Interesting Photographic Evidence

[Adam]

This phone was just posted to eBay.  As you can see, it's "farm fresh".  But it's also an interesting example of photographic evidence of how a Western Electric 591 was used by the installing phone company.

The 591 was made to be used by independent phone companies and supplied without a ringer.  What's interesting about these pics for me is that, even though I know these phones would end up with whatever ringers the end telephone company wanted to use, I've never before personally seen a Western Electric 591 with a ringer that was obviously not a Western Electric ringer.

This Western Electric 591 has a ringer that appears to have been made by Stromberg-Carlson.  Like I said, nothing you wouldn't expect for a 591, it's just that I've personally never seen one like this before.

[Phonesrfun]

It's also a fairly recent ringer (relatively, anyway) as evidenced by the thin, plastic insulated wires and the newer style coil bobbin on the ringer.