1930's telephone that i purchased question? "UPDATE"

[bingster]

Any ideas what this box was used for in it's original application? and why it won't work with that second coil by just hooking up the wall wire?

I haven't found any information on what it is yet, but remember that the telephone company used to offer several different types of service that don't exist anymore.  They had standard individual lines back then, just as we do now, but they also had party lines which required specialized equipment.  In addition, there was a super cheap type of service called "message rate" which let you pay for every call you made, whether it was local or not (perfect for people who just didn't use the phone that much).  Special equipment for that service was required for both individual lines and for party lines.  There were other types of service, too.  So it really depended not only on the type of phone line you had, but also on the type of service you had on that line, all of which resulted in a multitude of specialized subsets.

BUT... even though we don't really know at this point what this particular box was for, there's certainly no harm in hooking it up to see if it works.  By all means connect it, see what happens, and let us know.

[Phonesrfun]

I think it should work just fine with some minor changes.

[rp2813]

I think if I were dealing with that subset, the first thing I'd do is remove all of the snipped wires (the fat black ones and the colored ones with the white sheathing).  You're not going to use any of them (unless you need to fashion a jumper wire, so don't discard the colored ones) and it will make it easier to assess the configuration of the subset wires that remain.

If you haven't already pulled up bingster's diagrams for the 634 subset for use with a phone like yours, I would recommend doing that.  I don't think you'll find any terminals or connections in the diagrams that you wouldn't be able to fairly easily translate onto your subset.  You may have to draw some of your conclusions based on more than one of the subset diagrams, but it's not rocket science.

My D1 phone had been wired with a mini-network so it would work without a subset.  At some point long ago, after acquiring a subset either I or a friend of mine removed the mini-network and reconfigured the wiring on the phone base to work with a subset, but it never worked properly, with poor reception (even with an F1 handset like yours) and really loud clicking sounds when dialing or when the switch hook was lifted or depressed.  The problem became even worse, particularly with reception, when I hooked up the older style E1 handset.

Just within the past couple of weeks, I decided to open up the phone and compare the wiring to bingster's diagrams, and I found that my wiring was completely messed up.  It was so different from the diagram that I was doubtful the configuration in the diagram would fix my phone.  After pulling wires and re-terminating them both on the phone base and inside the subset and getting everything matched up to the diagram (with a couple of exceptions inside the subset that didn't matter) I connected the phone and it worked perfectly.  Reception was louder and clearer, and the loud clicking when dialing or when lifting and replacing the handset was diminished to tolerable levels.

I don't see why you shouldn't get similar results.  Maybe due to that extra coil there's a chance you may not have success on the first try, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear that you get dialtone, can make and receive calls, and that the ringer works, as a result of your first attempt.

 

[trainman]

634YD subset is indeed used in local battery/common battery signaling. These were used at the ends of very long common battery runs. The local battery talking(transmitter) type of circuit puts a stronger voice signal on the line than does a common battery circuit. So, hence the local battery talking. The common batteryt comes into play in order to dial the central office.

The other induction coil was used to shunt DC around the receiver. In this case, only the primary coil of the other induction coil was used. Western Electric just used an availabe induction coil with the right properties, rather than making one for a singular purpose.

You can use this subset on common battery lines, you just need to use a 3 volt battery in the transmitter circuit. the phone needs a three contact hook switch, for optimum performance.

Im interested in that subset if you don't want it.

Regarding you comment of the phone wiring being all messed up, it may have been wired up for a different class of serivce. Maybe even local battery.

Refer to Old-Time Telephones by Ralp Meyer Figure 18-7

[poplar1]

The 46B is a sidetone coil. The only difference in it and the 46A originally used in the 534A subset is that is has screw terminals rather than soldered wires. The antisidetone version is a 146B.

So, I don't know why this was stamped 634YD instead of 534YD.

In any case, the subset can be rewired to be a 534A without using the smaller coil. As such, it would need only 3 conductors (red, green and yellow) between the phone and the subset. If there is a 4-conductor cord the black one can be taped and stored (not cut off!).

A 634A, 634BA, 684A or 684BA would be preferable, but this subset will do. The main problem is that the sidetone (hearing yourself talk) will be louder. This often results in the user talking softer to compensate, which means the other party doesn't hear you as well. (The reason cell phone users---like hard of hearing people---sometimes talk so loud is that they don't hear themselves through the receiver.)

As for measured service, this required a different set (I think it  used the D6 mounting insteead of D1) only on party lines and then only the Tip party.

[unbeldi]

Reviving an old thread like this may be a mood affair, but I think the final analysis should be that all is in order with this set. I just happened to come across this.

This subset is indeed a local-battery talking, common-battery signaling subscriber set for anti-sidetone operation.  The active AST induction coil is the smaller coil.  This a No. 113 induction coil, which is the AST-upgraded version of the No. 13 coil. They simply added another winding on the coil.

So, this subset is actually stamped correctly as a 634-YD.

The larger coil, the No. 46 is simply used as a retardation coil to prevent shorting the audio-frequency, but to maintain the DC supervision of the local loop.

Trainman had the right idea.