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Kellogg Red Bar Wall Phone

Started by LarryInMichigan, July 11, 2013, 09:22:53 AM

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LarryInMichigan

I finally got a Kellogg Red bar wall phone in decent condition.  It cost me a total of $32.  The bakelite shell is mostly in very good condition with some scratches on one side and a small piece missing from the back edge in one spot.  These shells are amazingly thin and flimsy, so it's a wonder that any survived.  The handset which came with the phone is somewhat worn and rough, so I might look through my piles of stuff for a replacement.

What is interesting about this phone is that the shell only has one opening for a cord which is next to the terminals for the handset cord.  On the opposite side, where the line terminals are, there is no opening, but I have another (badly broken) shell which has a proper opening in that spot.  There are no openings in the base plate to accommodate station wire.  I did notice that the base plate on this phone is stamped "1000", which would indicate that it belongs on a desk version, but both versions supposedly used the same base plate.  I then looked at my three desk version Red Bars, and I noticed that two of them have an opening in the base plate right below the line terminals, so it would appear that Kellogg moved the opening from the shell to the base plate (or vice versa?) at some point.  Also, I have the wrong bottom for this shell

The ringer in this phone is a 30 Hz frequency ringer, which is also indicated by the "HB1" on the bottom.  I was able to make it work on my phone line by moving the long, heavy clapper head outward.

Larry