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Koiled Kord original to AE40?

Started by Maynard, January 14, 2012, 01:31:58 AM

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Maynard

I was polishing one of my AE40s tonight, and decided to remove the handset cord. Found the Koiled Kord tag on the handset end. Was KK an OEM for AE? Are they still made for phones? I found the manufacturer or "a" manufacturer that is still using the name, but their offerings didn't seem to be phone cords. Or do I need a tag with the AE label to be correct?

This cord is splitting in the usual places. Where can I find the shiny shrink wrap tubing and is that the right way to go about repairing it? Also, should there be any grommets in the body and handset holes? They seem over-sized for the cords, and I'm thinking that contributes to the wear that causes the splits.

Thanks all for the help.

G-Man

Quote from: Maynard on January 14, 2012, 01:31:58 AM
I was polishing one of my AE40s tonight, and decided to remove the handset cord. Found the Koiled Kord tag on the handset end. Was KK an OEM for AE? Are they still made for phones? I found the manufacturer or "a" manufacturer that is still using the name, but their offerings didn't seem to be phone cords. Or do I need a tag with the AE label to be correct?

This cord is splitting in the usual places. Where can I find the shiny shrink wrap tubing and is that the right way to go about repairing it? Also, should there be any grommets in the body and handset holes? They seem over-sized for the cords, and I'm thinking that contributes to the wear that causes the splits.

Thanks all for the help.

I seem to recall that Whitney Blake introduced the  Koiled Kord and Kellogg licensed the rights to it.

Koiled Kords were manufactured to fit the various models of the major telephone manufacturers and you will find them listed in A.E., Stromberg Carlson and other catalogs.

Despite statements that the Koiled Kord was the first retractile handset cord, Western Electric and others manufactured their own versions earlier, but the Koiled Kord outlasted them by retaining their shape much longer.






GG



I've seen Koiled Kords on AE 40s and Kellogg 1000s.  Seems to me that what happened was:

A telco would buy a bunch of 40s and 1000s when they came with stock straight handset cords from the manufacturer.  Over time as these phones came back to the shop for refurb or repairs, the telco would keep a stock of Koiled Kords to replace damaged original cords.  Subscribers could also request Koiled Cords be added to their existing phones for whatever price the telco charged. 

What I do for old handset cords that are damaged near their ends:

Cut off the cord at the point of the damage.  Take the short length that has the strain relief and spade lugs, and carefully remove them from the cord and wires.  Then cut the jacket off the good end to expose the interior wires, re-terminate the interior wires with the original spade lugs, and re-fasten the strain relief at the appropriate location.  Result is a cord that's good as new and only a few inches shorter.

If a cord is damaged toward the middle I just replace it and keep the old cord in my stash of "damaged but not to be discarded" material. 

Maynard

I thought about shortening it, and may go with that idea. Another owned AE40 with a coiled cord has what looks like a repair with shrink tubing in a way that a telco shop might have done. I'm okay with that look, too.

Your response suggests to me that the phone may have had a straight cord originally. Maybe my assumptions are wrong about the age of the unit or time of the introduction of coiled cords as standard equipment. Were straight cords still manufacturer issue on the AE40 into the 1950s? The base plate has a stamp rather than a decal. Does that indicate a later manufacturing date?

Thanks for the responses. I'm new at this.

G-Man

Coiled cords were optional from the factory up into the '60s so it is difficult to say whether your A.E. 40 was originally equipped with it or not.

As I previously stated, even though the were manufactured by Whitney Blake and latter licensed to Kellogg, the other major manufacturers also distributed them to their customers.

I do not have my earlier A.E. 40 catalogs in front of me but looking at a 1957 A.E. Catalog shows for example a straight handset cord for A.E. 80 and 90 telephones were standard, while Koiled Kords were an additional 50-cents.

G-Man

Quote from: G-Man on January 14, 2012, 01:37:43 PM
Coiled cords were optional from the factory up into the '60s so it is difficult to say whether your A.E. 40 was originally equipped with it or not.

As I previously stated, even though the were manufactured by Whitney Blake and latter licensed to Kellogg, the other major manufacturers also distributed them to their customers.

I do not have my earlier A.E. 40 catalogs in front of me but looking at a 1957 A.E. Catalog shows for example a straight handset cord for A.E. 80 and 90 telephones were standard, while Koiled Kords were an additional 50-cents.

Additional-

The same A.E. catalog shows that the Koiled Kord brand of replacement handset cords were also offered for Kellogg, North Electric, Leich, Stromberg Carlson, and Western Electric telephones.




AE_Collector

#6
I am sure that there were 40's and 50's equipped from the factory with Koiled Kords at the same time as straight handset cords were still available. The AE 40 was still being manufactured for several more years while the new AE 80's were in production.

Early AE handset cords that I have seen usually didn't have any sort of grommet or strain relief over the cord. Maybe it was once vinyl cords arrived that they began to include the strain relief over the cord where it entered the handset.

Very little is known about how to date the AE 40 & 50 generation of phones. I have a survey in progress to try to ID more of the coding from the bases of these phones. See this topic:

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=5514.msg67058#msg67058

Hopefully the various ways the phones are equipped will one day be able to be used to narrow down the approximate date of manufacture.

Terry

Maynard

Thanks guys.

Terry, I'd read your posts about the database you're assembling, and in those posts learned about the difficulty in determining age of AEs. I'll send you the info on the 2 AE40s I own and any others I get. Where are the survey results? Did I read they're in Excel? I do Excel.

AE_Collector

There are no "results" yet, I am just taking contributions and adding them to a database for now.

"John S" here on the forum helped me make a more user friendly spreadsheet for people to use to send me contributions. I could send it to you to fill in the info from your AE's.

Terry

Maynard

I'll take it. Send it to me as a PM if that's possible or hit me up for my e-mail address.

I love research and happy to enable anyone with the same disease.

AE_Collector

Quote from: Maynard on January 14, 2012, 11:10:57 PM
I'll take it. Send it to me as a PM if that's possible or hit me up for my e-mail address.

I love research and happy to enable anyone with the same disease.

PM sent....

Terry