202 With Dial Blank Question

[kleinkaliber]

This morning I brought home from the flea market a WE 202 with an E1 hand set. It came with a WE 300K magneto subset. The phone has a dial blank with a dial card that has "81 F 23" on it. Everything looks as though it has been together for a long time. My question is... with that number, where would this setup have been used? I'm guessing a hotel or apartment building? Room 81, Floor 23?

[G-Man]

Your telephone was used on a Farmer Telephone line and the 23 tells the operator the ringing code.

Farmer lines were privately owned and maintained but connected to the regular telephone network and were pioneered by Pacific Telephone (Bell System) at their Oakland, Ca. exchange.

[poplar1]

Line number 81. Ringing code for that phone was 2 longs and 3 shorts.

[G-Man]

Line number 81. Ringing code for that phone was 2 longs and 3 shorts.

And the F denotes that it is a Farmers Line.

[kleinkaliber]

Very cool! Thanks for the answers. This phone is a little older than my usual area of interest, but I fear my case of Phonitis is becoming more severe. I now find myself craving cloth cords, bakelite, and oak.

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Very cool! Thanks for the answers. This phone is a little older than my usual area of interest, but I fear my case of Phonitis is becoming more severe. I now find myself craving cloth cords, bakelite, and oak.

My Phonitis has spread from, at first, wanting WE 500s and nothing more, to touch tone Princess phones in Country Blue