Saw this on CL. Price isn't right, but wondered what it is exactly.
http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/atq/2350673573.html (http://seattle.craigslist.org/tac/atq/2350673573.html) ( dead link 04-02-21 )
Old Automatic Electric Telephone - $250 (Purdy, Wa.)
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Date: 2011-04-28, 5:45AM PDT
Reply to: sale-hdbdg-2350673573@craigslist.org
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This Telephone is a Automatic Electric Co." Monophone". I spent a lot of time trying to research this phone and never did find one exactly like this one. All the examples I saw that looked to be the same model had coin slots on them. This one never did. And there are other differences also. I was lucky enough to be able to talk with the person that got it from where it was originally installed and everything made sense. The crude and ugly mounts and the lack of coin slots make perfect sense when you consider this unit was taken out of a bomb shelter! I have never hooked it up or even wiped the dust off of it but the dial seems to work fine and the trap or whatever you call it for the hand piece works like it is supposed to. It seems to all be there, but there are 4 vacant screw holes on the face, the two at the top don't look like they were ever used for that particular application, the third one from the top is definitely missing a screw that used to be there and the one at the bottom, it hides dead center right behind the hand piece cord, I can't tell by looking at it whether there ever was a screw there or not. I have not ever opened it up but I would have to honestly lean toward there was. The screw pattern is basically the same as the upper hand piece retainer and the upper one has a screw there. It seems to be in fairly good condition and I would bet that "mechanically", there is nothing wrong with it..
•Location: Purdy, Wa.
•it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests
Not a bomb shelter phone. If you're in a bomb shelter you are not expecting the bombs to be able to knock your phones off the wall, otherwise the bomb managed to blow up the shelter and you're dead too.
Most likely a phone that would be used onboard a ship: the special handset cradle is typical of shipboard phones to prevent them being knocked off hook during rough seas. If it was US Navy it would be labeled as such on a nameplate somewhere; otherwise civilian.
Small probability it was sealed for use in hazardous atmospheres (coal mines, grain elevators, chemical plants), but those types of sets follow a few basic patterns and this does not appear to be one of them.
I think it is a ship's phone also.
AE made a lot of Naval Phones.
Jim
Briny...I have one just like it, definitely from a ship. It is such a cool looking phone. i always get compliments about it. It is just a different phone...Doug
And don't forget the typically military dial with white numbers only on black background.
Terry