Phone identification holder

[HarrySmith]

I have a clip on plastic holder that I think would be great to ID the phones in a collection. I have seen and tried several different ideas ranging from a piece of tape to a custom dial card. This holder came with an office phone I got and I think it is perfect! It snaps in to the fingerhold area on the cradle under the handset. I have attached a few pictures and have more here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/HarrySmith1957/PhoneDescriptionHolder ( dead link 03-11-21 )

I only have the one and it is yellowed but if there is interest I will see about getting it reproduced. It is made for and fits perfect on a 500 but it also works on a 302 although it is a little long, it could be made a little shorter to fit both. Any feedback or comments welcome.

[Tom B]

I got one of these with my birthday gift 302

[Adam]

These were also used for dialing instructions on phones installed in hotels and motels.

[Jim Stettler]

I have never seen one of these. I think it is cool.
Harry,
Count me as interested.
Jim

[Kenny C]

I would be too Harry its neat.......

[Ed D]

Looks good to me too!  Please let us know what you find out.

Ed

[GG]

Nice way to do that without using nasty adhesive stickers that crap up a phone and are hard to remove. 

That one comes from a military base or intel agency outpost, so it has some interesting history:

"Duty Officer" is like a super-receptionist with clearances.  In the intel universe, if you're in the field and run into trouble, you call the DO, who typically answers with nothing more than their name.  You identify yourself (real name and a number, or cover name) and ask for whoever it is you need to speak with.  The DO has a chart with instructions on how to respond to each possible name + request and does so strictly per the chart.  This may result in, for example, your call being transferred to someone, or someone calling you back, or some other plan being put into effect (such as safe extraction from a hostile environment).  I'm not sure how it works in the military but probably something similar. 

Desk Sgt. is Desk Sergeant, so this example may refer to a military base, or to a military-associated intel agency such as NSA or NRO (unlikely), DIA (more likely) or some other (there are many you haven't heard of:-). 

Separating "Fire" from "Police/Ambulance" occurs in some foreign countries, but I've also seen that domestically (can't recall where).  It may also occur on airfields, where the fire brigade also has to respond to aircraft crashes & fires. 

The word INVEST does not refer to "investment" in the financial sense, and is almost certainly a military or intel acronym.

The items above the line (Fire, Police/Ambulance, and DO) are all PBX extensions.  The fact that the DO is a 4-digit extension says they're probably on a trunk connection to a separate PBX. 

The items below the line appear to be "intercom" numbers as would occur in a 1A2 key system with a dial intercom system.  I'll guess that was an approx. 20-station intercom where the numbering plan used the digit 1 in its two-digit intercom numbers.  (The clue to this not being PBX extensions or speed-dial is that 0 = lunch room, rather than Operator.) 

I doubt that this number card was original to the 302 in your photo, because it's highly unlikely to have overlap between single-digit numbers and 3- or 4-digit numbers in a PBX's numbering plan.  The leading digit 5 and 7 (Emerg. and DO) would preclude them being used for single-digit dialing (Jerry and Randy).  It is far more likely that this number card would have been used on a multi-line set such as a 564, with Line keys dedicated to the PBX extensions of that phone or work group, and with an Intercom key for dialing the 1-digit numbers on a 20-station dial selector.  Though if I'm wrong on this I'd love to know more about how it was done. 

[HarrySmith]

Yes, I assumed the military connection also. I was thinking INVEST was short for investigations? It did not come on the 302, it was on one of my birthday phones a 554 B from 6/57. I put it on the 302 just to show how it fits. I am in the process of researching reproducing it and will keep everyone updated.

[GG]

INVESTigations makes sense.  In which case possibly Military Police, which would fit with the rest of the stuff on there. 

554-B?  How'd they get that onto a wall phone? 

How to make those: extruded clear plastic in the appropriate cross-section, cut to the proper width.

Those would be highly useful for 2500 sets on PBXs, since the small standard number labels don't provide enough room for all the "stuff" one might want to have there, e.g. main corporate number plus extension, DID number, extension to dial for voicemail, and of course the reminder to dial 9-911 rather than 911 in an emergency.  Also makes it easier for end-users to change their number labels when they move extensions, compared to needing a paper clip to get at the standard number label. 

[Owain]

How to make those: extruded clear plastic in the appropriate cross-section, cut to the proper width.

The profile looks similar to some of the plastic strips used to hold shelf-edge labels in supermarkets.

[HarrySmith]

Yes, when I did a Google patent search it came up with old grocery store price holders in a variety of configurations but none match the shape of this. I am still trying to find someone to make these. If anyone has a contact in the industry please let me know.
BTW,typo on earlier post, it is a 544 B

[Ed D]

Harry,

You might look in the yellow pages, or google for Extrusion Molding services in your local area.  Possibly even an Injection Molding shop could offer extrusion services.  However, it's likely to have a big up-front cost.  You will need to have an extrusion die made, and unless you have a contact who is a machinist or die-maker, a machine shop will cost a lot just to make the extrusion die.

There is usually a setup cost for the actual extrusion process, and of course you will be paying for the thermoplastic resin that has to be melted to produce the extrusion, and they will factor in a certain amount of cost - for test runs.  Add to that the salary of the extruder operator, and other final product finishing costs, and the per piece cost for a small run may well be prohibitive.

I'm not trying to discourage you, but in a previous life, I used to work for a mold making shop.  (I was not a machinist though.)  It is not cheap to get a thing like this going.  The best case scenario would be finding a machinist who collects phones, and would be willing to do some "government work" in his spare time.  He/she may well also have a contact in a production shop to run the pieces.  Still would end up being costly, but not nearly as bad.

I hope you can find some help out there!

Ed