My New ITT Corinthian 6 Button 1A2 Key Set

[Adam]

I promised in another thread (looking for a beige handset cord) that I would post a picture of a new key set I was restoring, so here it is.

This is an ITT Corinthian 6 button phone.  (They also made 12 button versions.)

I have been looking for one of these on eBay for literally YEARS and one has never come up, in any condition, for any price.  I bought this at the Southern California show for $10.00.  All it needed was a nice cleaning.  (Although I'd still like to replace the handset cord, this one is just a tad stretched.)

The key is marked as found.  I added the number card under the touch tone pad.  Notice the early ITT touch-tone pad with "Operator" spelled out in full in an oval over the "0".  This set was made in 1971.

I'm very happy I finally found a Corinthian key set!

BTW: For 10 points, who can answer first, where did the name for this ITT set, Corinthian, come from?

[Phonesrfun]

The name of their manufacturing town?

[Adam]

Incomplete answer.  What was the name of the town?

[Phonesrfun]

I think Corinth, Ohio, but I am speaking from memory.....

[Adam]

Corinth, Mississippi.  You get 5 points.

:-)

BTW, that's also where the "Cor" in "Cortelco" comes from.

[Phonesrfun]

Dang.

Well, I'm up here in Washington State, and have never set foot in either Mississippi or Ohio.  I guess I need to get out more.

[gpo706]

Nice set, I also have a Corinth 12 key set, but rotary, and BEIGE!

Never got round to rewiring it to work as yet, another project on the shelf.

[AE_Collector]

The handset cord looks good otherwise, how about rewinding the coils backwards?

A single 25 pair Amphenol Plug I assume?

Terry

[Adam]

The handset cord looks good otherwise, how about rewinding the coils backwards?

Good idea, but in this case, it didn't work.  The whole thing lays "sideways" when I tried to rewind it backwards.

A single 25 pair Amphenol Plug I assume?

Yes, you can't see it in the pic because it goes off the table to the rear, but it has a really nice matching beige 25 pair amphenol ended cord.

[Adam]

Nice set, I also have a Corinth 12 key set, but rotary, and BEIGE!

Sounds cool!

Never got round to rewiring it to work as yet, another project on the shelf.

I assume you mean rewire it so that you can use it without a key system.  Please don't do that, you'll be ruining the set (IMO).  Just make an adapter for the amphenol plug by using a female 25 pair tail and connect line 1 to the blue-white/white-blue pair.

[gpo706]

Nice set, I also have a Corinth 12 key set, but rotary, and BEIGE!

Sounds cool!

Never got round to rewiring it to work as yet, another project on the shelf.

I assume you mean rewire it so that you can use it without a key system.  Please don't do that, you'll be ruining the set (IMO).  Just make an adapter for the amphenol plug by using a female 25 pair tail and connect line 1 to the blue-white/white-blue pair.

Its not been touched Adam, honestly!

Still sitting in its box, but I wouldn't have a clue where to find a 25 pin amphenol adaptor for it.

Any suggestions?

I seem to have exaggerated the number of keys by a couple!  

[Adam]

Gosh, that's a nice set!  It's not a Corinthian, though. That one's called a 10 button set. (Really, that's the name!)  But it is from Corinth, as we were talking about above, as all ITT sets from those years were.  And, they hook up the same.

You want to look for a 25 pair cable with a female amphenol.  (Phones have a male amphenol.) Cables with a female end will be the most common because they were used to install key sets.  You could use a very short one.

Strip back a little of the outside insulation at the cut end of your new 25 pair cable and use the blue-white/white-blue pair for the telephone line.  Then just plug your phone into this.

There are a bunch on eBay right now:

http://tinyurl.com/84xypln
http://tinyurl.com/78hlb3f

If you find one cheap, you can of course get one with a male end and a female end and just cut off the male end, you just need the female end to plug your phone into.

Now, if you really want to get fancy and hook it up so that the phone's line lamp lights when you push a button and pick up the receiver, you can do that extremely easily using a princess phone dial light transformer, still without modifying the set, just more connections in your 25 pair adapter cable.  If you'd like to do that I can do up a simple wiring diagram.

Of course, there will be no hold function or blinking lights, you'd need a real key system for that.

[gpo706]

That is incredibly helpful Adam, I'm certainly going to look into it, better than sitting in it's box.

And would the Princess power unit run through the amphenol plug also?

You're giving me more ideas, when I get female adaptor I might terminate it into a fatboy GPO soapdish then a standard BT line cord!

[Adam]

And would the Princess power unit run through the amphenol plug also?

Yes.  Just more connections to make in your little adapter cable.  A princess dial light transformer (2012A or 2012C) is a cheat because it wasn't designed for anything like this, but its output is very close to the 10VAC that the key phone's lamps are designed to run on.

Note: A 2012B or a 2012D isn't good for this, they look the same as a princess phone transformer, but they put out 24VAC which would be too high a voltage for the phone's 10VAC lamps.

You're giving me more ideas, when I get female adaptor I might terminate it into a fatboy GPO soapdish then a standard BT line cord!

That's a great idea!

[gpo706]

I'm on the other side of the pond, so a Princess (110V) wouldn't be viable.

So I just need a 240V to 10VAC adaptor, thats easy peasy!

Would all the illuminted keys work when depressed, or just one or what?

I like your picture with the key lit up.