Bell Telephone London

[Fabius]

I bought this phone on the Goodwill website. It is marked on the hand set:
Bell Telephone London.

Can someone please give me some information on it? Thanks.

[Jack Ryan]

It looks like a reproduction of the BTMC No 73639.

Jack

[Fabius]

It looks like a reproduction of the BTMC No 73639.

Jack

Thanks for the response. By reproduction you mean fake? I haven't received the phone yet. But from the picture the handset looks legit. Will have to wait to see about the base.

[Matilo Telephones]

Sorry, Fabius, but the handset looks repro to me too. The transmitter part is too thick. Looks like it holds a cap. The originals are usually thinner, because the transmitter is an integral part of the handset.
Also the grip is smooth instead of ridged. That is uncommon for an Original one, but more common for a repro.

Furthermore it is a bit of a mishmash. ERicsson type handset, Danish type finger brackets on the stem. English type dial.

And the combination of Bell and London is odd. Was there ever a company called Bell in London?

Anyway, you'll know what it is when you get it.

[unbeldi]

Bell set up a presence in London very early on.

Peter Young briefly described it in the first chapter of his book Power Of Speech, which is primarily a history of STC in England.

They did set up the first exchange in London, but this was a long time before machine switching with dials, and it did not last long. After BTMC was established in Belgium,  they went back to London and made telephones.

I am sure the details of the phone will tell more.

[twocvbloke]

The Bell presence as far as I'm aware was called the National Telephone Company (or NTC), which later was swallowed up by the GPO, but never progressed to automatic telephones with handsets before the NTC was absorbed into the GPO, so it could be a repro, the dial certainly looks a bit out of place for a company that never had dial service...

[unbeldi]

The Bell presence as far as I'm aware was called the National Telephone Company (or NTC), which later was swallowed up by the GPO, but never progressed to automatic telephones with handsets before the NTC was absorbed into the GPO, so it could be a repro, the dial certainly looks a bit out of place for a company that never had dial service...

Young names the first Bell establishment as "The Telephone Company", and this was still in the late 1870s. The first exchange was established in 79, and the first European telephone book published in 80.
NTC was founded ca. 1880/1 and was a subsidiary of another British company, UTC.   The website Bob's Old Phones describes National more, but I don't know about the accuracy and haven't read the references given.


PS:   Ok, reading a little more of that website,  NTC indeed arose from The Telephone Company.  Edison had set up shop in England too, and competed against Bell. When the two realized that it was futile to fight patent wars, they merged and created UTC,  which spun off a subsidiary, National, to serve a certain territory.

PS: In any case...  this telephone doesn't resembles anything that would have been produced this early, even without the dial.

[rdelius]

That is a made in India fake.They almost always put phony mfgs and dates on them.See if the dial is a ITI type 24

[Jack Ryan]

Tom,

By reproduction I did mean fake. The dial is probably an original (Indian) ITI Type 24C but the rest is reproduction.

Everything that I have seen with Bell London written on it has been a reproduction. Bell was represented in the UK early on but it very soon became British Western Electric and in 1925 that was sold to ITT and became Standard Telephones and Cables.

Jack

[Fabius]

Tom,

By reproduction I did mean fake. The dial is probably an original (Indian) ITI Type 24C but the rest is reproduction.

Everything that I have seen with Bell London written on it has been a reproduction. Bell was represented in the UK early on but it very soon became British Western Electric and in 1925 that was sold to ITT and became Standard Telephones and Cables.

Jack

[Jack Ryan]

Fabius,

If you had the original of that painting it would certainly cover any financial loss you might have made on the telephone.

Jack

[Fabius]

Fabius,

If you had the original of that painting it would certainly cover any financial loss you might have made on the telephone.

Jack

True. Maybe they'll give me a refund.

[andre_janew]

Maybe you can write it off as a charitable contribution.  After all, didn't the money go to Goodwill?  Or did I misunderstand something?

[Fabius]

Yes, Goodwill.

[Fabius]

I received the telephone and sent it to the Royal Society of Scientists in London, England. After carefully analyzing the telephone and subjecting it to extensive metallurgical and radiocarbon testing the board of scientist have concluded beyond a reasonable doubt that the Bell Telephone London I received: