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Black dial-less 7-50 500

Started by TelePlay, June 22, 2013, 10:48:28 PM

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TelePlay

Anyone watch this? Went from $88 to $338 in the last 5 seconds. Two heavy collectors came in at the end. Would be interesting to see what was under the hood of this early 500.

Oh, yeah, and I thought I could snipe it for $90 at the end . . .  :(

http://www.ebay.com/itm/281122318479

McHeath

Love to see inside this one.  Maybe one of the rare 49er parts is in there.  Looks like it has an equalizer based on the side shot. 

TelePlay

Quote from: McHeath on June 25, 2013, 12:03:00 AMLove to see inside this one.  Maybe one of the rare 49er parts is in there.  Looks like it has an equalizer based on the side shot.

For posterity, I added the side shot from auction to my initial post. Would be nice if a forum member won this phone and would post pictures.

WesternElectricBen

It's weird the plungers are clear, maybe they were replaced later?
Ben

Jim Stettler

Are the plunger smooth top or curved top(like standard plungers)? ISTR that the question came up regarding D/P's phone.
ISTR that it was determined that D/P's set would of originally had clear plungers, smooth or curved top was never determined from available photos of field trial sets.
Jim
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

AE_Collector

I have emailed the purchaser to see if he can provide us some additional pictures of the inside. And maybe we can get him to join CRPF?

Terry

AE_Collector

Dean received the telephone yesterday and sent me the following description of the componenets:

Hi Terry.

I received the telephone yesterday evening.

I noted the following markings on the components:

The exterior of the base is marked 500 and 7/50 near the front.  There is also a T marked near the edge of the base above and to the left of the other two markings.

The interior of the base is marked 20 in what appears to be the same color ink as the markings on the exterior.  This marking is to the right of the dial mounting when the telephone is viewed from the front.

The interior of the housing is marked 5 25 50 3.

95A Apparatus Blank – no obvious date markings

D3BB Cord – II 50 marked on metal band

H4BA Cord – III 50 marked on metal band

311A Equalizer – marked APR 30 1950

425A Network – marked 7-50

G1 Hand Set – marked 6-50 in the receiver cavity

U1 Receiver Unit – marked 7 27 50

T1 Transmitter Unit – marked 7-50-I and 10

44A Varistor (part of U1 Receiver Unit) – marked 5-50

I did not carefully examine the ringer.  It has a 1950 date marking, but I could not locate a part number marking during my brief inspection.  I believe it is a C2A but cannot confirm this yet.

I expect this is a standard production 500A Telephone Set that rolled off WECo's assembly line in late July, 1950.

The only unusual feature I noticed concerns the switchhook plungers.  They appear to be similar to the Lucite-type plungers that appeared later on the colored 500-type sets.  HOWEVER, the tops of the plungers on this set are flat, unlike the normal curved dome tops of the later Lucite-type plungers.

This telephone was produced at the same time WECo was manufacturing colored 302-type sets that utilized Lucite-type plungers with flat tops.  Perhaps the designers thought it was important to maintain a flat top on the plungers, although the flat portion of these plungers is TINY compared to the flat portions of the plungers used on the colored 302s.

I believe the eBay seller of this telephone got it almost right when he originally described it as being "New Old Stock."  While it is clear from the markings on the handset that the handset had been in the cradle at some point, I found no other indication that this telephone had ever been placed in service.  The receiver and transmitter caps did not seem to have been opened previously.  There was no foreign matter on the caps or on the receiver and transmitter units themselves.  The screws on the base were "factory tight," and the interior of the telephone was clean (except for a couple of spider carcasses...fairly common with old telephones).  The spade tips on the mounting cord showed no markings of having been secured by screws.  All in all, I believe this telephone is a near-mint example of a 500 set from a 1950 production run.

If anyone on the forum would still like to see photographs of any part of this telephone, please let me know.

Take care.

Dean

Phonesrfun

Wow, a real gem.

Imagine all the original cords, including the straight handset cord with the inside leads cut for the equalizer.  It is intriguing about the clear lucite plungers.  Given the description of the flat heads and the other facts surrounding the originality and dates within the phone, I suspect the clear lucite plungers are definitely original.

Sometimes pouring over these phones in a forensic mode is interesting.
-Bill G

Jim Stettler

Sound's like D/P phone needs to have flat plungers.
JMO,
Jim
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

Dennis Markham

That phone is a fantastic find.  I'm glad it survived all this time and stayed in such great condition.  It would be great to see some pictures, including some from "under the hood".

~Dennis