Berliner/TEFAG project, early 30's Bakelite desk phone

[Matilo Telephones]

Recently I finished restoring one my Berliner telephones. These telephones have always intrigued me. They were often pictured in PTT adverts in the 30's, especially bij N.P. de Koo, a famous graphic designer. Now they have all but disappeared. Most of them were refurbished in the 50's. They changed the dial and handset. An original one is very hard to find indeed. Of course I wanted one really bad.

So I collected some of these. The first ones were refurbished ones. I've been trying to get an original dial and handset, but after 3 years I haven't found very much.

There are 3 version. Normal desk telephones, like in pict 2. Line selector versions, like in picture no 1. And a more elaborate line selector, not pictured here.

I have started work on version 2, a line selector. I chose this one, because I have a good refurbished one, and a damaged one with original handset and dial. Enough parts to make one original whole again.  In pic 3 is the dial before I started work on it.

In pic 4 the dial is done, and the bakelite is cleaned and polished. The big switches on either side still have to be polished (nickel plated brass).

[Matilo Telephones]

Next feet.

After refurbishment the feet were changed to a different kind. Pic 1 is a pic of the refurbished feet.

Luckily the donor phone provided me with original feet and bolts to fasten the housing (pic 2)

Pic 3 is of the original feet put back. The bolts have also been replaced. Originally these holes were threaded. Alas they were bored out when the phone was overhauled. So I had to put on rings to prevent the bolts from falling out. For a while I contemplated changing the baseplate of the phone with the one from the donor phone. That would lose me the original date stamp and would mean a lot of work. So I came up with this solution. It is not visible from the outside.

[Matilo Telephones]

Now wiring, looooooooooooooots of wiring.

Pic 1 shows on the left the donor phone and on the right the project phone. Please note the big connector cable, which I'm going to transfer. Before doing that, I have to solder missing connectors back. More about that later. Also on the right of the project phone you can see 2 big red resistors and the later installed buzzer and some messy wiring. That also has to be corrected.

Pic 2 picture shows the donor phone. I have already soldered some of the connectors loose and put them on the other phone. You can also see that the wires have little eyes. So you have to undo the whole screw to undo them and put them on. That makes transferring the big connector wire very fiddly! Now I know why they started using spades.

Pic 3 Here you see the cable, waiting to be connected up. All the small connectors soldered in place. 5 were missing on the right. Also the wiring of the buzzer has been redone.

Pic 4 After one hour the cable was connected up. I had to undo all the screws. Some were missing rings, so I had them placed back. Now I connected the dial back up for testing. That was quite a difficult dial to adjust. Connected my testing handset and connect the phone up to my PBX with a testing cable. The big cable will be tested later. First see if the phone works. And...........it does. Buzzer works, blinker works, dial works perfectly. Big smile.

Pic 5 The big fat connector cable is transplanted to the phone. Really fiddly and a job that makes your eyes water. On the right I had to solder back about 6 connector rods. Looks fine now, with all the wires in place. On the other side of the cable would have been a big wall box full of connectors and switching equipment.

Pic 6 Here you can see the new wiring for the buzzer. I did not have matching wiring, so I decided to use different wires with bright colors. I is solid core wiring, just like the rest. I soldered salvaged eyelets to the wires to connect everything up. Firtst I thought I would let the wiring keep the buzzer in place. But a shock to the phone would bend the wires and displace it, which may cause malfunction. So I used a tie wrap to hold it in place.

[Matilo Telephones]

A little more wiring and some modifying.

Pic 1 is the other end of the connector cable. It has 20 wires or so in it. Unfortunately the bare wires in the phone were discolored. So to match the freshly uncovered wires from one end to the discolored wires on the other, I had to test a lot of them. I was trying to find the 2 wires I needed to connect the phone to an outside line. As you can see you cannot fit a normal plug to this cable. It is far too thick. An RJ connector would not be practical.

Pic 2 is a standard PTT connection box. These were used in the 40ies, 50ies and 60ies. Before the war similar boxes were used. Plugs were only common from the 60ies onward.These are made of bakelite and quite common. I have a lot of them. I had the idea to use some of them and putting female RJ-connectors in them.

The PTT logo was designed in the 30ies and fits really well with this phone.

Pic 3 The connection box is adapted so the cable can be inserted and an opening is made for the RJ-connector. With the RJ-connector slotted in place and the cable connected, it is easily connected to the telephone line with an RJ cable. Fits really well with this phone and cable.

Pic 4 Now with everything assembled, the receiver is dead. Everything else works fine, dialling, transmitting, line swith, blinker. As it is an odd type I do not have a replacement, so I opened it up to see what is wrong. It appears one part has come loose. It was fasted at the bottom of the receiver and has broken loose. I clamped it in place, which was the hard part, and soldered it back. The receiver now works, albeit faintly. I'm going to try to improve its sound level.

[Matilo Telephones]

Pic 1 There! Finished and working. Happy? Yes, but I could be a little happier. I do need to sort out that receiver issue and the original rubber feet aren't great. They have hardened over the years which makes the phone prone to sliding when dialing. I've had it connected in the livingroom for a couple of weeks now. But.......... I still have one more to go.

Pic 2This is the regular single line version of this phone. Still unrestored and I am trying to find a handset for it. The handset pictured now is a replacement made by Ericsson. But I am in contact with an other collector who may have one for me. And then I'll make new rubber feet for both phones.

This phone was the iconic PTT phone from the 30ies. When they pictured a telephone, they almost always used this model. To illustrate that, pic 3 is a photo from 1940 of 2 PTT engineers on their way. On the front of their bicycle is the silhouet of this telephone.

Hope you enjoyed reading this!

[Doug Rose]

that is a stunning phone...Doug

[Phonesrfun]

Very good work Arwin.  Excellent!

[Matilo Telephones]

Thanks guys. For my next project I'm going to do something really simple.