Western Electric "C" Stock

[poplar1]

The Bell operating companies purchased everything---phones, cable, even paper clips--from Western Electric. When a phone was removed from service by the installer/repairman, it was returned to WE, where it was either remanufactured (refurbished), parted out, or junked. Bell didn't get any credit for phones they sent back if WE ended up junking them.

After 1983, AT&T became owner of all the equipment that was still being leased to customers by the Bell companies. You could continue to lease your phones, but you paid AT&T directly for the phones, and Bell for dial tone.

I got to ask Bill a few questions yesterday about the Atlanta service center, where Bill retired in 1993, not long before WE closed this operation. Atlanta was the only remaining service center for leased phones at that time.

The remanufactured phones were known as C stock. Southern Bell had different accounts in their budget. For example, they might have no money budgeted to buy new phones, but a lot of money allocated for rebuilt phones. This could happen at the same time that Southern Bell decided that a particular phone was obsolete. At some point, Southern Bell decided that they would no longer stock  2220Bs (round button Trimline handsets); they needed the LED Trimlines (2220C), but there was no money for new ones. The new handsets cost $42 each. The only thing salvageable from the returned 2220B handsets were the T-1 transmitters and the receivers. Southern Bell got credit for these parts--25 cents for each transmitter or receiver. Bill calculated the cost for the new handset parts and labor cost plus WE's markup: the price would be $41, and the handsets would be assembled in the Atlanta shop with the old transmitters and receivers, and the new parts from the WE factory. Bill got an "attaboy" because that part of the shop was now running at 100% of capacity instead of 70%.

While we were looking at some phones and parts for sale yesterday, we saw a 7D dial (for a 500 set) that had been refurbished. In addition to the original manufacture date, it was marked "1L68." [You often see a similar marking on the governor of 5H dials.] He said the "L" stands for "Lubricated." They used some kind of red grease, that was difficult to remove if it got on your clothes. If a worker did not stamp the "L," then he would get 10 demerits, because the next time the dial showed up on a 500 that was to be reissued, it would have to be lubricated again since it had not been marked. And if you didn't lubricate it at all, then that was a 50 demerit penalty.

At the place we went to look at phones yesterday, there was a case of NOS yellow 500 housings made in 1966--48 to a box, and white and beige 701B Princess housings, 20 to a box although the boxes were made for 24. Bill said that they used to paint the housings, then repack them. One time, the workers were putting 60 housings for 500s in a 48-housing box. To prevent that from happening again, Bill came up with the idea of weighing a box of 48 housings, then using that calculation to weigh future boxes after packing, in order to verify the contents. He said that there were no rewards for management, other than a pat on the back. So he gave the idea to one of his buddies in the shop, so he could submit it. The boss liked the idea, but since he was too busy to research it, he told Bill to investigate the idea. Bill played along, and his friend got a good cash bonus.

I asked Bill what happened to the blue 302 that Sonny and I saw at WE just before ACI started buying surplus from WE for 11 cents a pound. The blue 302 was supposed to have gone to ACI with all the other "lease junk." Bill said someone at WE probably got it before the other 302s went to ACI. The shop guys were always getting the good stuff when it came in.  

Bill confirmed that if the model number is stamped in green on the box, that means it is refurbished, not new. I usually look at the transmitter in a 302 or 500: if it is restamped with a later date, I know that the phone has probably been refurbished (i.e. not all original). While that may be true, Bill said they didn't always take the time to restamp the transmitters.

I was told by another employee that they stopped the 5302 line in 1965. Bill said that while they may have been still refurbishing them that late, they were no longer *converting* 302s to 5302s by the time he started there in 1964. Going through about 40 or 50 5302s parts phones that we bought at ACI in the early 90s, I found dates on the housings from 1957 to 1962; this agrees with Bill's timeline for conversions. I'm going to go back to Sonny's new warehouse to look at the dates on the cord strain reliefs; if a phone has the same date on both cords, this is often a good indicator of when it was refurbished.

These 5302s were in a pile of phones ACI received from Shreveport, where WE had manufactured 500s and other sets. [Newly designed phones were first manufactured in the Indianapolis plant, where the design shop was located. After they "got the bugs out," some models were then produced in Shreveport.---per A.L. Soots of WE in Indianapolis.] They all had the cords cut off and there were no handsets, but for $2 apiece, we weren't complaining. I picked out all the ones with 5M dials. [5M is a 5H dial with a 164C number plate--black with white dots.] I didn't bother with the 5302s with 6-type dials; Steve Hilsz said we should have grabbed all of them.

[Holtzer-Cabot]

Wow! Very interesting! Thanks for posting this info!