Interesting WE fingerwheel

[Sargeguy]

I recently purchased about thirty WE brass fingerwheels and as I was scanning them to put up on eBay I noticed the green TELCO PROPERTY stamp.  This stamp seems to turn up in the oddest places.

[unbeldi]

Indeed, they turn up in the oddest of places.  I found one inside a 625A transmitter.

The way I understand it, the stamps were place on equipment that was returned by a telephone company to a WECo center for refurbishment.

I believe these were called class "C stock".

[Sargeguy]

That would explain it.  The wheels I have are either old repaints or in need of re-painting.  I wonder if they discarded the brass in favor of more modern aluminum?

[Sargeguy]

The way I understand it, the stamps were place on equipment that was returned by a telephone company to a WECo center for refurbishment.

That does not explain it's use here:



...on the back of this sign:

[tallguy58]

I'm sure tons of those brass fingerwheels were collected by WECO when refurbs came back so that the metal could be donated to the war effort.

Seems they needed tons of brass and copper for artillery shells.

Probably why they're scarce today. Same reason why old comics are rare....wartime paper drives.