The Beast (Western Electric 1500, w/ matching dates)

[xylenol15]

Hi all, I'm a regular lurker on this forum. I was interested in a WE 1500 a little while back and saw a BIN on ebay for $85.00. I initially dismissed it since that was too high for me, but I noticed shipping was free and after a couple of days mulling it over I decided to take the plunge. I gave it its nickname for reasons that will be clear when looking at the pdf and photos.  
It's a single owner phone with matching dates! I'm not actually big on matching dates, but given the novelty of this one I enjoyed myself quite a bit.

[xylenol15]

Here are some date related photos:

[xylenol15]

Other dates. I would say that the dates match, but the handset just made it to a July dating.  Does anyone know why they dated the receiver cap and handset, but not the transmitter cap?
Note the No. 44A copper oxide varistor. This was phased out in the 1960s, because only copper oxide from a mine in the Chilean Andes would do. They never did figure out why, because just as the ore was running out and mass spectrometers became available to determine what made it so special, diffused silicon was developed a replacement. You can read a bit more about it in Ralph O' Meyer's fantastic book or here http://www.aip.org/history/ohilist/4857.html
Of course, I still would have liked to know the answer!

[xylenol15]

The last of the dates:

[xylenol15]

Here's how I know the history of the phone. I asked the seller:

Dear x,

Hey, what do you know about the history of this particular phone? Where did it come from? I like to know the story behind the antiques I buy. Thanks.

- *

Dear *,

Good Morning,

Thank you for your order.

I find most of my phones at estate sales, garage sales, and on eBay.  I like to restore them and bring them back to life.  This one I really did nothing to it.  I thought somebody might like it because its rare not to see the pound and star button.

I bought this one in downtown Chicago. It was a old brick house.  It was a older lady who was having estate sale.  Her husband passed away.  Her kids were helping her have a sale.  She told me when they first got the phone she saw the number 6-66 on the bottom of the phone, and told her husband she did not want the phone near her.  (she was laughing when she was telling me.) She made her husband keep it in his tool shop all those years.  So when I went to the sale, there it was in the shop.  She said its been down there since 6-66.  She called it the man cave.  It does show some use to the buttons, dull but I think it gives it character.  

That is how I came upon this phone.   Thank you again.......Please let me know if you have any questions.


-x


Apparently in Kabbalistic Judaism 666 is a divine number; I guess I'm counting on those 2 to cancel out. Although the guy was outlived by his spouse...but that's usually the case. 
Did anyone here work at Western Electric in June 1966 or know someone who did? I'm curious how the workers felt about the whole thing.  

[xylenol15]

Of course, one unfortunate thing is that instead of spades or an old 4 prong modular line cord, a modern modular cord has been put on. I prefer an adapter to that sort of solution, but I'm more puzzled as to why it was changed at all if it had remained in the same house. Did Bell rewire houses with RJ-11 jacks upon customer request? But why even ask? It's a late mod to the phone; it's marked "China".

[xylenol15]

Of course the face plate has also been replaced. A field replacement, I think, since it has the filler plate, which is why I'm actually happy about this modification to the phone. paul-f's excellent site mentions them as being rarer than 1500 sets, although I see them quite often in refurbished 1500 sets on ebay. I wonder why it was replaced? My suspicion is that they got dirty and people asked for new ones, that textured surface seems like it would trap lots of surface dirt.
I almost gave myself a heart attack when I tried vacuuming the dial; the filler plate flew into the hose and I was afraid it had snapped; it's a flimsy little thing, it doesn't even feel like ABS, it feels like HDPE. I recovered it from the dust container in one piece but with stress marks on the back, not sure if it was like that before or if that was just me, but resting back in place safe and sound now it shouldn't matter.

[xylenol15]

Does anyone know what plastic WE used on the buttons in the 25A3 dial? I'm guessing this is the earliest Touch Tone dial model made by WE? When I saw the photos online I was nervous because the buttons were described as being a little worn and I could see a little crack on button 5, but once I unboxed it it became clear that there was some sort of shrinking/aging going on with the plastic. It doesn't smell like Tenite. Perhaps a casein based plastic like Galalith? It feels almost chalky to the touch and looks chalky too. Incidentally, the dust refused to be vacuumed off the dial, so I went about my business with an ever so slightly moist Q-tip. While doing this I tried wetting the plastic and as I expected it darkened ever so slightly, it's a little porous. Casein was used for clothing buttons, perhaps it was used for this kind of button too? The pdf Chuck posted, Plastics in Phones mentions that
"Casein has long been used for key buttons and similar minor applications."

Also, this stuff had been replaced by the time the 25B3 was rolled out, as you can see in a couple of photos here:
http://www.porticus.org/bell/telephones-technical_dials-touchtone.html

[paul-f]

Thanks for the great description and photos.

It's interesting that the filler is there and there's no refurb stamp on the bottom.  

Can we see photos of the front and back of the faceplate out of the phone?  At first glance, it looks like one of the later (1980s) parts that doesn't use a metal spring clip.  Perhaps it was replaced in the field on a house call after divestiture.  The unmarked cap could have been added at the same time.

An earlier faceplate would fit better, but may be a challenge to find at a reasonable price.

[xylenol15]

Hi there paul-f, nice to hear from you. You're right, the face plate that came with it doesn't use a spring clip, although that part is happily still lodged in the phone. I'll post photos of that in a bit.

Well, since the face plate was a replacement anyway and didn't even have a Bell logo on it, I had an excuse to make a final customization to the phone. It looked really nice, especially with the dial all clean. The dial sort of seems to float in place. And hey, this way one of the dates gets prominently displayed! A pleasant portion of the light gets reflected, giving the phone a lustrous sheen, and there's a nice twinkle in the cutouts around the buttons. By using this I can also keep the filler plate in place.

[xylenol15]

Here's the front and back of the face plate:

[xylenol15]

Here's the transmitter cap too, can anyone identify these markings?

[paul-f]

I'd guess 4 71 on the transmitter cap is a date code.

If the set was mine, I'd be tempted to replace the faceplate with an earlier 12-hole faceplate first (easy to find) to display the filler. Then I'd keep my eyes open for a 10-hole faceplate, so it could be displayed either way.  (Unless, of course you have a second 1500 set.)

[xylenol15]

Oh yeah, one more thing. I decided to install a polarity guard for reasons that will become clearer in another post. I think the spot I picked works out nicely. I used 3M mounting tape.

[xylenol15]

The sound quality wasn't that great for the receiving party, so I had to do a bit of disassembly to clean the hook switch. While I was in there I noticed that the LC circuit inductors were dated; I didn't know that! Are there any dates I'm missing here? Anyway, they match, but they're not dead on with the rest. I also took a picture of the auxiliary terminal strip used before the advent of the No. 4228 network.