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Kellogg 5/58 DK 591 Phone.... tell me about this ....

Started by LoveOldPhones, November 24, 2016, 11:48:21 PM

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poplar1

#15
Here is a Kellogg "banjo" phone. It happens to be a DK 501, which is like a 500 but with a vacuum tube for a certain type party line.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Rare-Kellogg-DK501-Black-Banjo-Style-Telephone-from-1954-Works-/172395201512
"C'est pas une restauration, c'est une rénovation."--François Martin.

LoveOldPhones

Quote from: poplar1 on November 29, 2016, 09:38:42 AM
Here is a Kellogg "banjo" phone. It happens to be a DK 501, which is like a 500 but with a vacuum tube for a certain type party line.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Rare-Kellogg-DK501-Black-Banjo-Style-Telephone-from-1954-Works-/172395201512

yes... I know what a banjo phone looks like..... that is not this turquoise phone.  Look at it again.  it looks like a regular 500.... not like a banjo.... like this pic of the black one.
YET.... it has DK 591 stamped on the bottom of the phone.

unbeldi

#17
IIRC, the model numbers did not change.  The "Banjo" was the first version of the K-500 series that Kellogg produced.  They did not make them for very long (ca 1954 to 1957 ?) and switched to the more rounded, or "smoother" design original to the WECo 500 set by ca. 1957/8.

The first handset was in fact rounder than the later G3-style handset, that gained some edges, but the telephone housing was less rounded in the early style.

PS: The D in front of the K-5xx series simply indicates it was a dial instrument.  The manual set without dial was MK-5xx.

TelePlay

unbeldi seems to be correct based on these documents. Seems the subject phone is one of the early "new" style housings.

All of the links below the long double line were found on and taken from the following Telephone Collectors International page

     http://www.telephonecollectors.info/strombergcarlson/kellogg/kellogg_main.htm

first posted on the CRPF about 6 years ago.

     http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=8396.msg90347#msg90347

===========================================================================

1954 Kellogg K500 Brochure showing the Banjo Design

1956 Kellogg K500 Brochure showing the Banjo Design and available colors

1957 Kellogg Catalog showing the K500 Banjo Design - Scroll down to Page E3

---------------------

1958 Kellogg Catalog showing the "new" K500 Housing Design

---------------------

K500 Series Number Codes

LoveOldPhones

GREAT !   thanks so much !  that clears it ALL UP !
thank you guys !     I am learning SO much on this site.

I moved and I haven't been in my new apartment very long ..... most everything is still in boxes BUT..... the 8 or so phones I have are all out on display perched on unopened boxes ....with some hooked up. 

but I can see them all.  LOL  I have my priorities straight !

my next door neighbor and his wife came by and I asked the husband to please unscrew the ear piece cap on this kellogg telephone .... it was on SO tight....  must have been on for 30 years....  I couldn't get it off.

they saw all the phones and looked at me like I was insane. LOL .... and these folks are in their late 50's. and found it very odd that anyone would keep old telephones around.... let alone BUY more of them !  HAHAHA !

its good that there is a place like this where I can get information from like minded people.
honestly....  if you could have seen their faces.... 

the way they looked at me you would have thought i was collecting dead cats !
they did manage a weak smile when I proudly pointed out my mediterranean blue WE with the gray cord.

Oh MY.  LOL
at least I have the ear piece cap off now on the Kellogg.

Anyway....thanks again for all your information.  I really appreciate it.

unbeldi

Quote from: LoveOldPhones on November 29, 2016, 12:06:39 PM
the way they looked at me you would have thought i was collecting dead cats !

.... what's the difference, again, please ?

;D

LoveOldPhones


unbeldi

I like your find very much, btw.
Not only is it a fairly early and less commonly found Kellogg color (I think), but it also is completely original including the number card on the dial.

The phone was installed in the area northeast of Altoona of rural Pennsylvania, specifically in Warriors Mark Township (Huntingdon Co.).  The seller is located very closely there, on the south side of Altoona. I would ask if they know more about the history of the set.

The 814-632 prefix is today serviced by Windstream. The township is not even 2000 people large, but has an entire central office prefix allocated (632), which is switched by Northern Telecom DMS-10 equipment. I think, it is really used here as a remote concentrator, it seems. I found the address of it, but could not locate it in "town" in any specific building, not quickly anyways.

Did the number card hide an earlier version by any chance?  It must have been issued sometime in the 1960s, I would say. It appears that this prefix was also installed around that time, as the previous exchange name was EVergreen (38), according to the TENP database.

Area code 814 was one of the original area codes assigned in 1947, and it is somewhat unique today, because it has so far never been split or overlaid.  This almost happened a few years ago, but the proposal was abandoned because of protests and diminishing need.

Nice find.

unbeldi

Can you show a picture of the inside ?
What kind of ringer is installed in this set?  From the factory, it came without ringer and should be marked with "LR" on the bottom.  The telephone company installed the ringer separately.  It is probably a frequency-selective ringer, but perhaps not.  Does it ring?

LoveOldPhones

WOW !   what interesting stuff about this phone.  the guy I got it from told me that his father bought it a long time ago and that the family had it a while.... and that they decided to sell it.    thats all he could tell me.

As far as a picture of the inside.... I don't have a good camera yet for that.  I can try with the one I have on my old cell phone but for some reason... the pictures have been coming out blurry.

I don't know if it rings because someone cut the line cord and there is only stump where it was.
BUT !   I have found someone that knows someone that works on old telephones.

As soon as I get the chance.... I will get this one over to be looked at.  i definitely want to have this one hooked up for use at some point.

thanks for all the info on the phone....   I'll see what else I can find out.... and check and see if there is an earlier version of the number card too.

unbeldi

Quote from: LoveOldPhones on November 29, 2016, 05:37:33 PM
I don't know if it rings because someone cut the line cord and there is only stump where it was.
BUT !   I have found someone that knows someone that works on old telephones.

As soon as I get the chance.... I will get this one over to be looked at.  i definitely want to have this one hooked up for use at some point.


I think, with help from this Forum, you should be able to attach a new line cord yourself.   Until you find the exact right color, a neutral light-gray cord will do fine for testing even displaying the phone.

LoveOldPhones

Quote from: unbeldi on November 30, 2016, 09:28:33 AM
I think, with help from this Forum, you should be able to attach a new line cord yourself.   Until you find the exact right color, a neutral light-gray cord will do fine for testing even displaying the phone.


yes... thats what I was thinking.... a neutral gray cord  should work fine.  I have NO idea how I will find the right color cord for this phone. 
I was thinking that maybe that guy in AZ at navy salvage might have something.

I can give him a call and ask.... he's been pretty helpful in the past.

i wonder if maybe I could even take a cord close in color and perhaps dye it..... just a thought.

Dan/Panther

I hope I didn't confuse anyone when I mentioned about the dial. I mentioned it took me awhile to get a Kellogg dial for my Banjo. Did not mean to suggest yours was a banjo. They are two separate phones. I was just commenting on how hard it is to find the original Kellogg dials.

D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

unbeldi

#28
Both version of the K-500 used the same dial, No. 19.  It was a copy of the WECo dial.
Unlike the WECo dials though, they had two numbering bezels available, one with only numbers, and the metropolitan version with letters.

The phone seems very original from the outside, I wouldn't suspect any later changes internally, and the exchange was never taken over by a Bell company, so it likely wasn't ever refurbished at a WECo shop.

unbeldi

Quote from: LoveOldPhones on November 30, 2016, 12:08:36 PM
yes... thats what I was thinking.... a neutral gray cord  should work fine.  I have NO idea how I will find the right color cord for this phone. 
I was thinking that maybe that guy in AZ at navy salvage might have something.

I can give him a call and ask.... he's been pretty helpful in the past.

i wonder if maybe I could even take a cord close in color and perhaps dye it..... just a thought.

It is also possible to paint plastic jacket cords.  Western Electric shops did this very routinely.  The paint can be custom mixed and matched by many suppliers if you bring a sample to the store.  A neutral light gray cord with soft PVC jacket would be ideal for that too.