While working on an E1 handset today I noticed a small red star on the transmitter end. I've not cleaned a lot of E1's but never saw this before. Can anyone enlighten me?
It's a Western Electric, circa 1935.
Maybe it's like a golden ticket. You just won the Willie Wonka Chocolate Factory Sweepstakes.
Dennis:
You just found a very rare phone sold by WE to the Soviet Union. You didn't know about this? ;) ;)
I thought maybe it was made to use at a Texaco gasoline station. I guess I have the peanut gallery stumped so far.
You can trust your call to the phone that wears the star.
Based on seeing the star in two other instances, I'm going to stick my neck out and say, I'll guess it's property of Illinois Bell.
D/P
I don't recall seeing a red star before on any of the W.E. sets (or any for that matter). But that could be Dan. Did Illinois Bell put red stars on their stuff?
1935, hmm, I think you have a Lenin special issue E1 handset, sold in limited numbers to the Leningrad phone company as part of a little known deal where Bell was trying to expand it's sales into foreign markets. Ultimately it failed when the Soviets hijacked the design and produced 750 million copies, none of which actually worked as the bakelite was made from leaves and brittle and the handsets all snapped in two upon use. The Soviets ended up using the mountain of handsets as awards for collective farmers who exceeded their quota of wheat production for two months running. Since none of the collective farms had phone service until the late 60's the handsets mostly ended up being used as potato scrapers, goat milking aids, and veggie strainers.
Or something like that... ;)
McHeath:
I believe you are right. I read it on the internet.
I have only seen it three times, on 500 sets, but a small star was embossed on the bottom of the set, and all 3 were Illinois bell property, I've never seen the star on any other of my 500 sets. I know that's a stretch, but Like I said, It's purely a wild guess based on 3 instances.
I have the sets packed away, I'm slowly converting to my numbered box system, I'll skip through a few boxes tomorrow to see if the handsets might have a red star.
Neither of my E1 have the star.
D/P
Dennis;
I'd go with Heaths explanation. Didn't they use the spit cups for vodka shot glasses
D/P
I wonder if the red star means the same thing as this blue star?
Interesting Ralph. What's the date on that capacitor? Is that thing from 1930???
I can faintly see a 29 there.
PS: D/P, I was referring to the capacitor, right in the center of the assembly.
D/P, I think Dennis was asking about the information on the capacitor in the center, but you are correct with OCT 30 followed by the blue star.
The capacitor info reads:
129A
PAT APP
FOR IN USA
There is no other date on this transmitter other than the 10/30 as far as I know.
Dan, I see the Oct 30, I was talking about the capacitor. Now that Jorge mentioned it, I can see the faint 29 there too. It probably has IV 29 which would be the last quarter of 1929. That's an old one.
Sorry, maybe this will redeem me.
D/P
You guys must be seeing a "29" that I can't, even with the transmitter right in front of me! I see "129A" but that's it.
I've seen a star on the receiver end, but not on the transmitter end.
Ralph did you see my enlarged enhanced photo of the writing on the capacitor above ? I also see 129A. Also it appears to say I 33, or I35. My two say 129A followed by I-36, the other III-33.
D/P
Well Ralph, that answers that. It's a 129A capacitor. I just wondered if the capacitor date confirmed or was consistent with the date stamped on the transmitter piece.
I used the computer to best match the colors so It could highlight the words and letters as close as possible. The photo is a close up of my cap. I selected the color that showed the most writing in the drawing, then asked it to match all like colors in the immediate vicinity. the top portion of the 36 was already very clear, so it just picked up the colors that matched in the brighter area.
D/P
I guess maybe my transmitter is an early type before they started dating them the way D/P's are.
Interesting that yours are dated 36, D/P, as I have an F1 from 5/36, which would be II/36 on a 129A. Did they overlap production of both types? I would think they would have stopped making 129A's as soon as the F1's were in production since the F1 really brought things up to standards of even modern day carbon transmitters.
So getting back to the original question, does anyone know what these stars mean?
The big red Texaco star?
Quote from: Jim S. on April 27, 2010, 11:04:29 PM
You can trust your call to the phone that wears the star.
This may not have anything to do with the E1 handset, but here is part of a BSP for the F-1 handset I found.
D/P