Who do you think made the best magnetos?

[Holtzer-Cabot]

I don't know how many there are here that like old magneto telephones, but I was wondering, which manufacturer do you think made the best magnetos? The only 5 bar mag I have is a Stromberg-Carlson. I have another smaller magneto, possibly a Northern Electric. I pretty much like all manufacturers, but I know one of you probably knows which manufacturer used the best parts. This is just a fun conversation! It isn't just limited to Stromberg and NE/WE! Tell me why you like a particular mag. Also, anyone know a bit more in depth about the different models of mags from different companies? I just like the old mags, I like the look of them with the slotted screws and gears!

[rdelius]

The small one is similar to a military gn 58.These have aninco magnets and are strong.Built to a standard for  EE8 field telephones and other devices by many compaines.I like WE/NE magnetos with their fine gearing better than SC with their coarse gearing.Some like Chicago seem cheep with stamped steel gearing

[Holtzer-Cabot]

The small one is similar to a military gn 58.These have aninco magnets and are strong.Built to a standard for  EE8 field telephones and other devices by many compaines.I like WE/NE magnetos with their fine gearing better than SC with their coarse gearing.Some like Chicago seem cheep with stamped steel gearing

It is similar to a GN- series military mag! And hmm..I thought if a gear has thinker teeth it would be a more durable gear? Wouldn't the fine teeth wear out quicker? And I thought Chicago was good since they had two gears riveted together. This is the kind of debate I want!

[unbeldi]

The best magnetos were made in Europe by Siemens & Halske and Ericsson, IMHO, at least when looking at the period when technology and science brought new magnetic materials to the marketplace. That would start in the 1930s.

S&H made very fine designs with helically cut gears that are much easier to operate, with less mechanical resistance, and are also quieter.  They make the American made magnetos seem crude almost, even the small ALNICO magnetos by Leich, Stromberg, Kellogg, and WECo/NECo.

Ericsson was probably the pioneer in ALNICO magnetos, at least for telephone applications, installing them in desktop phones already in the late-1930s.  Interestingly, it was the Leich Electric Co of Genoa IL, which appears to be the first North-American company to pick up the advances when they came out with the No. 7 generator, that was used in the No. 26 ringer/magneto wall box in 1938. This box is also know from the "Beehive" magneto wall telephone, which contains it as a lower housing.

I have wondered in the past where WECo got their design from.  They had the ALNICO generators in the war equipment as just mentioned in the previous post, but as far as I know they still had KS-numbers even in the 1950s.   The first non-military telephone to used them, I believe, was the portable 331A for private line broadcast locations, and perhaps it was also used in the D-number set that preceded it before ca. 1953.

The Stromberg-Carlson design (No 84)  is very similar to the WECo KS-13766, and so is the generator in the Kellogg No. 1070 Masterphone, which is identified as GN-38 B.

Finally, Northern Electric lists, what appears identical to the WECo part, as NE-41.

[unbeldi]

Judging by the crank handle on your small generator, I would guess it is a Stromberg-Carlson ?
Here is a better lit picture.

[unbeldi]

Here is the generator in one of my SCs, a 1258 wall phone.
Unfortunately the crank didn't make it into full view in this picture.  PS: Added a better view of the crank.

[unbeldi]

Here is a Siemens design, as licensed to the Iskra company in the former Yugoslavia.  It was used in German OB33 sets for the railroads and military.  This one is a licensed version, looking essentially identical, in the Iskra ITV set, used for the same applications, railroad and military.

[unbeldi]

This shows perhaps the point at which the "size revolution" in magnetos started.  This is from a 1934 paper in the Ericsson Bulletin, that shows the old versus the new generator when cobalt-chrome steel was introduced for magnet material.
I'll find the exact reference tomorrow.

Note that these generators even incorporate the ringer internally.

Just a few years later, Ericsson used the new Al-Ni-Co alloys that had even higher flux-densities, more later...


Ref:  E.Bul. 1934(4) p44, Combined Magneto Generator and Bell for Portable Testing Sets

[Jack Ryan]

Taking a broader definition of "good", I submit the magneto in this pre-cursor to the French U43. It fits in place of a dial using the same (approximate) space as a dial.

Jack

[unbeldi]

Taking a broader definition of "good", I submit the magneto in this pre-cursor to the French U43. It fits in place of a dial using the same (approximate) space as a dial.

Jack

I think this design is also copied from Ericsson.
It is really just the size of the dial ?
At least in the Ericsson sets, the generator is much bigger than a dial, it is just positioned at an angle. In the US, it was Leich again in the 1950s (1940s?) where they picked the idea up in the 900-series magneto phones.

[Jack Ryan]

I think this design is also copied from Ericsson.

It may have been an Ericsson design - I don't know. Do You?

It was used on the U43 which was an Ericsson design but this is before the U43.

It is really just the size of the dial ?

It is a long time since I have taken one out but I believe it is designed to fit in the same space and use the same mount as a dial so the phones are easily converted.

The Ericsson phones with the crank coming through where the dial normally is are totally different from the dial version. In some of those, there is a protrusion in the base to make space for the magneto. The magneto uses a fair proportion of the internal space.

Jack

[Holtzer-Cabot]

Here is the generator in one of my SCs, a 1258 wall phone.
Unfortunately the crank didn't make it into full view in this picture.  PS: Added a better view of the crank.

Wow thanks for the pictures! Yeah I now think is may be a SC too!

[Holtzer-Cabot]

Judging by the crank handle on your small generator, I would guess it is a Stromberg-Carlson ?
Here is a better lit picture.

Now it sure looks like it, doesn't it? I know NE used these is their late 40's/50's wall phones, because Canada was still on magneto service.

[Holtzer-Cabot]

Here is a Siemens design, as licensed to the Iskra company in the former Yugoslavia.  It was used in German OB33 sets for the railroads and military.  This one is a licensed version, looking essentially identical, in the Iskra ITV set, used for the same applications, railroad and military.

Yeah that Siemens design is pretty unique with the gears!

[unbeldi]

Now it sure looks like it, doesn't it? I know NE used these is their late 40's/50's wall phones, because Canada was still on magneto service.

Yes, it was used in several wood wall sets for rural service.

Here is a diagram of the NECo 41 from one of the NECo catalogs.  I think these were scanned by forum member Jeff Lamb.  He confirmed to me at one time, that these generators were actually made by Northern Electric, when I was wondering whether Western Electric ever actually made their own, because the WECo parts don't have a regular WECo catalog number, but KS-numbers.  BY that time, Western Electric in the US surely could not have had a high demand for magneto instruments, while in Canada this was still very common equipment.

In any case, from this we see that the crank handle is quite different.

In both cases, Western Electric and Northern Electric, this magneto apparently first appeared in the early 1950s, at least by 1953.  It is not present in the 1940s NECo catalogs, and not in the WECo Catalog No. 10 of 1950.