Hi All:
Back in 2004 when my parents moved to a nursing home, we came into possession of both houses on our property. What does one do with two houses?
Put one foot in one, and the other in the other? No, I decided we would move to the larger house in front, and finally after many years of not being able to display my phones, I would convert the other house into the phone museum.
So, once we settled in the front house, I began converting the other into the museum.
Phones were taken out of storage, and I began setting them up in the other house in operating displays as much as possible, and began opening up the house to others, so that I could share my collection.
From that point onward, it was all uphill, thanks in large part to equipment sent me by our mutual friend, Terry and others, and constant going to yard sales, and purchasing on eBay. Always on the search.
Rather than post a lot of photos here, I am going to give you a link to the museum page, so you can see the house and the collection.
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Be sure to visit the "New" items page, as a lot of the newer items in the collection aren't shown on the main page.
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/new.html
The collection is continually being added to.
If anyone is in the PEI area for vacation of whatever, contact me, and we can set up an appointment so you can visit. There is never any charge for seeing the museum.
Dave
Every time I look at your pictures, I'm just in awe that you're able to maintain this, that you've collected all of this in one place, and that you're still working at it.
Just amazing. Thanks for showing us, thanks for keeping us informed, and at some point somebody with the gravitas to do it should thank you for history's sake! :-)
QuoteMarch 01. 2012 - Panasonic Easa-Phone KX-T61610 KSU and accompanying programming phone. These KSU's are quite useful for displaying and demonstrating phones, as they will operate normal POTS telephones, unlike most KSUs. I can plug 16 normal phones in this and use them as if they were all connected to the normal line, and they can be used to call each other, too.Toll restrictions may be set up so that no long distance may be called. This will be used in the new room of the museum to demonstrate phones.
I gotta put one of those things on my list of things to buy.
Your ten button 1500 type of thing reminds me of this phone being sold as a "3500" by the owners of oldphones.com.
I have to confess that I've always thought that the push buttons installed this way on the original Dreyfuss design looks a lot better than the way it was eventually produced, with the square front.
Quote from: George Knighton on December 28, 2012, 10:51:57 AM
Your ten button 1500 type of thing reminds me of this phone being sold as a "3500" by the owners of oldphones.com.
I have to confess that I've always thought that the push buttons installed this way on the original Dreyfuss design looks a lot better than the way it was eventually produced, with the square front.
Hi George:
I will try to double up on my reply.... Yes, I certainly enjoy working on, and expanding the museum displays!
I made a lot of additions last year, but this will soon slow down - with my severely reduced income thanks to my unexpected medical retirement, we are reaching the point where I will have to stop adding items. But, I have lots left that I want to do. It is a labour of love, and I will keep working on it, as long as I can still do anything (both health and money-wise).
The Panasonic was a great addition to the museum - they are great. Most of the phones in the new room of the museum run off it, including the payphones. I haven't yet, but eventually, I will set up restrictions on the pay lines, so people can only call local calls - one of the many fun things you can do with the Panasonic. The Panasonic PBXs are very easy to set up - they will operate to ring phones from their default, and an immense range of features are available to those who are brave enough to go further with manual programming.
About the 1500 - that is the way they were made here in Canada for many years. It was quite a few years before they started making them like the US ones with the squared off cases. There were 1554s with the round face - I don't have mine any more, but back in the 70s, that is what I had in what is now the "new" room of the museum. I am not sure what I did with that phone, but I think I ended up foolishly giving it to a next door neighbour when he wanted another phone in his basement.
Oh, well. Sure wish I had given him a later one, but at the time wasn't thinking that one day I would have a place to display it for others to see!
Dave
Quote from: southernphoneman on March 16, 2013, 05:14:27 PM
hi dave pei, not every phone collector is lucky enough to have that kind of a situation for there collection. it looks like a lot of work went into it and by the way i spotted your mickey mouse phone. it is cool.congradulations on your set up, i really admire it.
Thanks! I never expected to be able to do it until it happened, now I am so glad to be able to share my collection with so many. Mind you ,there is a problem associated with it - before I collected new phones when I could afford it - now, I have to to find money to keep it expanding, pay for insurance, taxes, etc., all on a retiree's budget.
But there is nothing like seeing the faces on the visitors, especially the kids, as they see it!
Dave
Hi All:
Well, 2013 is already shaping up to be an interesting year in the museum. Aside from visits from the usual museum goers, already there are a large number of visits set up for various collectors!
2 collector appointments for April
1 collector appointment for May
6 collector appointments for early June
and one collector appointment for August!
Two have visited before and are coming back for their second visit. It will be a pleasure to meet those I haven't met before, and to see those I have met before again.
This will be the biggest year yet for collector visits! I am surprised to have so many having made appointments already this early in the year!
If anyone will find themselves on PEI this year, please let me know and I will make sure you get to see the Museum! There is never a charge for visits - all tours are free!
Dave
In August of last year, a gentleman by the name of John Arsenault visited the museum and took a video during part of his tour. I must apologize - I wasn't feeling well that day, so the narration of the tour isn't as good as it normally is, but his video will give you an idea of some of the items you will see in the museum.
John sent me a copy of the video today, and I have uploaded it with his permission to the TelcoPEI collection of videos on YouTube:
http://youtu.be/sEBk26ev3KQ
Some day, I will take more videos of the phones, switchboards, switching systems, tools, etc. in the museum, but this can serve as a teaser for now!
Dave
It is amazing how many viewed this video overnight. Not quite as many views as Cmdr. Chris Hadfield has had in the last week, but pretty amazing to me.
While I had done a number of videos in my channel about the teletypes in the museum, I promise to try to do more videos of the various collections in the museum this year.
http://youtu.be/sEBk26ev3KQ
If you have a good high speed connection, you can toggle the video quality up to 720P HD if you wish. With a slower connection, you are best to view in in a lower resolution.
I would like to do one on the switchboards and step switches, perhaps one on tools, etc. At any rate, though the video shows only a small subset of what can be seen in the museum, I hope it will serve for now as a general introduction to what you will see here.
As always, museum tours are free - just give me a phone call or email in advance so I will know to expect you!
Dave
I have been doing some edits to the video, adding a title at the beginning, and a URL to the museum site at the end. Also, a link to the video has been added from the Museum site.
Dave
More photos taken during John Arsenault's visit last year to the Museum. First, the grumpy old man standing in front of my 1889 Bell Canada 3 box Blake Transmitter Long-Pole phone, and the other of the entrance to the Museum. My bad legs were starting to get pretty tired - thank goodness for the cane propping me up! :)
Dave
Hi Guys:
Here is proof that the workshop of the museum isn't always pristine! I have been quite busy lately working on quite a few projects lately, and the workshop is in quite a mess, though I always try to keep it in good order. It has also been a couple of years since I posted a new photo of it, and of course the amount of junque, parts, and equipment has grown along with the number of shelves. Only the lower two shelves in each area show due to the ceiling height.
Dave
Dave,
On the wood phone in the background the receiver has two red stripes. I've seen that a lot and someone told me why, but I forgot. What do the red receiver stripes mean?
Thanks in advance....
Russ
Quote from: Russ Kirk on June 04, 2013, 01:24:11 PM
Dave,
On the wood phone in the background the receiver has two red stripes. I've seen that a lot and someone told me why, but I forgot. What do the red receiver stripes mean?
Thanks in advance....
Russ
Hi Russ:
It denotes a telephone used on a Toll line...
Dave
Dave,
Thanks for the looky-loo into your shop, updated. What telephone is shown in pic#4? It's sort of in the shadows, looks metal-bodied, but has a TT pad... my curiosity is certainly piqued. ;)
Best regards!
Quote from: Mr. Bones on June 04, 2013, 02:38:27 PM
Dave,
Thanks for the looky-loo into your shop, updated. What telephone is shown in pic#4? It's sort of in the shadows, looks metal-bodied, but has a TT pad... my curiosity is certainly piqued. ;)
Best regards!
That is an NE 1500. They were built differently here than they were in the US. They shared the same housing as a 500 set, and the ten digit dial was housed in a filler plate which filled the dial opening...
This phone is connected to my Cisco router that is connected to my server for Asterisk.
Dave
Thanks, Dave!
I guess the picture, and reflection just deceived me... I have seen the NE 1500's, (want one, and a 1554) ;).
The picture looked like the phone had a sharp crease in the case, lower LH side, and some metal showing through; thought I had stumbled upon something I hadn't seen before.
Best regards!
The early WE F- numbered Touch-Tone prototypes as well as the early WE 1500s used 500 housings with the round hole for the dial.
NE never made 1554 or 2554 Miniwalls like the WE, SC and ITT version. Rather, both their 1554 and 2554 kept the familiar 554 chassis and housing with a round adapter plate.
ITT makes both the miniwall 2554 and a pushbutton full sized set with a round adapter; this set is coded 3554.
Finally:
The NE 1317A switchboard I purchased last fall has been mounted in the museum... Finally!
It is extremely heavy, and a number of items had to be moved out of its way and for that reason it took me a very long time to get around to it.
To assist, I screwed a 2x4 to the wall to take some of its weight - even then, when I reached for my screwdriver, it toppled onto the floor on top of the vacuum cleaner! Amazingly, no damage done and on the next try I managed to get a screw in to hold it!
The board was heavily modified during its service years, first of all, the separate receiver and transmitter changed over to a handset and hook mounted on the left hand side. A nice job of veneer was done to cover the old holes many years ago. Then, its wiring was modified to make it more similar to the wiring of a 1240 board, all modifications while in service.
These boards were originally used on smaller farmer's exchanges, and most were gone from the Island years ago as Island Tel began buying out the independents.
There was a previous discussion about this board at:
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=7666.0
Dave
Very nice display, this summer I'm building displays.. I'l share a picture when they are done.
Ben
Quote from: WesternElectricBen on June 13, 2013, 05:14:25 PM
Very nice display, this summer I'm building displays.. I'l share a picture when they are done.
Ben
This is the newest room of the museum - I use it mostly for live displays of phones so it will give visiting kids a chance to play with live phones. It is where I have my line simulators and my Panasonic KSUs, and the two payphones on the controller. So the displays there are somewhat fluid at the moment, positions being adjusted, so I can fit more in there, etc.
Actually aside from the work of mounting the board, there was a lot of other work to do including moving a 500 set connected to one of the line simulators, moving the 211, and all the associated wiring, as I only had the one spot suitable for the board. I have put off doing it for a long time, as my health hasn't been good, but I finally decided I had to get it done!
Glad it is, as I love that board! I like it every bit as much as my big 1240 board hooked up to all the magneto sets in the other room, and the 555 hooked up to a line of 500s and 2500s, and 303, 352's there...
Dave
While looking for photos for an award I am being presented a week from now, we came across this blast from the past ca 2004, taken just before I began preparing the other house to become the museum. It would be one of the only photos one would ever find of me in a suit! This was taken in our current house. If nothing else, it should scare off the rats!
Dave
Diggn' the pine paneling! Though when you took all of the phones off the wall their must be more knots...
Ben
Quote from: WesternElectricBen on July 10, 2013, 09:29:15 PM
Diggn' the knoty pine paneling!
Pure 1980! The last time that room was renovated! When I move the phones over to the museum, I filled the holes with those crayon type wax fillers, and really none of the holes can be noticed today, as they blended in so well. I suppose if someone looked really closely, they would find them.
Oh, how my parents loved that panelling ;)
Only phone left in that room now is a 1317 and of course our modern phone. You can't see it in that shot, but our favorite phone was my QSD3A, which of course now is in the museum, and which Linda still misses. We used to dangle holly on the coin gauge at Christmas time, and she loved it!
Dave
Your museum is so cool. I especially love the old operators switchboards. Can you imagine if you had all your phones hooked up and they all rang at the same time!!! Oh loud that would be. :D
Quote from: DebbieDoo on March 21, 2014, 03:15:38 PM
Your museum is so cool. I especially love the old operators switchboards. Can you imagine if you had all your phones hooked up and they all rang at the same time!!! Oh loud that would be. :D
Hi Debbie:
Believe it or not, all telephones in the museum do work - many are hooked into the switchboards, line simulators, KSUs, Strowger switches, and the Panasonic System. So, out of the 500 or so telephones in the museum, about 30 or so of the 500 or so there will actually ring when called from other phones on the same system. On outside calls, only a few phones are set to ring. Even the magneto sets on the 1240 switchboard will call via the switchboard..
Lots to play with and to see!
Dave
That is so cool!!! ;D
Quote from: DavePEI on June 04, 2013, 01:05:02 PM
Hi Guys:
Here is proof that the workshop of the museum isn't always pristine! I have been quite busy lately working on quite a few projects lately, and the workshop is in quite a mess, though I always try to keep it in good order. It has also been a couple of years since I posted a new photo of it, and of course the amount of junque, parts, and equipment has grown along with the number of shelves. Only the lower two shelves in each area show due to the ceiling height.
Dave
I just adore your Step to step switches! Would love to find some for my collection to have a functioning setup!
We had a turquoise one like this.
Mike