plastic backboards/plates for 554 & trimline wall units

[princessphone]

More questions. I noticed on EBay that several vendors are selling plastic rectangular backboards for wall phones (Trimline and 554 ?). They have offset rectangular cutouts in them. They come in matching WE phone colours. What is their purpose? To prevent smudging the walls like door plates? Or was it more to do with aesthetics? Were they popular accessories? Until now I didn't  know that they even existed. Did Ma Bell actually charge a monthly fee for them? I don't know the dimensions of them but it appears that the 554 units would cover most of these plates up. I think that the Trimline units would be a better fit.
I do recall in the early seventies we had a Bell wall unit in the kitchen installed by Bell. It did have a metal or plastic mounting plate, however there was still a big gap between the wall and phone. I do remember complaining about it but Bell's response was "it is what it is". Thanks, John DeJonge
PS  To paul-f, polar1 and jsowens: Thanks for answers to my handset and cord queries.   
   

[unbeldi]

The use of backboards goes back to since phones were mounted on walls.
There were backboards for every size of device that could be mounted on a wall.  It was to provide a suitable stable surface for mounting the telephone, which is often more difficult on surfaces like masonry, for example.

Here is some discussion on wooden backboards for 554 sets:
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=1510.msg107733#msg107733

The plastic ones arrived in the 1960s (early?). Later they included special features for modular sets, to easily attach the phone to the board.

[jsowers]

The big backboards for the Trimlines and 2554s were likely used to cover the area previously occupied by a 554 so there wouldn't be an unpainted spot on the wall. Plenty of people upgraded phones over the years and in the days of hard-wired phones, people didn't take the phone off the wall when they painted.

[princessphone]

That makes sense since these relatively thin plates would not play a supportive function for the phone. From looking at the pictures I can't even spot any mounting screw holes in the plates. Thanks, John
PS  Painters today haven't changed much ether. They painted over all my phone jacks, too lazy to pop off the caps.   

[Phonesrfun]

As you mentioned about your wall phone from the 1970's, once the phone company went modular, the ever present stainless steel wall mount made mounting and dismounting a wall phone in the kitchen a piece of cake.  Once new houses and apartments were built with a standard sized "mud ring" for the mounting plate, phones were equipped with the mounting back plate to make it a cinch to replace the phone.  Later, when phones were being sold at phone center stores, the home owner could replace a wall phone with no problem.  Prior to that, only phone company installers were supposed to change out any phone and only those who felt mechanically inclined would even think about messing with a wall phone themselves, even at the peril of being chastised by Ma Bell.

[princessphone]

What is a mud ring?
John

[TelePlay]

What is a mud ring?
John

That would be the ring that would be "inserted into" and attached to a wall to protect the edges of a hole cut into the wall. The ring provides a good support for the telephone socket being used. The ring has pre-threaded holes on the top and the bottom for the telephone socket. Not a box as used for an electrical outlet or switch, but just the ring.

Here's one example of the different styles.

[Dennis Markham]

I purchased some of those backboards in assorted colors five or six years ago at the Mason, MI telephone show for 99c apiece.  They were still in their original plastic packages.  I have a Red one on my kitchen wall now behind one of my 1957 554's.  Here's a photo of a 354 that I put together for our Forum predecessor, Mark Stevens back in 2008.  I added a 228 back plate so the phone could hang on a wall jack.  On future restorations I painted the back plate black which really improved the look while hanging on the wall.

~Dennis

[Phonesrfun]

Back to the mud ring for a moment;
When a home, apartment or a room is being built and still in the framing stages, the electricians wire the home, etc for power and other elctrical appliances, including phones, cable, Internet and a variety of other things.

State electrical codes require power to be wired in electrical boxes.  Most states do not require electrical boxes to be used for low-voltage wiring such as phones, internet or cable.  However, a designated place on the wall is needed for the wire to terminate and also have screw holes for a wall plate of some kind once the walls are up.  One could use an electrical box, but they are more expensive for the contractor to put in, so a very inexpensive item called a mud ring is used that has the same dimensions as an electrical box, and serves much the same purpose, except it is not an enclosure like a box.

The mud ring provides a uniform hole in the wall that the wire can come out of and be terminated with a variety of wall plates for whatever the application might be.

I guess they call it a mud ring because after the sheetrock walls are up, the guys come in and tape the seams and use "mud" to create a smooth and uninterrupted surface over all the seams of the sheetrock.  The mud guys just slap the mud up, trowel around it and when dry, sand it to an even finish.  Without the mud ring, there would probably only be a small opening and the mud guys might inadvertantly mud over it and seal up the hole.  That's the only reason I can think of for it to be called a mud ring.. Maybe wikipedia might know....

[princessphone]

Thanks for all the info. The picture of the mud ring really helped and will be very usefull for me. I have so much to learn.
John DeJonge
PS   Dennis, that black backplate behind your black wall phone is a real nice finnishing touch.

[GusHerb]

The red Trimline on my grandmas family room wall had a backplate behind it, and when I removed it I found the outline to the 554 that had been there before that. I installed a wall mount jack and have a 554 up there again lol.

[poplar1]

WE coded these "191C Backboards."

http://www.ebay.com/itm/181628195112

[skyrider]

I was the winner of this action. I'm finally getting around to setting up a display of my collection and will use these backboards for my 554, 2554, and AC1 wall phones. I think they will display nice this way. The first six months I worked for Southern Bell in Fort Lauderdale in 1973 I was in a prewire crew and wired condos,  apartments, and houses for telephone service. We used mostly mud rings and shallow boxes for jacks. We used quad, 3 pair, 6 pair wire. This was in the days where only Doctors and business people had more than one phone line. Over the years I have removed backboards whenever I could find them. While in the New Orleans area after Katrina I got a few panel phones and backboards from houses where the drywall had been removed replacing then with 630 jacks and plastic electrical type box. Yes I did so with permission of home owners. I also collected some A1 key equipment from meter rooms in old buildings.  Bill