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Uniphone No. 2, etc.

Started by DavePEI, March 11, 2011, 07:56:18 PM

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DavePEI

This is a black Northern Electric Uniphone No. 2 wall phone received this week along with a blue dial Contempora courtesy a website visitor for just the cost of shipping. This is the second No. 2 in the museum, the first is in the Burled Walnut colour. I have a number of Uniphones currently on display including Uniphone No. 1's in Black and Burled Walnut with type NU dial, and a number 4 and 5. I have at least two other uniphone no. 1's.

Now, for the details on this one. The Rx element is dated 4-9-51, Tx element dated 1-39, Ringer dated 8-6-51, and the handset 4-11-51.

I have not yet had a chance to buff the phone, but it will buff up nicely. All I have done so far is check it operationally, and removed some paint splatters.

These were sold to independant telephone companies, and you can still find a lot of them in the Atlantic Provinces, and in the Prairie Provinces. They are essentially a 302 built sideways.
Dave
The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island:
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit!
C*NET 1-651-0001

NorthernMan

Dave , do you know which Canadian telcos ordered this phone with the Siemen's Bros. dial . I know Manitoba had a lot of those dials, but not sure of any others. It seems odd not to have an N.E. dial on an N.E. phone. I guess the question is did MTS order these phones from Northern with S.B. dials installed at the factory ?

DavePEI

#2
Quote from: NorthernMan on March 11, 2011, 11:47:34 PM
Dave , do you know which Canadian telcos ordered this phone with the Siemen's Bros. dial . I know Manitoba had a lot of those dials, but not sure of any others. It seems odd not to have an N.E. dial on an N.E. phone. I guess the question is did MTS order these phones from Northern with S.B. dials installed at the factory ?

No, I don't. This was discussed on the TCI list recently.

The consensus is that Siemens dials were used by some Telcos following WWII during the peak of the automation of exchanges, because the demand for dials was at an all-time high. Most of those used may have been retrofits to dial-ready phones previously installed.

As with Strowger exchanges, Northern may not have been able to keep up with dial production during this peak, and as an expedient, Siemens were used. (e.g. here on PEI because of long lead times to get strowger exchanges here, PEI's first two automated exchanges installed in 1950 and 1952 here were Type 51 AEI Strowger exchanges ordered from Britain.) Don't forget that for each exchange updated to automatic, a huge number of dials were required, undoubtedly stressing Northern's manufacturing ability.

Northern was kind enough to provide drawings for the usage of Siemens (GPO)  dials on Uniphones, as you no doubt knew. My impression is also that more of the Western Uniphones present with Siemens dials - I still have to check all my Uniphone Nos. 1 & 2's (all Maritime phones) to see if their dials are Northern. This one for certain does have a Northern dial.

So, the question is still up in the air, and hopefully as more and more evidence surfaces, we will finally come to a conclusion!

Here on the Island, many Uniphones were installed at that time, as were many Northern Electric N293GPs (incidentally the N293GP I have here (which was one of the original Summerside dial phones) DOES have a Siemens dial).

Photos below: AEI switch which came to life in Summerside, PEI on February 9th, 1950. This was PEI's first automated exchange. I have a Type 51 AEI Strowger 1st Selector switch (XT 10616) here, as was used in this exchange. This switch remained in service until June 25, 1988, when the cut-over was made to a new Nortel DMS-100 system (photo also below), occupying less than 10% of the space taken by the original switch.

There is a delightful story about the activation day of this switch:

Dials had been previously installed on telephones throughout the city, and tied with strong cord to prevent their use prematurely. On inauguration day, customers were told to cut the cord and to begin using the dial. There is a delightful story about one lady who did just that, and the telephone company received a trouble call immediately from her next door neighbour - she had cut the cord alright - the cord to the handset:
The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island:
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit!
C*NET 1-651-0001

Phonesrfun

Dave:

Your photos and information are great!  Thanks for posting that.  This forum is getting richer all the time with historical information.

-Bill
-Bill G

NorthernMan

Thanks for the reply Dave. Great pictures and history, i especially like the idea of tying down a dial with string so you can't use them. Try doing that with a touchtone dial . LOL

DavePEI

#5
Along with the Uniphone Number 2 shown above, also I was given a Royal Blue, but severely discoloured Contempora phone just for the cost of postage from Nova Scotia. I spent a little while today on it, cleaning it up a bit and experimenting with it to see how it will respond to sanding. While I didn't even attempt to complete the job, I did get enough to show that it will respond quite nicely.

I am using the same technique shown with the blue AE182A on:

http://www.islandregister.com/phones/buffing.html

As you can see, there are a number of places un-touched so far,and it still needs a lot of work, but you should be able to get an idea how it is responding. I do have a number of other Contemporas, but this was the first one in this colour. It is worth a bit of work...
The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island:
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit!
C*NET 1-651-0001