The Minty 53 500 arrived along with a Donut....

[JubileeCompact]

Hey guys
These arrived today... The 500 was £27/$44 and the Donut was £16/$25 both inc post as they were already over here !
Seamus

[HarrySmith]

Nice! That 500 looks to be in excellent shape. Pretty good find over there as I understand it not a lot of 500's made it across the pond at all, nevermind an early one! Enjoy!

[JubileeCompact]

Sadly the Donut won't dial out ( there's no tones . Reading the listing properly it was sold as display only. Anything I can check? We're TT sets still polarity dependant at this point?

[unbeldi]

Among collectors, the "Donut" is actually a completely different phone, much older.
This one actually has an official name and that was Sculptura.

I would open it up and take a look inside.  Before a certain time, I believe, many of the Design-Line models were sold to customers on the basis of ownership only to the external housing, while the telephonic components inside belonged to the telephone company.  When service was removed, the technician was instructed to remove the company-owned components, rendering the phone inoperative.

Perhaps yours is one of those.

On the other hand, the initial BSP specifies that the polarity guard was an optional accessory subject to order. So perhaps it was not installed.  Again, opening the set should resolve that question too.  Alternately, simply reverse the polarity of your phone line, although this should not matter to receive dial tone. The only aspect affected is dial pad operation.


PS:  Here a copy of the Bell System Practice with wiring diagram.

[JubileeCompact]

Well it has dial tone and you can call in but the keypad is totally dead so i'm hoping it's a polarity issue... I guess I can just swop the leads from the line cord jack on the phone round?
Seamus

[unbeldi]

Yes!

If you do have dial tone and the phone is operable as such, then you do have the guts of the phone.

[Janeiac]

Very nice find! I happen to have those two exact phones myself It was explained to me that polarity can indeed be an issue on the Sculptura; I had the wonderful Steve Hilsz go over mine and he said that's all that was needed. Now it works great, before it wouldn't dial. If you know how to do that, it seems a good thing to try.
I'm curious about something: I take it you are in the UK? Do American telephones work on the UK phone system, or do they need to be adapted? I was under the impression that the phone systems are different enough that the phones are not interchangeable, do I have the wrong idea?

[compubit]

One question: are the buttons "short throw" (where they "click" like a calculator - newer all-electronic) or "long throw" (where they depress about a quarter of an inch - older tuned coils). If it's the short throw, then the pad is bad; it it's the long throw, it's most likely a polarity issue.

Good luck!
Jim

[JubileeCompact]

As the button goes almost flush and doesn't really click i'd guess long- will reverse the wires and report back !
Seamus