Three Generations of Phones with Party Line Dials

[cihensley@aol.com]

A candlestick, B mount and D mount with party line dials. The candlestick and B mount have 132 dial number plates. A 150 is on the D mount. The base cover on the D mount was frayed. It was recovered by Dennis Hallworth (Decins).

For those that are members and have access, the July 2010 of the TCI newsletter has an article on the hows and whys of party line dial number plates.

Chuck

[Jack Ryan]

Chuck,

I'm always interested in party line equipment - is there a family photo coming?

As Roger said in his article, these E plates were not actually used on party line telephones but on telephones that needed to be able to call party line telephones in an area with mixed auto and manual exchanges.

As it happens, although these number plated were *usually* used in this way, it is not the only way they were used. They were also used in areas where there were several auto offices - the single letter was used to identify an office in the same way the more usual B number plate was used elsewhere. In this case the office was identified by a single letter.

Speaking of party line phones, I have a D8 Handset Mounting. It has a "trigger" under the cradle that operates as a hook latch.

Jack

[cihensley@aol.com]

Jack:

The originating dial telephone may or may not have been on a party line. Proper ringing to it was determined by wiring in the central office. The J, M, R, W came into play when the dial equipped caller called a manual station

Chuck

[Jack Ryan]

Jack:

The originating dial telephone may or may not have been on a party line. Proper ringing to it was determined by wiring in the central office. The J, M, R, W came into play when the dial equipped caller called a manual station

Chuck

That's true - it might have been on an auto party line and used to call a subscriber on a manual party line. I was trying to say, but not very successfully, is that the letters were not relevant when calling an auto subscriber - party line or not - only a manual party line subscriber.

Having said that, the letters were also used as I described to select one of several auto exchanges. The two applications were mutually exclusive.

Jack

[cihensley@aol.com]

Jack:

Agree.

Chuck