I need help indentifying this phone.

[boblysom]

Can someone please tell what model this old phone is? All I can find that is close is a AUTOMATIC ELECTRIC COMPANY #40. But I can't seem to find onE that has 2 lines like this one?? Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!! It the following numbers on the bottom along with what I think is either a production date or a re-furbush date of?
L4111ESL 10-57-7 MONOPHONE

[Steve K]

It's an AE 47 and it is actually a three line key phone.

Steve

[HobieSport]

Welcome boblysom, and that's a cool phone. I have a bunch of regular AE 40s that I'm about to refurbish, but your three line AE 47 is something I don't see very often.

[Dennis Markham]

Welcome to the Forum Boblysom.  I don't have any personal experience with that model of Automatic Electric, but you can find a schematic at the Telephone Collectors International site here:

http://www.telephonecollectors.org/library/aeco/aeco.htm

Very nice looking telephone!

[boblysom]

Thanks for the info and the welcomes. I inherited this phone, a AE34, a 70's ericofon and a plain jane 60's/70's wall phone. Now for the inexperienced question. Any idea what this and the AE34 might be worth? The AE34 looks older than this phone and hasn't been touched in over 40 years like this one. Here's a few pics of the AE34.

[Dennis Markham]

The A.E. 34 is a very nice phone.  Just search eBay's completed listings and you may get an idea.  If I were going to guess I'd say in today's market it would go in the $100-150 range, maybe less, maybe more depending on the weather.

[HobieSport]

It's hard to put a real price on phones in general, other than taking averages on Ebay, which can be all over the map, so you never really know. The book "Telephones Antique to Modern" has the AE 47 listed between $75-$150, though $150 sounds like a lot to me.

The AE 34 is indeed an older and harder to find phone than the AE 40 series, especially with the nice chrome bands. I personally wouldn't be surprised if a working and cleaned up AE 34 like yours sold for $200 or more, but like I say you never know.

Some Ericophones can bring high prices too, depending on rarity, colors, etc., so that's also worth researching.

By the way, who did you inherit these fine old phones from and where can I find relatives like that?

[mienaichizu]

Hi there, welcome to the forum, those 2 are great phones

[boblysom]

I've looked on joke bay and  it wasn't a lot of help for the 47. The 34's seem to be going for decent money. I was just curious if there was a guide of some sort for pricing. I inherited them from my grandfather. He worked for the local phone company before I was born. Him and his work partner were doing installs one day back in the early 60's and were in some sort of tunnel that ran below the building and under the rest in the block. They took a walk when they were done and ended up at the entrance to a old hotel that had been closed for years. They walked around in it and the place looked like something from a doomsday movie. Most of the place looked like everyone left and never came back. Room beds were still intact. TV's were gone or smashed but they found some different old phones, pay phones etc. I sold the pay phone for him years ago on joke bay. But these phones were just found in some of his stuff the family was going through. Well thanks again for the info I guess I have more searching to do.

[Dan/Panther]

Boblysom;
Welcome to our forum.
That AE47 seems a little rare, the firrst I've seen. Very nice.
D/P

[GG]

That AE 41 (or 47 if you prefer) is designed for 2 CO lines with hold buttons and optionally a 3d line or more often intercom line on the plunger near the cradle (pull it up to access the 3d line, or press it down as a momentary contact switch).  I have a couple of those, one of which is in regular use.  Servicing the dials on those is a nightmare due to having to remove the complex interlocking key mechanism related to the line & hold switches in order to get to the dial. 

They are highly practical for 2-line service.  Use a station buzzer (black leads, not blue) for Line 2, or a ringer box on the wall, or another 2-line set with ringer wired across line 2.   On a PBX, program a 2-line extension hunt group (or use Call Forward Busy on each of two extensions) and the phone can be reached from a single extension number.

On current-generation Panasonic PBXs (e.g. the small TDA-50 that can be used as a residential PBX), program an ICD group to ring two extensions, and then put the ringer across Line 2 on the phone.  When the bell rings, answer on Line 1, thereby enabling a 2nd call to ring audibly on Line 2.  Also use Line 1 preferentially for outgoing calls, so an incoming call can ring the bell on Line 2.  Do Not try to ring multiple bells in parallel from any modern PBX, the ringing power supplies are not designed to handle that scenario. 

Audio on those is decent, but for even better outgoing audio you might consider replacing the type 41 transmitter with a type 810 transmitter from an AE 80-E.   Also highly useful to attach a varistor (or a set of 1N914 diodes) across the receiver terminals to save your ears from loud clicks. 

The AE type 34, even though 80 years old on average, sounds better than a cellphone.  I get a perverse satisfaction when using mine and someone hears the somewhat low-fidelity audio and asks "what are you talking to me on?", replying "does this sound better or worse than a cellphone?" and when they say "a bit better," I reply "this one is about 80 years old."