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AE 1A "Highboy"

Started by LarryInMichigan, November 07, 2014, 02:44:58 PM

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LarryInMichigan

A couple of weeks ago, I noticed an unusual AE 1A on the local craigslist for $65.  I contacted the seller, and since he is a 45+ minute drive from here, he agreed to ship the phone to me.  This one has a tall neck, and the dial is mounted on the outside of the shell (like on a WE B1) rather than being recessed like it is for the ones with the short necks.  The shell is bakelite, but the neck and cradle are metal.  The handset cord appears to be a genuine AE Extensicord.  The outer cloth covering is worn in numerous places, allowing the inner white cloth to show through, so I touched up the spots with a black marker to make them less noticeable.

The phone probably came from OPW, Phoneco, or the like.  It had a T1 transmitter in the handset, an AE mini network in the base, a ring inside the bottom plate to increase the amount of space in the base, probably for the network, and a cloth covered modular line cord.  The base was covered with thick brown felt.  The black paint was stripped off of the handset bands and the finger wheel.  The finger wheel had some ugly spots of corrosion, so I replaced it with a better looking one.

I didn't see this model in the few AE catalogs that I found online.  Were these made earlier than the 1As with the short neck?  Are they worth much more?

Larry



rdelius

I think this would be a 1 or 10 set.I think the redisigned set with the lower cradle and recessed dial base were the 1A. or 10A.parts were uasually bakelite on the newer sets but have seen the earlier base in bakelite.I do not know if the different base and cradle combinations were from the factory or rebuilding

LarryInMichigan

I see that the 1A and 11A with the short neck are shown in the 1934 AE catalog but no phones with the long necks appear there, so this model had apparently been discontinued by then.  The listing on the OPW page for the type 1 states: "The base of the phone was made of Bakelite while the handset mount was made of metal.".

Larry


AE_Collector

Knowing how AE seemed to operate, I wouldn't be surprised if there was no significant model number variation for metal versus bakelite bases on the 1A sets. I think that a model 1 is the round metal base and cradle with no capability of mounting a dial, the cradle is mounted in the centre of the base. I have seen short and high cradles on both AE1 and AE 1A sets. Whether the difference was styling or something else, I have no idea. I have always suspected tat the high cradles might be the original design and then the lower cradle was seen as adequate and looked much more stylish.

Terry

Jack Ryan

The AE 1 was released in 1925 - it consists of a Bakelite base, a surface mounting dial (or a "flush looking" Type 23 dial) and a tall metal cradle.

The AE 1-A was released in 1928 - it consists of a Bakelite body, a recessed dial and a short metal cradle.

Other changes came later - Bakelite cradles and an optional metal body was available for a short period in the 1930s.

There was a non dial version with a metal base and tall, centrally mounted cradle - the manual AE 1 as it was called in 1925. It was later renamed the AE 5 and when the short cradle version was released in 1928, it was called the AE 5-A.

Jack