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Gray Telephone Photos

Started by paul-f, September 03, 2010, 11:24:28 AM

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Dan

Here's my three

A nice two tone oxford grey



A nice soft tenite plastic 1958



A 1984 French model with an extra mother in law receiver.....

"Imagine how weird telephones would look if our ears weren't so close to our mouths." - Steven Wright

Kenny C

Love the Oxford Gray

And while we are at it what is the proper spelling of it is it Gray or Grey?
In memory of
  Marie B.
1926-2010

Dan

I tend to go grey. I do like the british spelling of colour, favour, honour  (America took out the U for some reason).
"Imagine how weird telephones would look if our ears weren't so close to our mouths." - Steven Wright

paul-f

Quote from: Kennyc1955 on September 03, 2010, 11:19:16 PM
Love the Oxford Gray

And while we are at it what is the proper spelling of it is it Gray or Grey?

Grammatically, either is proper in the U.S.

Western Electric and most other U.S. phone companies seem to have used "gray."
Visit: paul-f.com         WE  500  Design_Line

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paul-f

Quote from: Dan on September 03, 2010, 11:16:28 PM
<snip>

A nice two tone oxford grey


Nice phone, Dan.  I have a "full color" set that was made before they had the matching dial bezel -- so they shipped them with gray handset and cord, but a black dial.  It apparently took them several years to get all the components produced in all the colors.  Two tone sets could be ordered for several years after full color sets were finally available.

Thanks also for showing a European phone.  I'm sure there are many other gray sets from outside the U.S.
Visit: paul-f.com         WE  500  Design_Line

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JorgeAmely

Quote from: paul-f on September 03, 2010, 09:08:01 PM
2500s started appearing in about 1967.

I'm sure everyone will recognize this group.

Paul:

Very nice display of gray colored phones. What is the purpose of the rectangular box to the right of the picture? Multi-line selector?
Jorge

paul-f

Correct, Jorge.

It's a standard 6050 key -- basically the same key assembly as in a 565-style key set.  And in a gray case, of course.  It adapts the single line 2554 (in this case) for multiple lines, hold and possibly intercom line(s) on a 1A2 system.
Visit: paul-f.com         WE  500  Design_Line

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Dan

[
[/quote]

Nice phone, Dan.  I have a "full color" set that was made before they had the matching dial bezel -- so they shipped them with gray handset and cord, but a black dial.  It apparently took them several years to get all the components produced in all the colors.  Two tone sets could be ordered for several years after full color sets were finally available.




Thanks, Paul,  my dial bezel is actually black (the picture looks grey).  Did your two tone style come before or after my style?
"Imagine how weird telephones would look if our ears weren't so close to our mouths." - Steven Wright

paul-f

Dan,

It makes sense that the bezel on yours is black, as the fingerwheel is clearly black.  A gray bezel (or any other non-black color) would have a clear fingerwheel.

Yours could have been made either earlier or later than mine.  Two tone sets were made from the introduction of the color sets, while full color sets came along later, as the matching parts became available.  The two tone sets could be special ordered for years after full color was available.  After the factory stopped making them, black sets were converted to two tone in the distribution houses or by the installers -- simply by swapping the housings.
Visit: paul-f.com         WE  500  Design_Line

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Dan

"Imagine how weird telephones would look if our ears weren't so close to our mouths." - Steven Wright

Doug Rose

#40
I only have one, a Connecticut Toaster phone. It is thermoplastic and not painted. With the Toaster thread going, its a double play. These are really cool where the majority were made of heavy metal and this is thermoplastic. Real cool original dial card and gray cloth handset cord. The odd thing about this is it has a WE #6 dial and a numbers only #6 dial plate. I have never seen # only on a #6 dial plate, ever! Different.....Doug
Kidphone

jsowers

Quote from: Dan on September 04, 2010, 01:07:05 AM
Thanks, Paul,  my dial bezel is actually black (the picture looks grey).  Did your two tone style come before or after my style?

Full color sets with black dials:
Black dial, dark gray handset, dark gray housing and dark gray cords means it's a full color set, from circa 1953 when color phones were introduced, up to early 1955, though I have never seen a 1953 dark gray set. Most of them are from 1954. As Paul said, it took a while before they made everything in every color.

This was also true for red, dark blue and yellow--they had black dials and metal fingerwheels in the beginning. I think the dial faces were not made by WE to start with, so they were beholden to MPC Co. for those parts and it was new technology then, so only half the color phones came with color matching dials (green, dark beige, ivory and brown matched from the beginning). Also, that's why you see so many moldy dial faces--they were made elsewhere.

Two-tones:
Black dial, black handset and cords, with a dark gray housing means it's a two-tone, produced from circa 1953 to circa 1957. Two-tones were black phones with a color housing and they were slightly cheaper than full color sets because of all the black components. The advertised colors for two-tones were dark gray, red, moss green and ivory, but they could be done in any of the eight colors with a simple housing swap.


Black dial "full color" sets and two-tones were made at the same time and Paul's phone is not a two-tone. Yes, it has two colors, but they never called it a two-tone. Confusing, I know. The yellow, red and dark blue ones with black dials were actually three colors if you count the dark gray cords. My own term for those phones is "black dial models" to differentiate them from the two-tones and their later brethren with color-matching dials. Starting in early 1955 the dials finally matched the housings. It took a little longer for the cords to match too.

So a black dial color phone is quite rare. It's from the very first years of color phones and they weren't made in the quantity of later years like 1958 and 59. I hope this helps clear up some of the confusion and not add to it.

And as for spelling it gray or grey, has anyone noticed the spell checker on the Forum underlines grey with a red line, like it's misspelled?
Jonathan

jsowers

Quote from: Dan on September 03, 2010, 10:57:53 PM
Quote from: Dave F on September 03, 2010, 08:49:28 PM
Quote from: bingster on September 03, 2010, 08:44:36 PM
Quote from: Dave F on September 03, 2010, 05:04:03 PM
Quote from: jsowers on September 03, 2010, 04:25:49 PM


Sixth is a time lapse of bleaching a hard plastic light gray 500 housing. One part bleach to two parts water, in the sun for a day. I think it took three days to get it to how you see it in the last picture. It could use a fourth day.


Do you mean just liquid bleach like Clorox? I wasn't aware that this wourld work without damaging the palstic.  It looks terrific.  I'll have to give that a try.

I've used chlorine bleach on hard and soft plastic, and it works like a dream when the discoloration is due to smoke and grime. UV damage is another thing altogether, though.

Have you tried Retrobright for UV discoloration?

I have tried it for UV discoloration and it didn't work on my moss green. Gray may be a better candidate

I meant liquid bleach like Clorox. And light gray is a better candidate. The light gray hard plastic housing in my pictures had UV fading because it's not faded where the handset sat. For whatever reason, light gray hard plastic responds well to bleaching regardless of the type of fading. I don't think the same is true for light gray soft plastic, but it didn't seem to fade as badly as hard plastic to begin with.

Bleaching works better on the lighter colors and better on hard plastic than soft. I haven't had much luck with bleaching the darker ones like red, dark blue and moss green. Turquoise hard plastic is also a better candidate. I've never ruined anything with bleaching, but then I only do it for like 8 hours in the sun and then I rinse it off well and dry it off with a towel after every bleaching.

The light gray housing in my picture came from Jim Engel in an auction many years ago, along with some light gray cords and dial faces and handset pieces, all of them faded to some degree. Some of you may know him from TCI or ATCA. He said bleaching would work wonders on them and he was right. I got parts to fix several phones from that lot of light gray pieces.
Jonathan

paul-f

Many of the WE outdor phones were also gray -- 300, 325, 525, 526.
Visit: paul-f.com         WE  500  Design_Line

.

Dave F

Quote from: jsowers on September 04, 2010, 11:54:10 AM
Quote from: Dan on September 03, 2010, 10:57:53 PM
Quote from: Dave F on September 03, 2010, 08:49:28 PM
Quote from: bingster on September 03, 2010, 08:44:36 PM
Quote from: Dave F on September 03, 2010, 05:04:03 PM
Quote from: jsowers on September 03, 2010, 04:25:49 PM


Sixth is a time lapse of bleaching a hard plastic light gray 500 housing. One part bleach to two parts water, in the sun for a day. I think it took three days to get it to how you see it in the last picture. It could use a fourth day.


Do you mean just liquid bleach like Clorox? I wasn't aware that this wourld work without damaging the palstic.  It looks terrific.  I'll have to give that a try.

I've used chlorine bleach on hard and soft plastic, and it works like a dream when the discoloration is due to smoke and grime. UV damage is another thing altogether, though.

Have you tried Retrobright for UV discoloration?

I have tried it for UV discoloration and it didn't work on my moss green. Gray may be a better candidate

I meant liquid bleach like Clorox. And light gray is a better candidate. The light gray hard plastic housing in my pictures had UV fading because it's not faded where the handset sat. For whatever reason, light gray hard plastic responds well to bleaching regardless of the type of fading. I don't think the same is true for light gray soft plastic, but it didn't seem to fade as badly as hard plastic to begin with.

Bleaching works better on the lighter colors and better on hard plastic than soft. I haven't had much luck with bleaching the darker ones like red, dark blue and moss green. Turquoise hard plastic is also a better candidate. I've never ruined anything with bleaching, but then I only do it for like 8 hours in the sun and then I rinse it off well and dry it off with a towel after every bleaching.

The light gray housing in my picture came from Jim Engel in an auction many years ago, along with some light gray cords and dial faces and handset pieces, all of them faded to some degree. Some of you may know him from TCI or ATCA. He said bleaching would work wonders on them and he was right. I got parts to fix several phones from that lot of light gray pieces.


Thanks for the helpful info.  I have several eager gray candidates.  I'll definitely test it out.  If it works, it sure beats hours of sanding.  Have you ever tried it indoors?  I wonder how necessary the sun is.