1938 Ivory Diakon GPO 332 UK phone

[FABphones]

Andy, you will see I put inverted commas around the word 'Bakelite' in my earlier reply.

As many of us know, Bakelite is what these phones are commonly called (even though Bakelite is black in colour). For colours, the name slips me by, although Urea Formaldehyde comes to mind. Apol Duffy, I replied in a rush, I should have slowed down to explain that maybe.

This link explains about Diakon:
http://www.britishtelephones.com/diakon.htm

Duffy, the site on the link below is quite handy too. On this page you can see circuit diagrams and inside views of some models:

http://www.telephonesuk.co.uk/phones_pre1960.htm

Your 332 should clean up well. It's a very nice phone for your collection and the crest makes it extra special.

*I'll try and get some photos of one of my directory cards so you can see what would have been in the drawer.

[Ktownphoneco]

Keep in mind that "Bakelite" is a compound known as "Catalin", but with a filler added to it.    Catalin by itself is easily colored.    A number of telephone manufacturers made colored sets by mixing Bakelite with colored dyes.     Northern Electric made the Uniphone telephone line in both black and walnut, which was a swirled compound of black and brown Bakelite.      Kellogg Switchboard & Supply made the 1000 series, or redbar as it`s known, using that same formula.   Both Kellogg and A.E. made a number of sets in a range of colors, but I suspect there was a number of compounds used to produce all of the colors that both companies offered.     I would have to assume, British sets went through the same sort of experimentation to come up with the different colors.    I would suggest that not all of the various telephones made by the different companies utilized the exact same formulas in order to obtain the various colors.   

Jeff Lamb

[.....]

Andy, you will see I put inverted commas around the word 'Bakelite' in my earlier reply.

As many of us know, Bakelite is what these phones are commonly called (even though Bakelite is black in colour). For colours, the name slips me by, although Urea Formaldehyde comes to mind. Apol Duffy, I replied in a rush, I should have slowed down to explain that maybe.

This link explains about Diakon:
http://www.britishtelephones.com/diakon.htm

Duffy, the site on the link below is quite handy too. On this page you can see circuit diagrams and inside views of some models:

http://www.telephonesuk.co.uk/phones_pre1960.htm

Your 332 should clean up well. It's a very nice phone for your collection and the crest makes it extra special.

*I'll try and get some photos of one of my directory cards so you can see what would have been in the drawer.

No problem Fab, Thanks for the info. I need all the help I can get regarding this phone.

One thing I would like to know is how to decipher this stamp on the bottom of the phone.

[Butch Harlow]

A bit about Diakon I found on a site called Bob's old phones:

"Just before World War 2 a new range of plastics was developed by Otto Rohm, based on polymethylmethacrylate. This compound was synthesised from coal gas, air and water. It was a thermosetting resin - that is, the final heat and pressure stage of moulding finished the chemical process and left it rigid, although it softened a little more readily than bakelite under further heat. Its main advantages were that it was more dimensionally stable (especially when metal inserts were moulded in), and it was much tougher and scratch-resistant. Its hardness was similar to aluminium. It was introduced in Britain by ICI in 1934. The British Post Office found a use for it in 1938 in telephone case mouldings."

It goes on to further state that Diakon eventually became what we call Plexiglas in the US. However, like Jeff states above, different manufacturers did different things. It could be Catalin.

[rdelius]

Catialin cannot be molded like bakelite. It must be cast in molds and there might be curing time involved. t can be machined and polished to a mirror shine. It will discolor with heat and light and might shrink because of the lack of filler that was used in Bakelite.

[Ktownphoneco]

Bakelite is injected into the mold hot, and is left to cool to something close to room temperature, then the molds are opened, and the Bakelite casting removed.      How is Catalin molded ?

Jeff

[rdelius]

For radio cabnets,lead molds were made,Hot? liquid catilin was poured in the mold. After curing the mold was pealed away.cabnet had excess parts ground away,polished.Information was from an  Antique radio publicaction and modern plastics magazine.Catilin radios have no mold seams and some parts such as grills and handled are seperate parts. Telephone handsets would have been difficult to produce Threads and holes would have been added later

[FABphones]

This makes interesting reading:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakelite

A bit of info on Catalin too:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catalin

*Phenolic is the word I couldn't remember on my earlier post.   

Photo below taken from above page showing the first semi-commercial Bakelizer, from Baekeland's laboratory:

[FABphones]

As promised, photo of my above ivory phone with the directory drawer open. Directory card is dated 1963.

[Ktownphoneco]

For radio cabnets,lead molds were made,Hot? liquid catilin was poured in the mold. After curing the mold was pealed away.cabnet had excess parts ground away,polished.Information was from an  Antique radio publicaction and modern plastics magazine.Catilin radios have no mold seams and some parts such as grills and handled are seperate parts. Telephone handsets would have been difficult to produce Threads and holes would have been added later

That's interesting.    Not a lot different than Bakelite, but I would have to assume the molding equipment would have to be somewhat different as I would imagine Bakelite is of a somewhat thicker consistency than Catilin.    Thanks for the explanation.

Fab:   Thanks for posting a picture of the "Bakelizer".   

Jeff

[LarryInMichigan]

For what it's worth, I took a quick picture of my black 4509D.

Larry

[.....]

For what it's worth, I took a quick picture of my black 4509D.

Larry

Looks like a twin to my black one. 

[david@london]

Scans of the 'cheese drawer' directory code cards are available here - scroll about halfway down the page.......

http://www.telephonesuk.co.uk/old_dialing_codes.htm

[FABphones]

One thing I would like to know is how to decipher this stamp on the bottom of the phone.

I thought someone with more knowledge of baseplate stamps might answer this more accurately than I could, but in the meantime my guess is there is a P missing and the letters are an abbreviation for Approved. My second guess is the lettering underneath is a QC code of some kind.

Looking at your photos I think there may be a small dark GPO style square label and possibly additional wording on the base which has faded.

I look forward to hearing more when you receive it. 

[.....]

Well the phone finally arrived. Here are some of the pictures that will tell it's story. I have taken it all apart to give it a good cleaning.
I ordered some replacement parts from the UK and had them shipped to my brother in laws in Norther Ireland. He has received them and is sending them to me air mail today.

Now to get the proper information on it as the dates on the parts are all over the place.