50AL w/Curly Line Cord

[WesternElectricBen]

Or I could trade something for a 1955 500?

Ben

[Sargeguy]

Not sure why a 50-AL would have a curled mounting cord.  Wouldn't a side tone set have been upgraded by the mid 50s?  It seems more likely the work of Dr Frankenphone.  Sweet find if it is a curled line cord, and the 50-AL looks like it has a nice Notchless plate.

[Sargeguy]

I would combine the curly line cord with a straight handset cord just for the heck of it.

[poplar1]

It's marked with a D. Three wires with red, green and yellow (picture attached).

534A cover is at the powder-coater. I'll see what it looks like with the curly cord.

Thanks!

The cord should be marked D3 followed by one or two letters.

However, from the photos the phone appears to be a 51AL rather than a 50AL. (50AL has all the cord connections on the rack, and a 4-conductor dial cord. This phone has a D3B "harness" and a R-GN terminal block in the base, like a 51AL.)

Since the phone is apparently wired correctly for a 51AL, I don't think the 4-prong plug was added in order to use it without a subset. Whenever the dial is turned, the receiver is opened (BB-W contact springs), which is fine with a subset, but would disconnect the line without a subset unless the phone is hot wired.

The 4-prong plug was necessary beginning in c. 1930 for connecting an anti-sidetone hand telephone set (202) or desk stand (151AL) to an anti-sidetone subset, since this requires 4 conductors.  However, it was the standard plug for portable phones until 1976, even when only two wires were needed (D2D cord on a 302A, B, C, or D), or  three wires (302G, 500D, etc), or four wires (701B, 702B, Trimline, etc.). So from the early 30s until 1976, any portable single-line phone would have a 4-prong plug. (From 1973-1976, customers even in modular areas were told they still needed 4-prong jacks if they intended to move the phones from one room to another.)

Both curly cords and portable phones were options available on customer request. If the jacks were installed at desktop level or counter level, then a curly line cord could make a neater installation. (Many subsets were also installed at that height. Some 202s have 4-foot D4N mounting cords.)

There was a cutoff date after which desk stands were retired when found still connected, even if they were still functional. This rule could be waived if the customer insisted. However, if the phone was sidetone (50AL or 51AL), at least in some areas the customer was not allowed to keep leasing a desk stand after that cutoff date. A retired Bell PBX repairman, who started as an installer/repairman in midtown Atlanta in the 1950s, told me that at that time there were about 25 desk stands still being used in his service area. But the supervisors knew where every one of them was, so there was no way an entry level tech could hope to get one just by offering the subscriber a "new" phone. Bill Wright said there were still desk stands being leased in New Orleans in the 1980s.

[zaphod01]

I can make out 'D3' and there is more there that I can't read.

I have four candlesticks and three are goofy. My '20AL' is wired as anti-sidetone (4 wires) and works fine on a 684A. My '50AL' turns out to be wired as a 51AL. My '51AL' is apparently wired as a 50AL.

I think the only one I have that's correctly marked is a 20AL I built from a box of parts. I still have a lot to learn but I'm having a lot of fun.

Thanks, guys!

[poplar1]

50AL--  4-conductor harness--no terminal blocks
51AL--  3-conductor D3B harness--one terminal block R GN
151AL-  5-conductor harness--two terminal blocks R GN and B-Y RR

[Sargeguy]

The 50-AL uses a 595-B wiring harness.  It's always possible they upgraded the desk stand to anti-sidetone without changing the number punched on the back, especially if they did so at a time when this was no longer common practice.

[poplar1]

The 50-AL uses a 595-B wiring harness.  It's always possible they upgraded the desk stand to anti-sidetone without changing the number punched on the back, especially if they did so at a time when this was no longer common practice.

For anti-sidetone, they would have needed a 5-conductor harness. The 595-B is only 4. Most of the time, they repurposed a D3B harness by wrapping additional yellow and blue conductors around the outside  to make a total of 5 wires.

[Sargeguy]

So it has a 50-AL perch and is wired as a 51-AL (including the D3B harness) not a 151-Al.  Then there is no rational explanation for the combination of parts other than the hand of Dr. Frankenphone

[zaphod01]

My bad. I rechecked the perch and it is marked 51AL. Curly cord on the way...