AE Monophone Desk Phone With Crank

[Telephone Mike]

Can anyone help me identify this phone?  It has a small wiring diagram inside that I think says MC-1088.  I've Googled it and can't come up with anything.  The base is metal and the handset is bakelite with a unique braided cord.  I've played around with the wiring and finally got the bell to ring when cranked. I plan on cleaning it up, repainting and polishing and would love to modify it to work on modern lines.

[stub]

Telephone Mike ,
                You have a Automatic or American Electric Type 8 . I found it 1st. in the American Electric  Bulletin 100 ( 1929 ) pg. 12 .
                 The next Catalog I found it in is Automatic Electric 4055  ( 1934 ) pg. 23.
                 The phone is Local Battery, antiside-tone.
                 You will need to see Bill & Colin's LB to CB Conversion - http://tinyurl.com/7z2ge4y
                   Hope this helps.  stub                      
                                                                (Left click on pics to enlarge)

[stub]

Telephone Mike ,
                         I hooked mine to a AE mini - network and a ringer control by Stan Schreier and it works great and you can still safely use the magneto to manually ring and it will ring on incoming calls also .
                                                                                                                                                      stub

[Phonesrfun]

Cool phone!

I haven't seen one from the US like that before.  It looks very much like the Danish phones we see once in a while.

I would imagine being AE, the phone was made for the US market.

[Telephone Mike]

Thanks for the great info Stub.  Will try to convert it after the restoration.  Will also try to remember to post some pics of the finished project.


Thanks again, Mike

[AE_Collector]

One needs to keep in mind that Magneto phones are "local battery" which means wet or dry cells located at the home either inside the larger wooden wall phones or in a battery box down in the basement etc. That makes Magneto phones a completely different animal from the common battery phones we use today. Though it is likely a stretch to call VOIP services a common battery system, the phones themselves are still common battery phones whether the old "manual type (no dial), dial or touch tone.

So while there are ways to modify them to make them work on today's systems you need to decide how much you are willing to modify a phone to make it work in a manner that it wasn't designed to do.

Once newer more modern phones had been designed for common battery and dial use, manufacturers also came up with more compact designs for Magneto operation since there was still a lot of Magneto service in North America at the time. Phones like this AE #8 as well as the Leich 901 convertible and many others filled this void until Magneto Service finally disappeared completely.

Terry

[HowardPgh]

Telephone Mike-
Rather than convert it to common battery, get another local battery phone and set an intercom system.
I used to have my wood wall phones wired up like that for every floor in my 3 story house.
Howard