Find of the Month - January 2016

[AE_Collector]

Yes I was noticing the nice trangle configuration. For awhile our BCTel logo was comprised of two similar triangles side by side so we had them on all of our work trucks. Coincidentally our headquarters building was the same shape, each floor getting smaller but with a straight edge on two sides and the other two sides sloping in with each higher floor.

Terry

[compubit]

As opposed to Dallas (Texas) City Hall...

[andre_janew]

I thought there would be some discussion about my phone.  It is a 1964 model and it has a metal fingerwheel.  I thought someone might say that it should have a clear plastic one.  I was expecting that since, as I understand it, 1964 was the year that black phones got a clear plastic fingerwheel.

[WEBellSystemChristian]

I thought there would be some discussion about my phone.  It is a 1964 model and it has a metal fingerwheel.  I thought someone might say that it should have a clear plastic one.  I was expecting that since, as I understand it, 1964 was the year that black phones got a clear plastic fingerwheel.

I believe late 1965-early 1966 was when #9 dials, closed center fingerwheels, and G3 handsets were introduced on Black 500s.

[AE_Collector]

That's it for the first Find of the Month for 2016. An interesting contest with everyone getting respectable votes for their find. We eventually "sort of" lost the perfect pyramid look to the voting results that Christian mentioned.

zapper's Western Electric NOS in box black 500 dated 1952 eventually went on to victory though compubit's last minute entry of his Dawn Gray AE 80 looked poised to be the winner early on. It is a tough crowd here for non WECo's so compubit was a very solid runner up.

Congrats go to zapper for his Find and his Win to get 2016 off to a good start. zapper is no stranger to the winners circle here on CRPF. He has won Find of the Month in 2012, 2015 and now in 2016.

To check out a list of all past winners including the Find of the YEAR winners click here:  http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=12971.0

Thanks to all the contestants and to everyone who took the time to vote.

Terry

[zapper]

Thanks to all the member's who voted for my January Find of the Month. When I came across the phone it was listed with a starting bid of $25.00.  I e-mailed the seller and asked if he would do a Buy It Now of $75.00.  When I arrived home his E-mail indicated he changed the listing with the BIN.  Although over an hour had passed the phone was still available and the rest is history.  One strange problem I found when I removed the phone from the box, both ends of the mounting cord are deteriorated.
The rest of the internal wiring is in new condition.
Zapper

[HarrySmith]

I guess the cords are susceptible to some kind of "corrosion" when they sit a long time. I recently picked up some 500's that were refurbed in 1964 with new cords at that time. These phones are in the original boxes, unused and the cords all have some white crud on them. I tried wiping it off and it would not budge. I finally removed the cords and put them in the usual "Oxi-Clean" soak for a couple of hours, that did the trick! I have seen other NIB phones with nasty cords as well. Not sure what causes this, maybe someone here can shed some light on it.

[zapper]

Here's a pic of the cord
Zapper

[unbeldi]

I guess the cords are susceptible to some kind of "corrosion" when they sit a long time. I recently picked up some 500's that were refurbed in 1964 with new cords at that time. These phones are in the original boxes, unused and the cords all have some white crud on them. I tried wiping it off and it would not budge. I finally removed the cords and put them in the usual "Oxi-Clean" soak for a couple of hours, that did the trick! I have seen other NIB phones with nasty cords as well. Not sure what causes this, maybe someone here can shed some light on it.

The plastic used for cordage had to be very flexible. As the pure plastics are usually hard, the manufacturers add a great deal of plasticizer to achieve the mechanical properties they desire.  Some plastics used for flexible application can have as much as perhaps a third in weight added in plasticizers.  Over the time these plasticizer ooze out, dry up, make the cord sticky, or whatever effect might have been observed.

The picture of the cord ends seem very typical of dried out and broken up insulation of the 1950s.  I think this may still be rubber insulation.