Interesting Stenciling on 302-type

[Mr. Bones]

Good afternoon, and Happy Saturday to all!

    I received a 302-type phone base that had a white stencil previously unseen by me. It looks rather like, well, er, um, a rodent, or, perhaps, some sort of marsupial. Rather opossum-esque, if I were to venture a guess, as to their intent. Maybe, a platypus? I dunno...

    Just wondered if this was anything new, unusual, and what the origin, back-story, etc. was on this, if somebody knows. PPR? Possum Phone Refurbishment?

    Sorry for the carppy pic; I'll take a more clear one, without the glare.

    Thanks, in advance! -->>Standing by, once again, to be enlightened.

Best regards!

[poplar1]

It's a panther. The phone was refurbished by Hallmark House, Springfield, Mass. AKA Black Panther Trading Co.

[Dan/Panther]

I beg your Pardon, THIS IS A PANTHER.
D/P

[Doug Rose]

This is a Dan/Panther

[Mr. Bones]

Took some additional pics: seems to be quite the bill, for a panther lol! The cranial structure is more like a gator, or platypus, though the tail is decidedly feline. Probably just a gob of excess ink, or summat.

Best regards!

[AE_Collector]

Maybe it is the extra ink that wasn't used on the "No Pinger" label.

Terry

[Dan/Panther]

Doug;
OUCH. You got me.
D/P

[Mr. Bones]

Yes!!!!

    I'm pretty excited about the 'No Pinger' option!!! "Rare, Vintage, Hard-To-Find, One-of-A Kind, L@@K"!!!etc.

    It actually does have a (pinger) ringer, despite the markings. All interior parts indicate 1-2/49. Nice, fat, brown cloth line cord, unfortunately, hacked off short...

    I set a F1, with the nice, fat black rubber curly cord upon it, for the pics.

    Since it is so incredibly cruddy, outside, I moved it into a place of Honour , in the newly-developing Man-Cave, in the garage. Just need to slap a dial card on it, and we're good to go! Gotta run a little bit of station wire, to give it life out there...

Best regards!

[DavePEI]

Now, I know what is meant by a RAT phone! Looks more like a RAT to me than a Panther. They should have gotten a real rubber stamp rather than relying on potato stamps! Nothing like taking pride in one's trademark.  

Dave

[poplar1]

We had to keep using the old inkpads over and over. Ed would just squirt them with more white ink. The pads were rather hard after years of use. So the stamps were less than perfect.

The "no ringer" stamp usually means that the frequency ringer had been removed. This was before Merrill invented the buzzers made from one frequency ringer coil and a strip of metal banding.

[paul-f]

The "no ringer" stamp usually means that the frequency ringer had been removed. This was before Merrill invented the buzzers made from one frequency ringer coil and a strip of metal banding.

David,

Please tell us more about this innovation.  It sounds like something to be collected and preserved.  Were they created in large numbers?

Also, did Hallmark use other stamps than the snowflake or Panther?  Were they always in white?  What other works might we find stamped on their phones?

[poplar1]

We did everything "just in time" before that concept was called that. So each tech made his own buzzers as needed. We put all the brass gongs in a bin for reclaiming. Look for a phone that has the snowflake and also the word "BUZZER" on the base.

I've seen the "snowflakes" in both yellow and white. But while I worked there (1972-1973), we used only white. Each tech stamped the phone in a different location: Mine was over the raised area where the induction coil mounting screw is located. I don't know of any stamps other than the snowflake and the panther.

We always reconditioned the latest arrivals---last in, first out. The phones we bought usually arrived in the same cartons that originally had 8 new phones, but now they had 12 old phones and no packing. Ed would always cut the return address off each box so that any visitors wouldn't know where we got our phones. If we were running out, then we would go dig around the basement for something to work on, leaving behind any Kellogg 1000s (red bar) or AE 34s.

We also grabbed AE dials as needed from a big barrel that was right behind my work station and lubricated them if necessary. For cords, we bought rejects from manufacturers such as Whitney-Blake. Usually, they were just rejected for being an inch too short or too long or some other minor imperfection. We always tested the cords for continuity before use. If the line cords were not black, Merrill would paint them. This was probably with the same spray paint that he used for worn finger wheels. There was a stack of about 25 repainted finger wheels, although later there were only about 20 because the brass ones had mysteriously disappeared. They had already switched from painting to buffing the housings and handsets by the time I worked there.

I think the going rate for out of service phones at that time was $1-$1.50. Ed had a recurring ad in Telephony and Telephone Engineering and Management looking for "off the lines" phones for "our renewed overseas contract." I guess that reassured the mom-and-pop operating phone companies that their phones wouldn't show up again but as non-revenue producers. (Phones were all rented at that time.) "Overseas" was actually about 100 miles down the Mass. Turnpike to the Radio Shack warehouse in Braintree. In a good week, Kenny (the truck driver) would haul out 50 cartons of 8 phones each. Merrill would leave the bench to do the packing on Friday morning, inspecting each phone as he put it in a box. He would stamp the Radio Shack SKU number on each box (279-371?). Radio Shack didn't want anything but black, so we sold any as is color AE 80s or SC 1543s to Warren Bohnsack (BECO). BECO also got all our AE pay phones.

Sometimes the two prison-release guys doing the buffing would damage the handset cords; so Merrill would get one of us to change the cord. Once, I volunteered to change a damaged cord because I had heard the clicks of a 4H dial when Merrill tested it. Somehow, I managed to adjust the "running board" from the front of a 5H dial so it would sound more like a 4H and swap the dial as well as the handset cord in the time allotted. Unlike the Bell System 302s that sometimes have 4H dials or converted 2As, the 302s from independents almost never have 4H dials. I got a nile green AE 40 and a rose 302 while working there. The price for any phone I took home was $6, which was equal to about 3 hours pay.