Latest (Youngest) Part in your 302 & Widest Spread

[winkydink]

I cannot take credit for this idea, but I did read it somewhere on this forum.

Tell me what the lastest date you have for any part in your 302 and the part type (i.e. base, ringer, subset, dial, etc)

This can either be original manufacturer or refurbished part.  Colored phones count too.

I will try to keep tally on this post of the thread.

Beat these, if you can ....

Dial Plate:   1955
Ringer:        Remanufactured   I 59, New 6/56
Ind. Coil:     Remanufactured   II 58, New 11/52
5H Dial:       11/52
6H Dial:       9/55

Transmitter Capsule:  9/55 Refurb, 3/59 Tested

[winkydink]

Ringer -  Refurb 1Q 1959
Induction Coil - Refurb 2Q 1958

5H Dial - 5/1949

Widest Spread:  2-47 to 2Q 1958

[HobieSport]

Winky;  do you mean the most recent 302 dated manufactured part?

Good question.  It didn't stop in 1949 when the 500 was suddenly invented.

Ma Bell still had the factory tools.  Sargeguy or BDM might have a 1955 302 part.

Ask them.

[Sargeguy]

I had a 1939 metal 302 from an independent TELCO that had a dial plate from 1955.  The plat was a 160 and it was faded and worn so I ended up replacing it with a 1939 dial plate.

[winkydink]

Winky;  do you mean the most recent 302 dated manufactured part?

Good question.  It didn't stop in 1949 when the 500 was suddenly invented.

Ma Bell still had the factory tools.  Sargeguy or BDM might have a 1955 302 part.

Ask them.

Yes thats what I mean, most recent part manufactured or remanufactered.  I am curious how late WE/Bell was making replacement parts for the 302.

I figured that it would be interesting to see who could come up with the most recent date in their phone (Do I hear a  1960 date?).  After all, I hear that this forum is 302/500 crazy 

[Konrad]

Define Crazy?  Before I joined this forum I did not know what a 302 was.  Now I have five on hand plus one in the mail.  Most I paid was $22.  I'll waste some time opening them up checking dates and seeing if any work.  I blame you all for this insanity.

[benhutcherson]

I have a 6H dial from 9-55 on an otherwise matched '48 302.

As far as part spread-I have one with all parts from '52 save for the microphone, which dates from '49.

[Konrad]

11-52 with 2-46 Receiver and 10-48 dial
11-52 matched except for 6-56 Ringer

The 354 was not replaced until 1956.

[benhutcherson]

Let me also add that I have a 5H dial from 2-52.

[McHeath]

I blame you all for this insanity.

Sorry Konrad, I apologize on behalf of all the other phonecrazy fiends on this phoney forum.  I too was once a normal human with a normal life, just had one old 500 I bought years ago in college and a nice simple cordless phone, that was it.  Now after getting bitten by the bug I've managed to round up some 18 old phones, and more seem to arrive all the time.  I think the missus is wondering if I lost a lugnut someplace, but at least I'm not wandering the streets tagging and skateboarding at all hours of the night.

[Perry]

Eighteen phones? That reminds me of this ad:
http://www.porticus.org/bell/telephones-designline.html

I suppose collecting 18 phones was quite a feat in the days when most phones were "Bell System Property - Not For Sale," though. I bet some here have more than 52 phones.

[Konrad]

Perry thank you for posting that wonderful phone porn.  You know your an addict when you study the picture and notice two Mickey phones, an Americana and wonder if the french phones by the identical tables lamps are identical or one is Aqua and one is Turquoise?

[Dennis Markham]

Fifty-two?  I have 21 of them just in this office I'm sitting in.....!!  I have limited it to 45 on the ground floor level.

[rp2813]

Oldest 302 part I have is a 5/37 transmitter capsule.  That one is used in a handset on my mostly 8/38 metal case one.  It has no other dates and curiously, most of my early F1 transmitter capsules don't.

Newest (redeployed) part I've found in my collection is a transmitter capsule currently in a loose handset.  It's originally dated 3/43, then has 9/55R, then has 3/59T.  So I presume it was tested in 1959 and put back to work in the field.  It looks like new.  I don't know if this counts as "newest" part, but it would appear to confirm that at least into 1959 they were re-deploying 302's instead of installing 500's.  I'm guessing that the business market took priority for 500's and residential customers were issued refurbished 302's until sometime in the early 60's. 

[BDM]

I can confirm that 302s were still used until 1979 My great aunt had one that I now own. It was installed in her finished basement probably for 40 years, and never moved. I know she used it until she moved and gave me the phone. I can remember her talking on it while relaxing in the basement into the late 70s. How many continued on until the present has me wondering. We'll never know....