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I "inherited" a AE80

Started by Pourme, April 09, 2018, 08:59:00 AM

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Pourme

~

A unusual situation. As my wife and I prepare to celebrate our 23rd anniversary we got news that her ex husband passed away. He never remarried so my wife's children became the heirs of his possessions. When they were sorting through the house they found this AE80 that once belonged to his parents. My stepdaughter brought it to me and asked if I wanted it.

This area is and has always been serviced by a independent Telco. At the time it was Central Telephone System (see number card). I'm going to clean it up and add it to my collection.

When I opened it up I discovered something I didn't expect. I realize the telcos bought phones without ringers quite often so they could use the ringer that suited the situation. What I thought unusual is that this phone was fitted with a electronic ringer. How common was that practice? I assume it was cheaper?

It will clean up quite nicely. I will post pictures when it's finished.

Benny
Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service

jsowers

Have you hooked it up to see what the ringer sounds like? I've never seen anything like that ringer before. Electronic ringers were in the experimental stage in the 1950s and didn't really see widespread use until maybe the 1970s.

With the "station code" on the number card, I would assume that this was originally a party line phone. In independent telco areas in NC, party lines were very common and independent telcos that used AE phones also used frequency ringers. I grew up using a party line black AE80 very similar to this one. Ours didn't have a fingerwheel and dial that old, but the rest was circa 1961 or so because it had the larger feet and the line compensator control on the bottom. Can you post a shot of the bottom? It might tell when it was made.

That electronic ringer must've been a later addition to make it work on a private line, though we can never tell who added it. I guess none of his children know the details since it belonged to their grandparents. It was nice of your step-daughter to remember you collected old phones.
Jonathan

mentalstampede

I think that's probably likely. I recently acquired a pair of AE80s from the estate of a family friend and encountered a similar thing. The house they were in originally had party line service. When General Telephone upgraded them to private line in the early 1980s, one of the phones was upgraded with a much newer straight line ringer like you see in AE80E phones. The other one was overlooked and still had its original 50~ ringer in it until I removed it from the house last week.

Quote from: jsowers on April 09, 2018, 02:03:59 PM

With the "station code" on the number card, I would assume that this was originally a party line phone.
My name is Kenn, and I like telephones.

"Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something." --Robert Heinlein

Pourme

Jonathan & Kenn,

I don't know for positive sure that it was a party line but I would guess it originally was, almost everyone here was on a party line back then. The ringer sounds like the "bird chirping" sound, not a buzzer type sound. It works on the high and low ringer position on the 1045A and on the Panasonic 616 as well.

I gave it a good polishing and it looks good. Wish they had sprung for the red version!

Here is a pic of the bottom.

Benny
Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service

AE_Collector

A nice AE Old Timer Benny.

I wondered if the Station Code might be from a business installation where some Telcos kept track of each "station" on a line from a maintenance point of view but a Party Line May make more sense. I've never seen an electronic ringer like that before, must have been something the local Telco came up with to replace a frequency Ringer or these may have been available in different frequencies as well.


NB 802 CXX:
NB is network type
80 Phone model
2 Retractile Coil Cord
C Metropolitan numbers/letters dial
XX No ringer equipped from factory

Terry

Pourme

Does that other number stamped mean it was a 1964 mfg date, Terry?

Benny
Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service

AE_Collector

Yes, April 1964. The 10 is a plant or assembly line number.

Terry

Pourme

Quote from: AE_Collector on April 10, 2018, 01:43:59 AM
Yes, April 1964. The 10 is a plant or assembly line number.

Terry


Thanks Terry!
Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service

AE_Collector

Open up the handset and check for "two letter" codes on the capsules to see if they match the date on the base. Still testing my conversion chart.

Terry

Pourme

~

Here is what I found.
Benny

Panasonic 308/616 Magicjack service

AE_Collector

Perfect! Matching AG date code is very beginning of 1964 production dates of the capsules. The date stamped on the base increasing has been looking like a date stamped when the phone comes "off the shelf", date stamped, into a box and shipped to fill an order. Frequently some of the components inside the phone are a month to a year earlier than the code on the base.

You may find two letter date codes inside as well but not "always dated" like the capsules. Some chance of codes on the back of the dial and the network.

Terry

mentalstampede

Terry,

Is there a thread where your chart is available to other collectors? I'm quite interested in this; I was under the impression that AE had no defined procedure of marking dates on components.

Quote from: AE_Collector on April 10, 2018, 11:02:44 AM
Open up the handset and check for "two letter" codes on the capsules to see if they match the date on the base. Still testing my conversion chart.

Terry
My name is Kenn, and I like telephones.

"Progress isn't made by early risers. It's made by lazy men trying to find easier ways to do something." --Robert Heinlein

AE_Collector

#12
I have had small discussions leading towards making a chart but still haven't actually done it. This came from the base code discussions through last year which is here:
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=17379.0

And then I created a highlites topic to cut through all the clutter. It is here:
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=17454.0

There are some variables and plain old "AE screw ups" such as codes stamped backwards (year/month) but most are Month (or more likely fortnight) / year. Year "A" began in 1932 and started over again in 1958. I need to put up a preliminary chart in the highlites topic and what I would really l8ke to do is write an article for the TCI newsletter.

As you said, no one ever though there was really any dating if AE phones until mid to late 50's when they began stamping dates onto the bases of AE 80's and 90's as part of the coding. I had been wondering what the "two letter codes" particularly in transmitter and receiver capsules were for years. Through the base code discussions I finally began to see some patterns particularly in 80's and 90's that had both dates and two letter codes. It didn't take long to come to the 1932 and 1958 beginning point.

I had help in bouncing ideas around particularly from Unbeldi. Others including Jack Ryan provided info that helped as well. There are still many unknowns but we definitely cracked part of the AE codes. Besides the date codes I was particularly excited to find that there were also colour codes on many of the early coloured AE phones prior to the 80/90 generation of phones.

Terry