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Anyone want an 1803 Antique Military Field Phone- Nickel?

Started by DavePEI, October 04, 2011, 02:56:40 PM

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DavePEI

Ebay    200659634981 - Made for the War of 1812!

;)
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

LarryInMichigan

I thought that WE hadn't started making these until 1805 :D

DavePEI

Quote from: LarryInMichigan on October 04, 2011, 03:12:40 PM
I thought that WE hadn't started making these until 1805 :D

Another seller inventing history! The price reflects the age he thinks it is also :-)

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

dsk


AE_Collector

#4
Well it obviously must at least be Digital...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/200659634981 ( dead link 01-18-22 )

Terry

McHeath

That phone is supposed to still be in Area 51!  How did it escape?   ;)

LarryInMichigan

Quote from: McHeath on October 05, 2011, 10:13:48 PM
That phone is supposed to still be in Area 51!  How did it escape?   ;)

Through another dimension.

DavePEI

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

TelePlay

This picture reminded me of maybe an early version of the EE-8 hard wired field phone

http://tinyurl.com/7qwjesq

used by the military in WW-II, replaced by the larger TP-9 model.

http://tinyurl.com/7h6q4za

both from the days of running a single line of twisted pair on the ground from point to point, whatever the maximum distance would be between field phones.

This all metal handset and cloth bag version looks like a prototype or early production run of sorts of a field phone created prior to and patented in 1903 but can't find if these were those actually used in WW-I.

Here's what some historian wrote of communications back then.

http://preview.tinyurl.com/76srwkw

"As the war (WW-I) progressed there was a growing appreciation of the need for improved electrical communications of much greater capacity for the larger units and of the need within regiments for electrical communications, which had heretofore been regarded as unessential and impractical. Field telephones and switchboards were soon developed, and those already in existence were improved. An intricate system of telephone lines involving thousands of miles of wire soon appeared on each side. Pole lines with many crossarms and circuits came into being in the rear of the opposing armies, and buried cables and wires were laid in the elaborate trench systems leading to the forwardmost outposts. The main arteries running from the rear to the forward trenches were crossed by lateral cable routes roughly parallel to the front.

Thus, there grew an immense gridwork of deep buried cables, particularly on the German side and in the British sectors of the Allied side, with underground junction boxes and test points every few hundred yards. The French used deep buried cable to some extent but generally preferred to string their telephone lines on wooden supports set against the walls of deep open trenches. Thus electrical communication in the form of the telephone and telegraph gradually extended to the smaller units until front-line platoons were frequently kept in touch with their company headquarters through these mediums.

Despite efforts to protect the wire lines, they were frequently cut at critical times as the result of the intense artillery fire. This led all the belligerents to develop and use radio (wireless) as an alternate means of communication. Prewar radio sets were too heavy and bulky to be taken into the trenches, and they also required large and highly visible aerials. Radio engineers of the belligerent nations soon developed smaller and more portable sets powered by storage batteries and using low, inconspicuous aerials. Although radio equipment came to be issued to the headquarters of all units, including battalions, the ease of enemy interception, the requirements for cryptographing or encoding messages, and the inherent unreliability of these early systems caused them to be regarded as strictly auxiliary to the wire system and reserved for emergency use when the wire lines were cut."

Just saying, don't know anything other than a bit about what was used by the military for communication before the Signal Corps was created to handle wireless and pole mounted wire communication.

Would be nice though if those trying to sell stuff on eBay could afford a 12 MP digital camera for about $89 at Sam's Club to take better and more pictures of their special items in good light for examination by potential buyers.

TelePlay

Under the photo is written:

"These sets are connected to the telephone circuit at any point on the line by means of a light portable pole arranged with terminals at its outer extremity for hooking over the line wires, and with flexible [Page 347]conducting cords leading to the portable set. The use of these sets among officials on their private cars, among construction and bridge gangs working on the line, and among telephone inspectors and repairmen for reporting trouble, is becoming more and more general."

http://tinyurl.com/7abtfl7

On page 346 or 347 at that link is "Fig. 487. Portable Telephone Set"