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I Just Bought a French Phone

Started by LarryInMichigan, October 25, 2011, 03:41:40 PM

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LarryInMichigan

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200664990857

Apparently, nobody wanted this, so it's mine now.  I know about the "mother-in-law" receiver, but I don't think I have ever seen the leather thing before.  It looks sort of weird.  I sure hope that the bakelite under the leather is in good condition.  I know that these phones break easily.

Larry


Owain

Interesting.

The leather may be an after-market accessory. There used to be metal filigree cages for GPO 700 series phones. A few phones (UK Trimphone / Deltaphone De Luxe and the Rhapsody) came leather-covered as orginal, but they did a rather better job of it that the phone shewn.

LarryInMichigan

If the bakelite under the leather is presentable, the leather goes.  I am hoping that the leather has been protecting the bakelite for the past 50 years.

Larry

teka-bb

=============================================
Regards,

Remco, JKL Museum of Telephony Curator

JKL Museum of Telephony: http://jklmuseum.com/
=============================================
TCI Library: http://www.telephonecollectors.info/
=============================================

teka-bb

=============================================
Regards,

Remco, JKL Museum of Telephony Curator

JKL Museum of Telephony: http://jklmuseum.com/
=============================================
TCI Library: http://www.telephonecollectors.info/
=============================================

GG



I've seen plenty of those and never a one with a leather cover.  As Owain points out those were aftermarket accessories in the UK.  Also on Remco's site you'll see things he says were called "phone cozies" or similar, that were basically cloth versions of that.   So yeah, remove it but keep it around as an "interesting historic artifact."

Those French phones have coil & capacitor but no ringer inside.  In residential installations there was a common ringer in the house somewhere.  One example I saw was marked Ericsson but the bells sounded exactly like an AE 80.  The bells are visible through cutouts at one end of the cover. 

The dials are basically exactly like AE except slightly larger, and the ratchet on the main gear typically has a rubber washer in a slot around its circumference to quiet the sound of the pawl. 

The transmitters are often scratchy and not particularly high-fidelity. 

To disassemble these phones:  Loosen screw at rear of baseplate, remove small cover to expose interior terminals and two large screws at corners.  Remove those screws, and then remove the small screw at front end of baseplate.  This enables baseplate to be removed from housing.   Everything is on the baseplate except the dial, which is connected by a cord to a 4-way terminal block on the interior of the baseplate.  Dial wire colors are blue, blue/white, red, red/white, I don't recall the schematic.

However a schematic is typically pasted inside the small rear part of the baseplate, that you would have removed as the first step in the disassembly. 

A two-wire connection is sufficient to make these work.  If you need an audible signal built-in, use a high-voltage AC buzzer (little round buzzer with black wires and a capacitor in a small enclosure along the wires), which will work though of course is not historically accurate.

LarryInMichigan

The phone arrived today, and it looks like I have quite a project.  The cover which was on it was not leather, but amateurishly cut polyester-backed vinyl and was GLUED to the bakelite.  I removed the vinyl, but the bakelite is left covered with glue and polyester fuzz.  I tried using denatured alcohol on one side, and it dissolved some of the glue, but cleaning the whole shell is going to take alot of time and effort that way.  I would appreciate any helpful suggestions on how to remove the glue.  The bakelite under the glue actually appears to be in reasonably good condition.

The bottom of the phone shows that it was made by Ericsson in 1949.  The transmitter and receiver elements have dates in the early/mid 1960s, and the dial has a date of 1970.  I tried connecting the phone to my phone line, and I was able to get a dial tone, but turning the dial does not break it.  The line cord has five conductors, and the wiring block on the bottom has a large number of terminals with several copper wire jumpers.  I cannot make out much from the schematic diagram on the inside cover, so I would be happy to find a legible wiring diagram.  The telephonecollectors.info only has diagrams for the S63 French phones.

Larry


Doug Rose

#7
Stripper.....make sure its bakelite by testing inside. It will take all the glue off. A fine steel wool and it will be beautiful. I removed a coat of black paint off a perfect North Galion today. Why someone would paint bakelite, I can't fathom. Bakelite came out shiny and smooth.

Give it a shot, otherwise part the hair on the phone in the middle!....Doug


Kidphone

LarryInMichigan

I hadn't thought about trying stripper.  I will have to give it a try.  The denatured alcohol is working, but it requires alot of effort.  I have had to strip black paint off of more bakelite phones than I can remember.  I even had a black soft plastic North with black paint, but the stripper is not safe for tenite..

I found some diagrams here: http://www.britishtelephones.com/frenchu43.htm, but the terminals don't quite match my phone.  It appears that the phone was designed to work in either local or common battery configurations.

Larry