D1 (202) and subsets upgrades ??

[dsk]

1 Did thay just put in a D1 and keep the sidetone subset when the deskstand was beond repair, and D1 was the new and modern deskstand?


2 Did they modirnize subsets by putting in anti sidetone hybrids in the old housing when they had them in for repair?  (like the upgraded 302 bases to 5302)


dsk

[unbeldi]

Well, the exact policies were decided by each associated operating company.

But in terms of language, only a candlestick in Bell System parlance was typically called a desk stand, the desk top telephones with handsets were distinguished in language as hand telephone sets.

When the D-type handset mounting was introduced in 1930, most were simply replacements for candlesticks and A and B handset mountings, using the existing sidetone circuitry. The was called the 102 Hand Telephone Set.  It appears that these numerical telephone set assembly codes (102, 202, ...) came in use about the time the D1 was introduced.  Previously, these telephone sets were called by their handset mounting code, a practice that endured for some time at Northern Electric.

Although the 202 Hand Telephone Set with its anti-sidetone circuit was introduced the same year at the D handset mounting, the Bell System did not overall install many anti-sidetone instruments until ca. 1933 or 1934, because of the ongoing severe recession. The instruments were more expensive and in face of the economic problems not deemed a sufficient cost-benefit factor. In 1932/33 more telephone installation were taken out of service, than newly installed, IIRC.  (I think it was in Arthur Page's book were this is documented in more detail.)

But following that period, many sidetone subscriber sets were indeed upgraded to anti-sidetone circuitry, adding 100 to the numerical designation, a 534A subscriber set became a 634A, a 584 a 684, a 102 telephone became a 202 telephone, a 300-series wood subsets became a 400-series set, a 51AL desk stand became a 151AL, etc...

I don't recall finding statistics of the ratio of newly made anti-sidetone instruments versus refurbished equipment.

We know from examples of new-in-box instruments, that a D housing was still made as  102 into 1932, so not all newly made instruments were already anti-sidetone sets.  Here is a new 102C-3 set that is dated Q1 1932:

[poplar1]

Here is a 102A-3 box restamped 202A-3 with D4N-9 cord. I can't tell if the phone was converted, or they just were using up their old stock of boxes with a newly manufactured phone. In any case, to convert a 102 to a 202, all they needed to do was to change the D3A cord to a 4-conductor cord.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/WESTERN-ELECTRIC-NO-102-A-3-TELEPHONE-IN-ORG-BOX-WITH-BOX-/272368401824

The 534A subsets were sometimes converted to 634A in the field. This could be done without removing the subset from the wall.

[poplar1]

C31.123, Issue 1, 3-21-40 is the BSP for the field conversion of sidetone 534As to anti-sidetone 634As. The kit for doing so was coded D-158595 Apparatus Unit.


http://telephonecollectors.info/index.php/document-repository/doc_details/3276-c31-123-i1-subscriber-sets-conversion-to-anti-sidetone-tl

[unbeldi]

An interesting period was the time of WWII, as telephone manufacturing was severely restricted to military production.  Essentially, new telephones for civilian use were nowhere available.  Yet, the Bell System nevertheless added about a million new telephone installations during that time.  How did they do that?

It is interesting:  They had long stored away ca. 750,000 desk stands for emergency provisioning, rather then sending them to the smelters and dumps.
This accounted for the a majority of new service.  It also explains that the Bell System issued several BSPs during that period for refurbishing desk stands and the corresponding subscriber sets, such as Poplar1 just pointed out.  Since they didn't have materials available to convert sidetone instruments (20-, 40-, 50-, 51-types) to anti-sidetone circuitry, which required extra springs in the candlesticks, but not in the B, and D handset mounting,  they invented methods to connect sidetone sticks to anti-sidetone subsets.  There is a topic on the Forum where we discussed this fairly in-depth, and analyzed the circuit wiring they invented.

PS: Here is one of the discussions.

[dsk]

Thank you all, this way to solve it shows a lot of common sense! I wish we kept it that way.
dsk

[Pourme]

Good discussion....a lot of useful information here....