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My new unidentified S.E. (Europe) phone

Started by dsk, March 24, 2023, 03:08:16 AM

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dsk

Just got the parcel, it is probably equal to a BTMC version from before 1930, but I am not able to identify it so far.
It came with an odd Siemens W28-ish handset (not pictured here) The dial spring and spring-holder is "repaired" so it does not work, hopefully I may fix it. The hook-switch is missing the insulation part that shall activate the springs, still interesting. :)

tubaman

Quite similar to this one that I have that I also know very little about. I only bought it because of the small centre dial that is hard to find!

dsk

Slightly different, but both are close to the BTMC 396 A.

Contempra

I think I saw this phone on a Facebook group a few days ago but I could be wrong. I'm not so sure. Nice phone anyway .

dsk

Yes  I have asked about info there too.  Got the dial working, but I will probably have to use a handset from another time older or newer.  :-X

dsk

Now it is working, I had to borrow the handset from my Elektrisk bureau 1924 phone.. but ??

dsk

Maybe I got it all wrong? Maybe it is not Standard electric, but Western Electric?
These scans are from a book from 1924, and the pictures has many common things with the real phone.
The cabinet is slihtly more modern than my W.E. 1921, and the cradle looks more like the Standard Electric 1931 than the one in the book, but My still???

dsk

It is really confusing in one way, and pretty simple in another.  My BTMC 396-A is marked Western Electric and registered in the Norwegian papers as Western Electric 1921  (W.E.21) The later Standard Electric 1931 are for sure made at the BTMC and this one is also so equal that it still has to be made by BTMC. The Norwegian made copies had a slightly different housing, simpler locking of the cabinet, and the T was used for the Receiver, and M for the transmitter.
The S.E.31 is here: http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=27338.msg264354#msg264354
The W.E.21 is here: http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=27339.msg263620#msg263620

2 more pictures of the inside of my S.E./BTMC ?? here:

I have to guess of an S.E. /BTMC made after 1921, but before 1931 and it looks pretty equal to the pictures I have seen from the BTMC 1924 catalogue.

Since it was used in a small telco that got its first CB exchange in 1931. and even the local museums does not know it will probably remain as a guess. :o 

Around this time the Elektrisk Bureau was making phones of a similar design, and the nationalism was growing it was not imported many more. The booster circuit became unwanted in Oslo and the changed the phones to a reduced sidetone circuit, and the 3 winding anti sidetone coils became standard in new phones from something around 1932-1934.