank was way back then. It was old and I just wanted to play with it.

It cleaned up great, another braided handset cord and was i shocked at the heavy brass dial blank. The most amazing thing was once I cleaned it up, I connected it to Dial tone and it worked!! This is all original, as i found it. just a tad cleaner.

Got a before picture?  Did Janet do the braiding on that one too?

[Tom B]

Doug
You have some great phones

[Doug Rose]

I have always had a soft spot for telephones without dials. Dial blanks are cool, but I really like the "ornate" dial blanks. How about posting some phones you have with a really different dial blank??

I'll start it off with an Automatic Electric 34, AE34. This was obviously made for the Navy. I just love it, one of my favorite phones. I bought this at a Flea market when I was just starting out in collecting. This phone looked as if it had been under water. It had dried muck all over it and I could not even tell it had the Navy insignia dial blank. I thought it was a muck covered dial. Didn't know what a dial blank was way back then. It was old and I just wanted to play with it.

It cleaned up great, another braided handset cord and was i shocked at the heavy brass dial blank. The most amazing thing was once I cleaned it up, I connected it to Dial tone and it worked!! This is all original, as i found it. just a tad cleaner.

Got a before picture?  Did Janet do the braiding on that one too?

No digital cameras when this was found. Janet has cleaned up the existing braid attempt that  I had done on it...Doug

[Adam]

Doug, that RCA phone is stunning!

[Doug Rose]

Doug, that RCA phone is stunning!

thanks Dave...one of my favorites. These RCA dial blanks aren't that tough to find, but in this great condition they are!.....Doug

[Doug Rose]

Doug
You have some great phones

thanks Tom.....a misspent life of collecting devices of the dial tone...Doug