News:

"The phone is a remarkably complex, simple device,
and very rarely ever needs repairs, once you fix them." - Dan/Panther

Main Menu

Bell / Western Electric - "Mod 1 Picturephone"

Started by MagicMo, November 18, 2012, 02:35:03 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

rdelius

Black spots on a CRT face are sometimes underneath the safety faceplate and are not damaged phosphors

MagicMo

Quote from: Bill on November 22, 2012, 11:38:45 AM
I think the vidicon is the camera tube, not the display tube. The vidicon is probably a cylinder about an inch in diameter, maybe 6 inches long - my memory is a bit thin. The display tube (picture tube) is bigger, of course.

Bill
Hi Bill,
Forgive my ignorance as you can see the technical stuff is not my forte. I will look for a bigger display tube looking thingy! LOL
I appreciate you letting me know.
Maureen
Practice Kindness :)

MagicMo

#47
Hi DF, I will take a pic with the cover off sometime this weekend and post them here. If I do end up auctioning the PicturePhone, you are correct in saying it would go to the highest bidder. For me, the value is not even that of the item, while I think the Picturephone is cool, it would sit in my basement or attic and never be looked at again until my children come across it going through my things someday. I understand the "excitement" of the item for someone else, it's just not for me.
If I was financially able I would certainly donate it to the right person but that is not an option and as far as the value for something like this I cannot find anything to help me, I guess it is just that rare. So I am going to wait it out until I feel confident in what I would take for it.
Thanks, Maureen
Practice Kindness :)

MagicMo

Quote from: rdelius on November 22, 2012, 06:52:58 PM
Black spots on a CRT face are sometimes underneath the safety faceplate and are not damaged phosphors

Thanks for the info! How do I check that? I meant, how should I have my husband check that! LOL
Thanks,
Maureen
Practice Kindness :)

AE_Collector

#49
Quote from: Phonesrfun on November 22, 2012, 03:22:22 PM
I sense we are taking this thread off topic, but here goes.  If our trusty moderators know how to split this off the main topic, then that would be ok by me.

Do-able for sure. I have been wondering for the last couple of days now if maybe we should have kept the Picturephone a seperate topic on it's own. I will talk with Dennis about it.

Terry

<edit>
Talked it over with Dennis and we agreed that a Bell picturephone thread would be a good idea due to the rarity of it AND the interest in it here. So here it is....done.

Terry

DavePEI

Quote from: AE_collector on November 22, 2012, 07:43:00 PM

Talked it over with Dennis and we agreed that a Bell picturephone thread would be a good idea due to the rarity of it AND the interest in it. So here it is....done.

Terry

I must admit that I have seldom seen a topic catch on like this one. It is an amazing find, and I hope that its sale will help Maureen and her family a lot. Too bad no-one can tell her exactly what it will bring, but especially if sold with the documentation about where it was used, that it will bring a really high price.

Now, there will be an interesting auction contest! I can already imagine the guesses at what it will go for. Good luck, Maureen!

Dave
The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island:
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit!
C*NET 1-651-0001

George Knighton

Surprised to see and hear about this.  I can just *barely* remember when it was a talking point for marketing purposes.
Annoying new poster.

LarryInMichigan

My guess for the complete system is $40,000.

Larry

Doug Rose

Quote from: LarryInMichigan on November 23, 2012, 09:05:51 AM
My guess for the complete system is $40,000.

Larry
WOW!! I hope this "guess" is not getting the seller's hopes up. I see a lot of conjecture in these posts. Myself, I have no idea, not a clue on its value.  It is not what I collect, but I do appreciate that it might be a one of a kind. That is why I think eBay is the finite answer. That is the only way to get fair market value, in my humble opinion.

I might have to change the direction of my collection....Doug
Kidphone

Dan/Panther

Maureen;
My advice would be to completely catalog everything you have. Nothing worse then to have high hopes for an item, then find out you sold off a key piece for pennies.
Find out what you have, how it works, if it works, and try your best to get a ballpark figure of value. A good place would be to check prices on eBay, of course the picture phone, you would have to start high, and see how it goes. But anyhow, I wouldn't sell a thing until I knew all about, what I have.
JMHO
I have the early W.E. 500, and estimates hovered around $2000.00 in value, but personally, I wouldn't part with for 5 times that. I would definitely like to see it publicly displayed, but my fear is that a small museum may fold, and it would simply disappear. If Lucent Technologies ever opened a museum, I would gladly let them take it.

D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

George Knighton

Quote from: LarryInMichigan on November 23, 2012, 09:05:51 AM
My guess for the complete system is $40,000.

Larry

0_o

You think?  If that's a good value, I am not sure it'll be easy to sell.  I'd be tempted to talk to the Smithsonian about a hefty tax break!
Annoying new poster.

Phonesrfun

One of the things I was wondering about is whether the thing, if connected up to the power supply would actually fire up.

It was made in the 1960's (nearly 50 years ago), and presumably has several electrolytic capacitors in both the power supply and the main unit.

By the 1960's the materials for elecrolytics had vastly improved since earlier years, and most of the circuitry should be of a relatively low voltage, except, of course, the HV to the picture tube, so it may very well be OK.  Add to that the fact that Ma Bell used top notch components, and designed their stuff to last a lifetime.... at least for the life of the item, what ever that is.

So the question..... drum roll...... Should Maureen plug it in and see what happens?

I would.

It's fused.

If it powers up, and if she can get the self picture, oh what a selling feature that would be.

The worse that could happen is she would hear a snap, crackle, and maybe a pop, see and smell a little whif of smoke, and blow the fuse.

What does everyone else think?

-Bill G

Dan/Panther

I had a Philco Safari transistor television, First portable TV 1959 or so, that I paid $80.00 on eBay. I fired it up and got raster, and sound. I put it away for later clean up etc. Last year I got it out, and fired it up again. Smoke, pop. Ruined the high voltage section, rare high voltage vacuum tube and other components. made the television not worth restoring. A few caps would have prevented that, at about $10.00 in parts.

D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

LarryInMichigan

I think that Maureen should find all of the parts and offer the system as-is, untested.  The high-end old radio/electronics collectors always warn people against powering up anything which has high voltage and old capacitors without special precautions, and I do not think that this is any different.  Also, no serious collector who would be willing to pay a high price for this picturephone will be put off by the statement that it has not been tested.  They might be concerned though, if an attempt at powering it might have damaged something.

Larry

Doug Rose

Larry...I agree 100%. I would never power this on. Let the professional who purchases do that. It would be a shame to permanently destroy somehing that lasted all these years. Good call....Doug
Kidphone