A Pair of 4H's / Oddball Dial Plate

[zaphod01]

Bought the 4H dated III 33 in a parts phone. I just had to see what was up with the unusual dial plate. Notice the 6 has a M and a N but no O. The 0 also serves as the O and the Q. It's a fabric overlay. Anyone know anything about this dial plate?

Bought the 4H dated 330 in another parts phone. It was in a D1 body (formerly a no dial phone). The only wires connected to the dial were the two normal jumpers. No line cord or receiver cord. Came with an E1 with the cord cut. E1 was frozen up. Body was a very nice repaint. Freshly recovered base. I couldn't pass up a 4H dated 330 but it was dead, dead, dead! Turned freely but no dial tone from any phone I tried it in.

The one dated 330 was dead and the one dated III 33 turned slow. Both made a trip to Steve Hilsz and now work perfectly!

[Jack Ryan]

I don't know who made the odd number plate but it a UK/French layout.

Jack

[WEBellSystemChristian]

You said it was a fabric overlay? Is there any dial plate underneath?

One theory I have--and it may be a little out there-- is that the dial was upgraded in the late '30s-early '40s, and sent to Europe. Because of the war, any telephone factories there may have been used to build supplies for the war effort. The only operating telephone manufacturers in the world at the time would have been American companies, such as WE, who were already sending field phones and Signal Corps sets overseas. To comply with the European dial layout, they built a cheap fabric replacement that wouldn't be made of steel or porcelain (I believe both were nessecary war materials), and was attached to a reused dial.

[unbeldi]

I seem to remember reading somewhere that dial plates like this were used in some area in Canada.
Or are those different again?

[Jack Ryan]

France was occupied and I don't remember any US equipment being used in the UK. That was too early for the Q being used in the UK anyway. The pattern with the letters in an arc around each number is French.

The number plates sent to NZ and Russia (lend-lease) were of the usual WE type and quality - they were finished in enamel.

It is not a Canadian plate either. Theirs is like the US plate except that there is a Q and possibly a Z next to the zero.

Jack

[zaphod01]

The oddball dial was purchased by a collector of English telephones. He offered the theory that it might have been used on an embassy phone.