Awesome New Find... Western Electric 50AL with Subset

[jjflory]

My wife and I were in were in Stephenville, Texas today and got a great find.  100% complete Western Electric 50AL that has been refurb'd on 1-32 with the F1 "Bulldog" Transmitter and the 706 Receiver.       

It also had the 634 Subset with original cordage. No nicks or cracks in the Bakelite. Most of the black is gone on both the Phone and the Subset

Paid...$110.00 I almost feel bad that the seller had no clue what they had. The tag said, "Cabin Phone"

Well, here are a few pictures.

[unbeldi]

The 'bulldog' 635A transmitter assembly didn't exist yet in 1932, and neither did the 706 receiver.   They both came out ca. 1937, although the F1 transmitter element had been available since 1934.

Where is "1-32" actually stamped on ?

Looks like someone stripped the paint from both desk stand and subset.  Still a  good find, I'd say.
Is the subset copper colored ?

[jjflory]

Under the base unit on the inside. It has Registered Mark and the 1-32

[unbeldi]

Under the base unit on the inside. It has Registered Mark and the 1-32

1932 is almost the time when WECo got serious about installing anti-sidetone instruments more widely and upgrading older sidetone sets to anti-sidetone. But I suspect there was yet another refurbishing step in between that happened in 1932 on your set.

The 634 is an anti-sidetone subset, and if the combination of the two is original the desk stand should have been converted to a 151AL, which would have been marked on the perch.  Does the mounting cord have three conductors or four ?   Most sets that were upgraded with 635A transmitters and 706A receivers also had their wiring upgraded with the anti-sidetone circuit.

[WEBellSystemChristian]

Great find! Does it have a #2 dial? That alone would make the purchase worthwhile!

I have a 'parts' 20AL that had a 1932 date stamped inside. I'm pretty sure it was done by an independent company rather than WECo or Bell.

[jjflory]

How do I identify the #2 dial versus something else?

Thanks

Jeff

[WEBellSystemChristian]

The #2 has the fingerstop mounted to the outside, attached by two screws. I can see that it doesn't have one of those, but it might be converted (check for two holes on the dial side near the fingerstop).

[TelePlay]

Here's images of one.

[jjflory]

It doesn't. 

[poplar1]

Please show photos of the inside of the phone and of the bell box.

[jjflory]

Here you go.

The 1-32 is in the bottom just to the right. Another possible date is in the top just left of center 1044.

Will post pic of subset shortly.

[jjflory]

The 1-32 is very lite...see new pic

[Nick in Manitou]

Wow, this phone has renewed my faith that there are still great phones to be found.

I guess I won't give up looking yet!

Nick

[poplar1]

OK, it's still wired as a 50-AL (sidetone), which means that normally it would have been used with a 3-conductor cord going to a sidetone subset such as a 534A. (Is the subset marked 534A or 634A?)

So, even though, in 1944, they may have added a newer style transmitter and receiver, they didn't convert the phone from a 50-AL to a 151-AL after all.

[unbeldi]

My suspicion was that this is one of the 750,000 candlesticks that WECo didn't send back to the smelters on Staten Island, but stored away for difficult times.  These were not upgraded to AST service during the war, because they simply didn't have those parts anymore. But they also didn't have sidetone subset anymore, and therefor devised a wiring scheme for operating them on AST subsets.  We discussed those circuits a few times previously.

The big irritant here is the lack of paint of course, even on the dial, so all bets are off because someone private must have stripped it and could easily have made any kind of other modification as well.