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Just won EARLY GPO 706

Started by JubileeCompact, October 11, 2011, 02:48:30 PM

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JubileeCompact

Hey Guys

Just won this beauty- I was rather surprised to be the only bidder!!

Seamus

http://tinyurl.com/64wezol
Seamus

Tom B

Tom

GG



Score!  Good for you, that was a rare find.  I have a couple of 706s from that era and both have a unique transmission quality that has just a tiny bit of metallic twang to it that actually sounds rather pleasant. 

I'm going to guess that yours was made for use on a PAX (private system), because the dial ring is numeric.  You can find alphanumeric dial rings for those, and of course keep the original numeric ring in a ziplock bag in case you ever want to put it back.  The digits under the finger holes are original and correct for GPO telephones as well as private system telephones.  (My examples have arrows that are narrower than those normally found on 706s with dials that have plastic fingerwheels, that's another correct variant from that era.)

Question: does anyone here know if there is a source for those straight nylon-woven handset cords and line cords for 706s? 

Owain

Quote from: GG on October 12, 2011, 10:43:14 AM


Question: does anyone here know if there is a source for those straight nylon-woven handset cords and line cords for 706s? 

This place
http://www.cablespecialists.co.uk/home.htm

manufacturers using nylon/rayon/fabric braiding, I don't know if they do phone type cable, and I suspect the only manufacture in bulk quantity. But it costs nothing to ask.

I have often wondered about, but never tried, making a 'braided' cable using thin extra-flexible wires (eg the sort used for test leads) and feeding them down the middle of a "French Knitting" cotton-reel whilst using the knitting to form the outer braid.

A small child with limited imagination and lots of patience might find the task enjoyable.

Stephen Furley

You should enter this for the 'Find of the Month'.  They are very rare; I've never actually seen one, though I have seen pictures.  I would have guessed that it would have fetched a price of at least ten times that.

From the picture the dial looks like a No. 12, rather than the No. 21 used on the normal 706s.  A small number of very early 706s were said to have been fitted with this dial, but I've only ever seen one.  The 706 handset was designed to be able to use either the No. 13 transmitter, as used in the GPO Bakelite 'phones, or with the addition of a metal ring the quite different No. 16, as were fitted to the vast majority of 706s;it would be interesting to know if yours still has the earlier type fitted.

gpo706

Most unusual, amazing just one bid!

Nice, nice find, you must forward me your search criteria...
"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

GG



The two early 706s I have, were NOS with the #12 dial, and the narrow arrows on the numberplate. I have to believe these are more common than we think, but we just don't see a lot of them coming up for sale.  The combination with the numeric numberplate under the holes, strikes me as more rare, because that might have been used before the narrow arrow numberplate went into production. 

---

Owain, interesting, but they do appear to require bulk orders.  The difficult part would be getting the grommets at each end correct, though the Muraphone cord grommets sold by GPO Spares might work.  The only other issue is, Harper's appears to manufacture primarily power cords with larger-diameter flexible conductors, whereas telephone cords use tinsel type conductors. 

JubileeCompact

Hey Guys

It arrived yesterday and is every bit as stunning as the photo :). Work calls but will take pics asap......

Sadly there are no markings on the base- HOWEVER I can confirm it uses a 300 type microphone insert adapted with screw fixings to attach the wires. Both this and the earpiece insert are stamped 59/1 suggesting this is defiantly a early 59 model- indeed a Holy Grail!!!.

Oh and yes the dial is a 12 as opposed to a 21!

Im a bit overwhelmed to say the least lol........

Seamus
Seamus

GG



Congratulations again!

Reason for no markings on the base:  from your photos I recall the dial label had the Siemens logo in the center, possibly Siemens Ediswan.  And the extended numberplate is numeric rather than alphanumeric.  Those two points indicate that this is a PAX phone, for private systems, which would have been sold and used outside the scope of GPO.  If you put an alphanumeric extended numberplate on there (and kept the numeric one under the dial fingerwheel), that would be the configuration first released by GPO. 

And yeah, 1/59 for a 706 is probably as rare as 1/50 or even 12/49 for a WE 500; surviving examples known today could be counted on one hand or at most two.

Score!

Owain

#9
There's a seller with a clutch of 706s with chrome fingerplates on ebay at the moment.

I'm not sure whether I like them or not  :-X

Stephen Furley

#10
Quote from: JubileeCompact on October 15, 2011, 03:31:41 AM...I can confirm it uses a 300 type microphone insert adapted with screw fixings to attach the wires...

I have two of those modified No. 13 transmitters; I don't think they're particularly rare, and I believe that a fair number of early 706s were fitted with them before the type 16 was introduced.  Obviously, the terminal near the edge was added, but I think you'll find that the centre one is just a pin with a nut on the end to take the spade terminal, and it can simply be pulled out to enable the same element to be used in a 200 or 300 series, or even a candlestick, with the fixed pin in the mouthpiece.

However, the latest type 13 produced did not have these additions; presumably the 706 was being fitted with the type 16 by that time, so the new type 13 being produced then would only be needed for replacement purposes in older Bakelite 'phones.

Stephen Furley

#11
Quote from: GG on October 15, 2011, 07:13:15 AM...1/59 for a 706 is probably as rare as 1/50 or even 12/49 for a WE 500; surviving examples known today could be counted on one hand or at most two.

I note that it's attached to a type 20/4 Bakelite block terminal, rather than the early three terminal 'soapbox' type.  I don't know if this was original or not, but it might indicate that the ABS plastic ones were not available when this 'phone was produced.  Given the very early date, and a manufacturer's dial card, could it possibly have been a manufacturer's sample submitted for approval?

JubileeCompact

Enjoy.......
Seamus

JubileeCompact

More.....
Seamus

GG



Yep, you sure did find a good one there. 

Probably not a manufacturer's sample though: the combination of the 3-digit number on the dial card, plus the numeric extended number ring, point to this being a PAX phone on an entirely private system serving essentially as an intercom switch.

Probably what happened was, this one got disconnected and stored when someone moved office, and there it sat all these years until someone found it again and it ended up in your hands. 

That would suggest there might be a few more of them floating around.  Not many, maybe two or three, from the same installation. 

Now if you got a black alphanumeric extended number ring and a GPO '59 dial label for that phone, it would be indistinguishable from the very first batches of 706s used on the public exchanges (as depicted in a book titled Telephony that has a green cover).  However if you do that, keep the original parts in ziplock bags labeled as to where they came from, so you can put it all back if you ever decide to do so.