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Japanese (?) Subset

Started by wds, August 06, 2016, 06:08:02 PM

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wds

Picked this up from Ebay this week.  I'm guessing a Japanese ringer.  Box looks identical to a Western Electric 295 ringer, and is the same size and appearance.  Wood is not oak and really looks nice in person.  Can anyone identify the ringer or translate the badge on the front?
Dave

unbeldi

I don't recall that the bias spring was ever mounting like this on WECo ringers.  Coil wrapping material also looks different.

wds

#2
I didn't mean to say it was made by western electric, just very similar.  Wasn't NEC a branch of W.E. in Japan? 
Dave

rdelius

Built or possibly rebuilt in 1951.(Showa 26).Not sure of mfg but NEC was at one time a Japanese affilate for international WE.

Jack Ryan

That looks like quite a recent subset.

The Japanese telephone industry was regulated by the NTT (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone) and composed of quite a few manufacturers. Some of the largest and oldest are OKI (from the founder's name, Kibataro Oki - partnered with Peel Conner (UK) & loosely associated with Western Electric), NEC (Nippon Electric Company – partnered with Western Electric), Fuji Electric Co. (partnered with Siemens & Halske) and Automatic Electric. Taiko Electric Works was established in 1932 by a former OKI employee, in Shinagawa, Tokyo.

Early equipment was American, British or German. Pretty soon it became hybridised so that both the equipment and the standards were a mix of mostly American and British.

Jack