Bell memo on the 5302 set

[rp2813]

Yeah, I know right where that cord is and I don't think spiders would be an issue.  I just don't have any need for it currently so for now it's doing its job as station wiring.  It won't be a major job if I ever need to retrieve it for its proper purpose.  I agree that these long cords are worth hanging on to.  Sometimes a standard length mounting cord isn't quite long enough for a particular job.

Ralph

[BDM]

I had to crawl under my brother old house to fix some plumbing long ago. He and I were covered with little critters when we came out. I've never looked at a crawl space the same since

[AET]

LOL, come on over and feel free to crawl under the house and claim that cord then!  It'll be a long time before I ever get at it!

Ralph

I'm not saying get the one you have. I'm sure that's quite a job. Plus the spiders might make things rough Just saying I've gotten out of the habit of trashing them out because they're not a modular cord or such. In fact, I've re-installed several 4 prong plugs around the house for just this reason.

Just a question from a youngster here, why did they do away with the 4 prong and go to the modular, also, does a 4-prong plug install as easy as a modular, and finally, do they still make them?

[McHeath]

I had to crawl under my brother old house to fix some plumbing long ago. He and I were covered with little critters when we came out. I've never looked at a crawl space the same since

I've been in crawl spaces back east, Texas to be exact, and it's not a pretty thing.  Bugs everywhere.  Here in the Great Dried Out Central Valley of Kawleefornya, where nothing is alive after June 1, the crawl space under my house is as quiet as a tomb, and I think it's totally bug free to boot.  A couple of years ago I retrieved a newspaper from when the house was built down there, found it under the office area, dated to July of 1966, it's an LA paper and other than being yellowed and dirty was in okay shape. 

Also found whiskey bottles from the previous owners son, guess he crawled under there to have a snort. 

[BDM]

LOL, come on over and feel free to crawl under the house and claim that cord then!  It'll be a long time before I ever get at it!

Ralph

I'm not saying get the one you have. I'm sure that's quite a job. Plus the spiders might make things rough Just saying I've gotten out of the habit of trashing them out because they're not a modular cord or such. In fact, I've re-installed several 4 prong plugs around the house for just this reason.

Just a question from a youngster here, why did they do away with the 4 prong and go to the modular, also, does a 4-prong plug install as easy as a modular, and finally, do they still make them?

Do they install easier? No harder, no easier. I find them easier to use. Plus you use nice thick gauge wire that lays nice, instead of modular wire that's stiff and seems to go where it wants. Yes, they still make them as I see them around. But I have so many old ones I've never had the need to buy.

[BDM]

McHeath. My brother lived near the Lake St Clair which is fairly large. Needless to say, it attracts all sorts of creepy crawlies. It's like spider city near the water, come July & August. Man, I was creeped out after that episode.

[bingster]

Just a question from a youngster here, why did they do away with the 4 prong and go to the modular, also, does a 4-prong plug install as easy as a modular, and finally, do they still make them?

Do they install easier? No harder, no easier. I find them easier to use. Plus you use nice thick gauge wire that lays nice, instead of modular wire that's stiff and seems to go where it wants. Yes, they still make them as I see them around. But I have so many old ones I've never had the need to buy.

I think they're easier to use, too.  No fumbling for the little clip when you want to unplug the cord--you just grab the big plug and pull.  Plus the fact that they can be used with a phone's original cord makes them totally worthwhile.

Modular jacks started coming in in the 1970s, but as with other Bell principles, it wasn't like the company went out to every house to change all the jacks.  If you had a modular phone installed, that phone's jack would have been changed, too.  For that reason, many older houses wound up with a mix of hardwired 44A connecting blocks, four-prong jacks and modular jacks.  Lots of houses never had any modern plug-in jacks, though, and only ever had 44A blocks.  Until the mid-1980s, anyway.

[BDM]

Ahh, Bing brings up a good point. I purchased my current home in 94 from the original owner, who was pretty old . It was built in 1950. It had a mix of modular and 4 prong jacks around the house. All the 4 prong jacks were still connected. On a side note, she left both W.E. 500s. One is a soft plastic black plunger mid 50s version, the other "was" a soft plastic, but was updated with a case feet and transmitter/receiver elements in 63.

It was strange, but when I looked at the home I noticed them, along with a couple of modern phones. I never thought about it nor cared. The one 500 was in the hallway, the other was in the basement. Then there were two modern phones, one in the bedroom and one in the living room.

The day I took ownership, she left several pieces of furniture including an old nice oak dinner table downstairs. Also, both old phones. She took the newer phones probably thinking she could unload those old junk 500s by leaving them with me. The one in the basement was still sitting on a counter. The other was on the floor in the hallway, still plugged in.

Last, my mothers home which was built in 32, was loaded with 4 prong, and hard wire block jacks all over. My father removed most of them. I have a few. One of the 4 prong jacks is dark brown bakelite, leading to believe it's probably a first type.

[AET]

I'm shocked, with all the houses I've lived in being built everywhere from the 1870s up till now, I've never came across anything BUT modulars!  I actually even have one adapter that changes a modular plug into a 4-prong before you plug it into the wall.

Anyone got photographic examples of these, as it is now something I will look for when I go out house hunting!  I will probably only have one modern phone just for instances where I may need a touch tone for automated phone services. 

[BDM]

It's the same size as a modular plug box. Instead, it has 4 holes to plug into in the front face.

[bingster]

I'm shocked, with all the houses I've lived in being built everywhere from the 1870s up till now, I've never came across anything BUT modulars! 

I cringe every time I say this because it makes me feel so old, but... It was before your time.    

It all changed in the mid-1980s, when the Bell System was destroyed.  Before then, in most places, the local Bell System company owned the entire telephone system.  That included every inch of telephone wiring inside your home, as well as the jacks, cords, and telephones.  After the mid-1980s, the house wiring, etc., belonged to the homeowners, who promptly went around changing their jacks so that they could plug in their newfangled Taiwanese throw-away telephones.  But before then... ahhh, those were the days.

The upper photo is a standard hard-wire type connecting block.  These were designed to be used with the wingband restraints found at the ends of 302 and hardwired 500 mounting cords.

The lower photo is a typical four-prong jack.

[AET]

I know it's before my time, and I hate that, because I try to be well-versed in these kindsa things, but I'm still learning.  I'm fascinated by everything from this era.  It's a shame they had to go and kill Ma Bell like that, it really is.  I like the idea of the 4-prong much more than the modular.  The whole modular thing don't make sense to me.

[McHeath]

In 1984 Pac Bell came into my folks place and changed all the phones to modular, plugs too.  They took the 500 and 554s and replaced them with 2554s and a 2500.  Mom did not want them to do that but they did.  I recall thinking the new modular plug was so freaking cool!!! Just super high tech, woo-hoo!  And I could buy a 25 foot black cord and plug it into the 2554 in the kitchen and shazam, talk to the homie krewe while sitting on the couch and watching A-Team.  It was the height of my career as a flaming youth. 

[rp2813]

So they came out in 1984 and modularized jacks and touchtoned all the phones too?  Without the subscriber making the request?  In these parts, there was an extra charge for touchtone service until the early 90's if I recall correctly, and there was no automatic change-out of rotary phones to touchtone.

[HobieSport]

So what happened to all the 500s and 554s that they swapped out?  We had a 500 in 1984 in North Calif and I don't remember what happened; if they gave us or sold us our 500, but it stayed in the house.  I do remember feeling some glee when we could actually choose to buy and own our own phones and hook up more than one phone in the house.