Craigslist find - Kellogg 925, aka "ashtray phone".

[Greg G.]

One of these has been on my want list for a while.  This one had slipped past my usual CL search terms, but was pointed out to me by another forum member.  Purchase price was $40.  Haven't had a chance to hook it up yet, but seller said it would receive calls but not ring and you couldn't call out.  Line cord is intact with two spade ends.  I'm guessing that the ringer is frequency, and the seller's land line didn't support pulse dialing.  I didn't ask too many questions, just gave him the $40 and skedadled.

[LarryInMichigan]

Greg,

I am glad to hear that seller kept his word and you got the phone.  It looks great.

The ringer does not look like a frequency ringer.  A frequency ringer would not have a bias spring on it. 

Larry

[LarryInMichigan]

BTW, the phone is a Kellogg 925.  The "SC" on the bottom is probably for the Army Signal Corps.

Larry

[HarrySmith]

Agreed, the mark looks similar to others I have seen on Signal Corps phones. The K S & S Co stamp inside would be Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Co.

[Doug Rose]

Beautiful! Very tough to find these whole, without cracks or chips. Bakelite was very thin on these. One of the most beautiful phones ever made. Kellogg made some really different phones. Great phone...GREAT PRICE....Doug

[Phonesrfun]

Greg:

Looks like a straight ringer to me.  Probably wired for divided ringing, and needs to be wired for bridged ringing.  It looks nice and complete.  According to the diagram, for bridged riging on the Kellogg 925, the ringer wires should be connected to C1 and L1.  The diagram can be found here:

http://www.telephonecollectors.info/index.php?option=com_docman&task=doc_details&gid=1943&Itemid=33

[Greg G.]

Greg,

I am glad to hear that seller kept his word and you got the phone.  It looks great.


Larry

I gave him an extra $5 over the original asking price of $35 for holding it for me.  I didn't expect him to do that, especially since he had a better offer from a collector in Southern Cal (or so he said).

[Greg G.]

BTW, the phone is a Kellogg 925.  The "SC" on the bottom is probably for the Army Signal Corps.

Larry

Oh, ok, I stand corrected.  The cradle and handset looked so much like my SC, so I assumed that's what the "SC" was.

[Greg G.]

Got to thinking about this, why would a military unit have such a stylish looking phone?

[GG]

The military would place orders for phones and buy according to price & availability.  They could care less about style as long as it worked.  Kellogg must have gotten a contract at a time when they were producing these 900-series phones.

That one has a Signal Corps dial in it, per the configuration of the off-normal contacts as compared to what you normally see on AE 24A3 and 51-A dials.  It would be interesting to know if the dial was made by Kellogg (it would be stamped accordingly in the metal on the back), as a variation on the Kellogg 15-G. 

[Greg G.]

I also tried researching the Signal Corps marking to try to find out some history on it.  I'm assuming that the "3214" is the particular unit in the SC, but I could be wrong.  I didn't find what I was looking for right off the bat, but I only spent less than an hour googling around.  I did find an interesting SC Handbook of Telephones, circa 1904, but it didn't have what I was looking for.