News:

"The phone is a remarkably complex, simple device,
and very rarely ever needs repairs, once you fix them." - Dan/Panther

Main Menu

Bell / Western Electric - "Mod 1 Picturephone"

Started by MagicMo, November 18, 2012, 02:35:03 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

MagicMo

#75
Quote from: Dave F on November 23, 2012, 10:16:49 PM
The "timer" in the picture looks like an event counter, not an actual timer.  I recognize it as being similar to some that I have packed away.  It advances one digit per "event".  Without digging through the specs, we can only guess what it was counting.  Maybe it logged the number of times the system was used.

Maureen, your pictures are super.  It's hard to imagine having one of these sets casually operating in the kitchen!  Looking at the innards of the control unit, at appears from the multiple Amphenol connectors (excuse the tech lingo) that one control unit was capable of running more than one display.  It does seem that, at least for some period of time, you had at least two display units in your house.  This keeps getting better and better.  After I win your auction, I'll examine the control unit more completely and give you a report!

DF

Thanks DF!
I found this pic in the manual. It shows that it is a message register.
Thanks,
Maureen
Practice Kindness :)

Dave F

Quote from: MagicMo on November 23, 2012, 10:38:14 PM
Thanks DF!
I found this pic in the manual. It shows that it is a message register.
Thanks,
Maureen
Yup, a message register is an event counter.  Somewhere in your documentation it must say what it is counting.  Could be it is registering the number of times I have imagined possessing it!

MagicMo

Quote from: Dave F on November 23, 2012, 10:52:44 PM
Quote from: MagicMo on November 23, 2012, 10:38:14 PM
Thanks DF!
I found this pic in the manual. It shows that it is a message register.
Thanks,
Maureen
Yup, a message register is an event counter.  Somewhere in your documentation it must say what it is counting.  Could be it is registering the number of times I have imagined possessing it!
I think it is registering how many times you made me laugh!  ;D
Practice Kindness :)

Dave F

Quote from: MagicMo on November 23, 2012, 10:55:28 PM
I think it is registering how many times you made me laugh!  ;D
Gosh, I hope you're laughing with me and not at me.

DF

MagicMo

Quote from: Dave F on November 23, 2012, 11:02:18 PM
Quote from: MagicMo on November 23, 2012, 10:55:28 PM
I think it is registering how many times you made me laugh!  ;D
Gosh, I hope you're laughing with me and not at me.

DF

With you, of course! 818 and counting......
Practice Kindness :)

Dave F

Quote from: MagicMo on November 23, 2012, 11:05:59 PM
Quote from: Dave F on November 23, 2012, 11:02:18 PM
Quote from: MagicMo on November 23, 2012, 10:55:28 PM
I think it is registering how many times you made me laugh!  ;D
Gosh, I hope you're laughing with me and not at me.

DF

With you, of course! 818 and counting......
Whew, thank you.  Crying over the probability that I won't win your Picturephone is bad enough in itself.  Thinking that you were also laughing at me would be infinitely worse.

DF

AE_Collector

#81
I hadn't noticed the meter but now that I took a look at it, it looks like a typical telco "Peg Count Meter" that is used to count number of times something happens. Not sure why it would be in the power/control unit, especially if that unit can connect several picturephone units.

"Messages" also frequently refers to individual calls or call attemps so most likely it simply recorded the total number of calls connected between two units I would think.

Terry

Dave F

Quote from: AE_collector on November 23, 2012, 11:24:58 PM
I hadn't noticed the meter but now that I took a look at it, it looks like a typical telco "Peg Count Meter" tha tis used to count number of times something happens. Not sure why it would be in the power/control unit, especially if that unit can connect several picturephone units.

Terry
Remember that the Mod 1 Picturephone was always a research/demonstration effort.  These were never intended to be put into general use.  As such, they probably included the counter for engineering/reliability purposes, although we still don't know just what they were counting.

Dave F

Quote from: Dave F on November 23, 2012, 10:30:16 PM
Quote from: Phonesrfun on November 23, 2012, 10:25:21 PM
Now that I look at it more closely, it does look like it may be an event counter.  If it has a button that you can push to reset to all zeroes, it would be a counter for sure.  I cannot see the photo clearly enough to tell on my laptop.
It's almost certainly an event counter.  I'll try to dig one out from storage and post a clear picture tomorrow.

DF
Good morning all,

Well, I spent some time this morning looking through boxes for that message register and, as any experienced collector would expect, it wasn't anywhere I thought it might be.  You would think that after so many years of involvement with this stuff, that should not come as a big surprise to me.  But, while moving boxes around, I did manage to break a nice glass aquarium tank lid, so I guess the morning wasn't a complete waste of time after all.  There are still other places to search, but they are tougher to get to and will take extra time and motivation.  They are also near where my glass x-ray tube collection is stored, and I would really prefer not to break any of those.  Really.  So, my apologies, but there will be a delay in showing you the message register.  However, I can tell you in advance that it looks quite similar to the one in Maureen's Picturephone control unit.

DF

Phonesrfun

-Bill G

Dave F

Quote from: Phonesrfun on November 24, 2012, 12:12:47 PM
I'd say stop before the fish die.   :o
I could stop looking, but what good is having these things if we can't show them to anybody?!

Dan/Panther

If I recall correctly, wasn't the Picturephone introduced to the public, at the 1964 New York Worlds Fair ?
Maybe you have the actual phone set up used there ?
That could make the unit, astronomically valuable.
I would be curious if the Smithsonian has one on display ?
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

Dan/Panther

Quote from: Dave F on November 21, 2012, 11:50:05 AM
I remember seeing the Picturephone at the Bell System exhibit in Tomorrowland at Disneyland, back in 1964.  They would select visitors at random and let them talk to whoever was at the unit on the far end of the line (The World's Fair in New York).   This, they declared, was the future of telephony.  It was very cool, especially to a budding phone collector.  There were only a couple hundred of these Type 1 Picturephones made.  They were not mass-produced, but were painstakingly individually constructed by hand.  A friend of mine, who has more than one of these sets, says that they are internally quite primitive.  For a variety of reasons, economic and otherwise, Picturephone service was never a success.  Bell System poured tens of millions of dollars into this loser of a project, both with the Type 1 and the more advanced Type 2 a few years later.  I remember being in an electronic surplus store here in L.A. in the early 80s.  They had a pile (at least a couple dozen) Type 2 Picturephones which they couldn't even sell for parts.  Looking back, it appears I made a mistake by not picking up a few.  Maybe I'll get lucky and wind up with this one!

Dave;
I recall that very well at the Bell Exhibit in Tomorrowland. Being the spoiled rotten son of a Disneyland employee, I was one of the lucky ones, that got the privilege to talk to some tourists at the Worlds Fair.
I also recall a display, that challenged you to try to out dial the pushbutton phone. The lady would give you a head start, and beat you every time.

D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

Dave F

Quote from: Dan/Panther on November 24, 2012, 03:18:34 PM
If I recall correctly, wasn't the Picturephone introduced to the public, at the 1964 New York Worlds Fair ?
Maybe you have the actual phone set up used there ?
That could make the unit, astronomically valuable.
I would be curious if the Smithsonian has one on display ?
D/P
Yes, Picturephone was officially introduced at the 1964 NY World's Fair, although sets had been in use in Bell Labs offices for at least two prior years.  I don't know how many nodes existed, but one was definitely at Disneyland.

If you are referring here to Maureen's set, it was installed in a major office building in Chicago, not in NY.  But that does not detract a single bit from its rarity or value.  In fact, the provenance provided by Maureen's memories and photos surely increases its desirability.

As far as the Smithsonian is concerned, either they already have one, or they don't particularly want one.  The big problem there is that if they were to receive one at this late date, it would certainly end up in a crate in some dusty warehouse, maybe never to be seen again.  Makes me think of the scene at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Dave F

#89
Quote from: Dan/Panther on November 24, 2012, 03:31:27 PM
Dave;
I recall that very well at the Bell Exhibit in Tomorrowland. Being the spoiled rotten son of a Disneyland employee, I was one of the lucky ones, that got the privilege to talk to some tourists at the Worlds Fair.
I also recall a display, that challenged you to try to out dial the pushbutton phone. The lady would give you a head start, and beat you every time.

D/P
Then you probably also remember the Bell System tic-tac-toe computer in Tomorrowland.  This was pre-semiconductor logic, and the entire thing was made from WECo relays.  You could play against the computer and watch the relays click behind the clear panel.  You couldn't win, but you could draw if you didn't make any mistakes.

DF