News:

"The phone is a remarkably complex, simple device,
and very rarely ever needs repairs, once you fix them." - Dan/Panther

Main Menu

Tele-Chec Theatre Seating System - Dial

Started by TelePlay, November 28, 2015, 08:48:55 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

TelePlay


Jack Ryan

#1
I would say that the dial on Etsy is an ATEA dial - uncommon but not rare. Far too expensive in my opinion.

The tele-chec dial is not a telephone dial. The inter digit delay is too short for most exchange types. Tele-chec was some sort of ticketing or ushers intercom used at theatres.

Jack

TelePlay

Quote from: Jack Ryan on November 28, 2015, 10:46:15 AM
The tele-chec dial is not a telephone dial. The inter digit delay is too short for most exchange types. Tele-chec was some sort of ticketing or ushers intercom used at theatres.

Jack, I never knew of these. Found this from on a Facebook page dedicated to Old El Paso. They seem to have had a theater there called the Plaza which was donated to the city, renovated and in use today. One of the artifacts kept, restored and displayed in an original Tele-Chec machine. By itself and complete, it seems the unit is quite rare and most likely worth quite a bit. Its use was described at that site as"

"This is a rare and original Tele-Chec machine from the Plaza Theatre. The Tele-Chec was used by theater ushers as an early intercom system to communicate, through use of numbered lamps, the remaining available seats in the theater. The system consisted of smaller wall-mounted units located near each row of seats, and 3 larger brass consoles (such as this one) in strategic locations throughout the theater."

The Tele-Chec unit seems to have 4 dials that look like they were made by AE. Another one of these Tele-Chec dials sold recently on eBay for $9.99 plus shipping.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/AUTOMATIC-ELECTRIC-TELEPHONE-DIAL-TELE-CHEC-S-55-A-3-TO-ZERO-/381455878201

The description is somewhat interesting when compared to the fingerwheel image:  "AUTOMATIC ELECTRIC TELEPHONE DIAL TELE CHEC S 55 A  HAS NUMBERS 3 TO 0. NONUMBER 1 OR 2 ON DIAL. DIAL WONT TURN. Not sure if there some kind of lock or release on the back."

Jack Ryan

#3
Quote from: TelePlay on November 28, 2015, 11:58:54 AM
The description is somewhat interesting when compared to the fingerwheel image:  "AUTOMATIC ELECTRIC TELEPHONE DIAL TELE CHEC S 55 A  HAS NUMBERS 3 TO 0. NO NUMBER 1 OR 2 ON DIAL. DIAL WONT TURN. Not sure if there some kind of lock or release on the back."

I don't remember ever seeing a Tele-Chec dial with missing numbers. The dial shown looks like it is stuck - if you look at the pictures of the rear of the dial, it is not in its normal position.

It is an interesting system and I remember having a lot of trouble finding information about it when I first came across it.

The dial has a cam missing compared to a normal telephone dial. AE dials are capable of generating 11 digits and various control dials take advantage of this. The Tele-Chec dial generates 10 digits by moving the stop closer to the '1'.

Sometimes there are AE number plates offered on eBay in bulk for some unsuspecting buyer - they are this type with the finger stop in the "wrong" place.

Jack

TelePlay

Quote from: Jack Ryan on November 28, 2015, 07:17:00 PM
I don't remember ever seeing a Tele-Chec dial with missing numbers. The dial shown looks like it is stuck - if you look at the pictures of the rear of the dial, it is not in its normal position.

It is an interesting system and I remember having a lot of trouble finding information about it when I first came across it.

The dial has a cam missing compared to a normal telephone dial. AE dials are capable of generating 11 digits and various control dials take advantage of this. The Tele-Chec dial generates 10 digits by moving the stop closer to the '1'.

Sometimes there are AE number plates offered on eBay in bulk for some unsuspecting buyer - they are this type with the finger stop in the "wrong" place.

Yes, Jack. That's why I said the description was interesting when compared to the image. The seller said the dial does not turn, he thinks it is locked, but we easily see the finger wheel did not return to its normal rest so two holes show white and two numbers, which are there, are behind the solid metal. I was being a bit sarcastic in my comment, didn't want to insult the seller who apparently knows not much of things telephonic.

As for Tele-Chec, it took me about an hour of searching and tracking down google hits to find that picture of one. Today's interference was Google hitting on "Tele-Check" with the "k," something totally different. This might be the only picture on the web of one and the only machine in existence. Must have been a popular theater back in the day to have a need for a device to near instantly tell the lobby of an empty seat in the house. Nothing worse than having an empty seat in the house and a line at the door that does not know of the empty seat.

Jack Ryan

Quote from: TelePlay on November 28, 2015, 07:32:55 PM
Yes, Jack. That's why I said the description was interesting when compared to the image. The seller said the dial does not turn, he thinks it is locked, but we easily see the finger wheel did not return to its normal rest so two holes show white and two numbers, which are there, are behind the solid metal. I was being a bit sarcastic in my comment, didn't want to insult the seller who apparently knows not much of things telephonic.

Sorry, I missed your meaning.

Quote
As for Tele-Chec, it took me about an hour of searching and tracking down google hits to find that picture of one. Today's interference was Google hitting on "Tele-Check" with the "k," something totally different. This might be the only picture on the web of one and the only machine in existence. Must have been a popular theater back in the day to have a need for a device to near instantly tell the lobby of an empty seat in the house. Nothing worse than having an empty seat in the house and a line at the door that does not know of the empty seat.

That entry didn't exist when I was looking. The only reference I found was this one:

http://www.atcaonline.com/pictures/?id=130623030

I asked Ron and he received no answers to his question.

Jack

TelePlay

Quote from: Jack Ryan on November 28, 2015, 07:47:29 PM
That entry didn't exist when I was looking. The only reference I found was this one:

Jack, if you meant the link I had imbedded in the phrase "Found this from on a Facebook." it may be that you were not logged into Facebook when you tried to access the site with that hyper link. Everything there I posted but I included the link in case anyone wanted to see the original source of the information. I had to log onto Facebook just to read the pages. Anyway, I printed that page as a PDF and converted it to a jpg file here attached. Wasn't much there.

Jack Ryan

I meant that when I first researched the subject, that Facebook post did not exist. In fact, aside from Ron's post, there were zero hits at the time.

Jack

Jack Ryan

#8
TeleChec was not the only company to use an AE dial configured that way.

Here is another with the same numbering and finger stop location but different ON contacts. Also shown is a mis-identified dial number plate on eBay. The number plate fits this dial configuration.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/311492746737

[Images failed security checks again - couldn't immediately see an offending tag so I posted a PDF. I think it is time the problem was fixed]

Regards
Jack

TelePlay

#9
Jack,

Is this the dial you could not load, the picture of it, or is this yet another TC dial on eBay?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Rotary-Telephone-Dial-Assembly-AE-Co-USA-/371497639721

This adds another whole dimension to buying stand alone dials and number plates if one does is not careful, does not have this knowledge. Now we have plates that look like WE notches but have AE numbers and complete dials that would fit neither WE or AE phones.


Jack Ryan

#10
Quote from: TelePlay on December 01, 2015, 09:46:26 PM
Is this the dial you could not load, the picture of it, or is this yet another TC dial on eBay?

It is not the same one but it is another the same as in my post. It is not a TeleChec dial but it uses the same number plate and finger stop location. The ON contacts are different from the TeleChec dial.

I have a mental block at the moment but there is a company with "game" in its name that did scoring systems (I think) and alarms. I believe this is one of their dials.

As with all collecting - you have to see what is there, not what you expect.

Regards
Jack