when did modular phones appear?

[trainman]

About what year did phones go modular?

[Dan]

1972

[trainman]

1972. Thanks Dan

[Dan]

No problem , I have a few soft 500's from 50's that were modularized in 1972. Often you will see a green sticker with 5-72 or another month put over the original date on the back. You don't know how many of these stickers I have peeled back to find the original pre-modularized date of the phone.

[Dennis Markham]

Dan, when you say "soft 500's that were modularized" are you saying you actually have a soft plastic cover that has been notched for a modular plug?  The covers that are stamped with the date on the inside edge?  I've never seen a pre 1959 cover that has been notched, although I have read that there was a tool the field tech could use to cut a notch out of a case.  They also had some small plugs, called "mouseholes" that they would use to fill a notched (square hole) and go back to using it as a hardwired set.  I'd be interested in seeing photos of a soft plastic case that has been notched.

[Dan]

I have one case that has been modularized in the back, while the other ones have the handsets replaced with 1972 or older handset parts and dials . I can't remember if it is soft, it is a 1959 and the date is on the inside case edge . It really looks like they cut the back and installed a modular plug, because the rest of the phone is bone stock, right down to the soft centered finger wheel.

[Dennis Markham]

It may be soft plastic Dan.  I have just never seen one but there's a lot of things I haven't seen. I know "they" say that many were modified in the field.  What color is it?  Is the date in 1959 an early 1959?

[Dan]

Dennis, it's a 8-59 green. Right in the middle ( between the hard and soft transition), I think it's hard plastic (doesn't smell)
Pics below

http://tinyurl.com/cdu32n

Notch

http://tinyurl.com/ddqk74

[JimH]

I remember my Grandmother had a green rotary Princess in her bedroom that I noticed had been "notched in the field" around 1980.  They moved into the house in about 1968, and it had been hard-wired before that.  I remember they didn't do a very good job on the notch,  it was less than perfect.  The telephone man also wrote an "M" above the area code on the dial card, for "modular".

[Dennis Markham]

Thanks Dan for those photos.  It's a shame that they had to do that to those old phone covers.  But it was purely a matter of function and convenience.

[Dan]

I know, this was my first soft centered finger wheel phone, and I didn'y even realize it was cut until I joined this website

[McHeath]

I know, this was my first soft centered finger wheel phone, and I didn'y even realize it was cut until I joined this website

That's us, dashing hopes on a daily basis.   

[rp2813]

I think modularization happened much later in my area.  Pacific Telephone didn't go modular until the very late 70's.  My first modular service came from GTE in Santa Monica, CA back in 1977.  It was a white AE set that was semi-modular.  The mounting cord was still hard wired onto the phone end, but it had a modular plug for the wall jack.  I sure wish I could find mounting cords like that now!  I don't think the handset was modularized.  I quickly installed a 40's vintage SC phone instead and just hung on to the AE set until I moved and it was time to turn it in.

Ralph

[Ellen]

New Jersey had touch-tone when we left in 73, but I don't know when it started there; and Connecticut was all-rotary when we arrived here in 1973.  At that time we could call the last number of the exchange and the number, and that would be good enough (2-5942).  And we could dial 3 specific numbers, hang up, and all the phones in the house would ring.

One day between 73 and 77, I picked up the phone and it sounded different, but I don't remember how.  And suddenly touch-tone was in and the older features were out.

[bingster]

They probably changed the switch at the central office.  Different switches had different sounding dial tones.