1953 WE500 handset connections

[Mr. Bones]

Good evening to all!

I received my '53 WE500 on Thursday, and I am truly delighted at the condition, especially for $16.04

The seller did a great job of packing and protecting the phone, which included detaching the handset and cord to wrap it up separately. I have connected the red and black to the appropriate terminals in the phone, according to the 425B wiring diagram on this site.

My question is: do the whites need to be connected according to their purpose, or is a white a white? I know I can just get out the multimeter and see which is which, or just connect them and check for function with a 50% chance of having it right, but I'd rather not let any of the magic smoke escape from the wires

I guess I had also forgotten that the earlier G handsets had something of a sagittal crest, so it was new and interesting, all over again , for me.

Thanks in advance, and have a lovely weekend!

[Dave F]

<snip>...My question is: do the whites need to be connected according to their purpose, or is a white a white?...

In G handsets, the white wires (to/from the receiver) are interchangeable.  So, no need to worry about any magic smoke!

DF

[Mr. Bones]

Dave,

     Thanks for the information! I truly appreciate the quick response. Being an electrician, I get enough whiffs of the magic smoke during the week, don't want it coming from one of my phones, especially a really sweet older one...

     Now, I can hook it up and test it 

My very best regards to you and yours!

[Dave F]

Dave,

     Thanks for the information! I truly appreciate the quick response. Being an electrician, I get enough whiffs of the magic smoke during the week, don't want it coming from one of my phones, especially a really sweet older one...

     Now, I can hook it up and test it 

My very best regards to you and yours!

Fortunately, phones are pretty tolerant to miswiring.  It's pretty difficult to damage a "regular" old phone with wiring mistakes.

DF

[poplar1]

Since the white wires carry AC to the receiver, not DC, the two white leads are interchangeable.

[Dave F]

Since the white wires carry AC to the receiver, not DC, the two white leads are interchangeable.

Whether wires carry AC or DC is not the key factor in determining their interchangeability.  Consider the carbon transmitter in the G handset.  It operates on DC, yet the red and black wires are certainly interchangeable.  Or, consider any common flashlight.  Again DC, but the bulb doesn't care which way the batteries are installed.  What determines the interchangeability of two wires is whether the circuit or component they control is polarity sensitive.  While most all AC-operated devices are polarity-insensitive, so are many DC operated components.

DF

[poplar1]

Dave, point taken. In fact, the diagram for a 20-AL shows both transmitter leads the same color (YY).

In any case, I somehow missed your reply of last night. The short answer is of course that the two white leads are interchangeable. Otherwise, they would have made one of them another color, most likely green.

[Mr. Bones]

Thanks for all of the information, it is greatly appreciated.

The wiring diagram found on the forum only showed the telephone end of the tx/rx. I found another a few days ago on TCI that shows the handset end.

I was operating (mistakenly) under the impression that the red and black wires each had an accompanying white. I appreciate your kind efforts to lift the veil from my eyes.

Once again, thanks for the benefit of your collective knowledge, and taking the time to help me out.

My very best regards to you and yours!