1955 Ivory 500:What a difference a day makes... along with some chemistry

[unbeldi]

I spent some of Labor Day Sunday/Monday reviving an old April 1955 500D desk set.

It could have easily been described as an old yellow telephone, but it revealed its true beautiful ivory (-50) color after some TLC applied.

Old it is....
and it clearly needed that new old handset cord found in the parts bin,

...but see the before and after...

Base: 4/55
Housing: 3 23 55 2
Handset: 3 55
Dial: 7C-50 4-55
Network: 4-55
Ringer: C4A 4-55

It couldn't have looked much better the month we were born.

What a find!

[JorgeAmely]

How did you remove the ugly burnt yellow color it had? Sanding?

[Dennis Markham]

Wow! What a difference!  Beautiful phone.

[Gilas]

You did an amazing job on it!  Beautiful phone!

[AE40FAN]

Wow, peroxide treatment?

[New England Tel.]

Please tell us what you did! It's beautiful!

Bob

[unbeldi]

I actually did very little myself, and I certainly wasn't going to get into heavy sanding labor on Labor Day!

Initially I scrubbed the plastics clean with a toothbrush and plenty of Fantastic kitchen cleaner--from the makers of "Scrubbing Bubbles", as the ad says.
Getting the surfaces mechanically clean and removing any oily films, residues, even fingerprints is a prerequisite to chemical treatment for achieving an even color.

For the treatment I simply bathed the plastics in a solution of approximately 30-40% Clorox bleach in hand-hot water. The elevated temperature accelerates the chemistry. Increasing temperature by only 10 degrees Celsius doubles the rate of many reactions, although I am not sure that Arrhenius' law is an accurate model for this kind of chemistry, but the chemistry seems simple enough.

I continued the bathing until the surfaces were homogeneously colored as some unexposed surfaces inside the handset and inside the housing. All in all I used perhaps 7/8th of a 121 fl oz. bottle of Clorox in three baths. I tried leaving the baths in the daylight sun as much as possible, but Monday was kind of overcast and rainy. I estimate that the plastic parts were exposed to the solution up to 20 hours or so in case of the housing. Handset, caps, and dial face much shorter.

The final procedure before reassembly was a couple rounds of polishing with Novus #2 and #1 which brought about better gloss.

The mounting cord of this phone is also original from 1955, but it did not bleach as well as the housing did. I suppose the discoloration process has penetrated the soft Neoprene (?) much farther than in the hard Tenite, but on the other hand, I exposed the cord to the bleach only for a couple of hours.

I am still looking for another handset cord for this phone. Although this one is a perfect match in color, I would like one with an early 1955 date mark, and probably preferably a straight cord, rather than coiled. I know that by October 1955, the Bell System advertised this color set with coiled cord, but I don't know if these were already available in the first quarter. All 1954 advertisements I have seen show all colored sets with straight cords, in this case in ivory.  When did they switch?

If you have a spare cord to sell, straight or coiled, please let me know.

Thanks much for comments!

[jsowers]

That's a great bleaching job! My results have been the same, and sun and warmth seem to help a lot. The cords don't bleach back to the original color because likely it's discolored all the way through, and sometimes, from the inside out in the case of "green splotches." I think those are the copper tinsel turning green and oozing out, but I've never had a cord I could cut apart to tell for sure.

If it was discolored inside the handset parts, then it could be smoke or nicotine stain. UV never gets inside the handset caps, but smoke gets everywhere.

I can answer your question on the handset cords. Up to mid-1956 the straight handset cord was standard and the coil cord was an option. Then in late 1956 or early 1957 coil cords became standard equipment. So a straight ivory handset cord would be perfectly fine on this phone. I have a collector friend who just purchased an ivory 500 from 1-56 that has an original straight handset cord. I posted a picture of it below. It also has a discolored cord. So if anyone knows any secrets to getting these cords back to new, please tell us!

[LarryInMichigan]

I have had some results on cords with peroxide and sunlight.

Larry

[unbeldi]

That's a great bleaching job! My results have been the same, and sun and warmth seem to help a lot. The cords don't bleach back to the original color because likely it's discolored all the way through, and sometimes, from the inside out in the case of "green splotches." I think those are the copper tinsel turning green and oozing out, but I've never had a cord I could cut apart to tell for sure.

If it was discolored inside the handset parts, then it could be smoke or nicotine stain. UV never gets inside the handset caps, but smoke gets everywhere.

I can answer your question on the handset cords. Up to mid-1956 the straight handset cord was standard and the coil cord was an option. Then in late 1956 or early 1957 coil cords became standard equipment. So a straight ivory handset cord would be perfectly fine on this phone. I have a collector friend who just purchased an ivory 500 from 1-56 that has an original straight handset cord. I posted a picture of it below. It also has a discolored cord. So if anyone knows any secrets to getting these cords back to new, please tell us!

Thanks, that timing seems about right by the evidence. Interesting would be to compile some records of the sightings of the first coiled colored cords. Advertisements don't always tell the truth...  and it was likely so in 1955 as is it today.

IMHO, finding an intact ivory 1950s Tenite 500 set seems harder than finding a med-blue one. I can buy a blue one almost every month on eBay (another just sold this week), but I very rarely find a good ivory desk or wall set of that age. Perhaps they fly under the radar more often... disguised as yellow, LOL. The ivory color on these is IMHO one of the most beautiful of all the colors.

Another materials science aspect I find interesting is that this color plastic has perhaps the strongest smell of butyrate, or rancid butter, of all the 'soft' 1950s sets. Is this just my subjective impression?

[jsowers]

Thanks, that timing seems about right by the evidence. Interesting would be to compile some records of the sightings of the first coiled colored cords. Advertisements don't always tell the truth...  and it was likely so in 1955 as is it today.

It also started at different times for different colors. Ivory, brown and dark gray matched from the beginning. Red seems to be the next one, sometime in late 1955, and then dark beige and yellow in spring, 1956 and finally green about mid-1957. Dark blue never matched. This is from my observation and not just advertising, and it could be off a little. There's an ad from spring, 1956 that specifically mentions color matching 500s. I posted it below. It's referring to the plastics matching, but some of the cords did too. I don't think green matched cords yet in 1956 and I know dark blue didn't. So as you say, ads do lie a little. Also notice the straight cords on the phones. That was still standard issue then. Nowadays it's very hard to find these color phones with color-matching straight cords.

[unbeldi]

Thanks, that timing seems about right by the evidence. Interesting would be to compile some records of the sightings of the first coiled colored cords. Advertisements don't always tell the truth...  and it was likely so in 1955 as is it today.

It also started at different times for different colors. Ivory, brown and dark gray matched from the beginning. Red seems to be the next one, sometime in late 1955, and then dark beige and yellow in spring, 1956 and finally green about mid-1957. Dark blue never matched. This is from my observation and not just advertising, and it could be off a little. There's an ad from spring, 1956 that specifically mentions color matching 500s. I posted it below. It's referring to the plastics matching, but some of the cords did too. I don't think green matched cords yet in 1956 and I know dark blue didn't. So as you say, ads do lie a little. Also notice the straight cords on the phones. That was still standard issue then. Nowadays it's very hard to find these color phones with color-matching straight cords.

Thanks for the ad image. Do you have the original?  It would be nice to scan it complete with the borders. I think this one I may not have seen before. I have some originals myself. Do you know which magazine issue this appeared in?  Usually I found the issue month is printed at the top or bottom margin.

I think green may indeed have been a late arrival for coiled cords, I have at least two sets of 1956 with grey cords, and my first green cord is a H4BR dated Q2-1959, I believe.
I think there was one member on this board who reported having seen in his youth at his house a blue cord on a med-blue in the area of the Indianapolis works. Perhaps a field test of blue cords just before the color was discontinued?

[poplar1]

Does anyone remember seeing an ivory 500 with straight handset cord on ebay in the last week or so? I thought it was sold by "natbec," but I don't see it now. I think it was listed once for $99 Buy-it-now, and didn't sell,  then relisted, and went for about $56.

[unbeldi]

Does anyone remember seeing an ivory 500 with straight handset cord on ebay in the last week or so? I thought it was sold by "natbec," but I don't see it now. I think it was listed once for $99 Buy-it-now, and didn't sell,  then relisted, and went for about $56.

Seems like I should have seen it. I have been checking for ivory cords and phones every day in the past 8 days or so, since I needed a new cord.

[unbeldi]

Does anyone remember seeing an ivory 500 with straight handset cord on ebay in the last week or so? I thought it was sold by "natbec," but I don't see it now. I think it was listed once for $99 Buy-it-now, and didn't sell,  then relisted, and went for about $56.

Seems like I should have seen it. I have been checking for ivory cords and phones every day in the past 8 days or so, since I needed a new cord.

I found it.   I believe it is the same 1-56 set that jsowers posted in this thread. It sold on Aug 19 for $38. Item http://www.ebay.com/itm/221269894568.