WE 151 Candlestick Questions

[Dennis Markham]

The phone looks very nice in the niche, Greg.

[Jim Stettler]

I'm not sure, Sarge.  It makes sense that steel wall phones would have had steel transmitter cups, while brass desk stands would have had brass transmitter cups.  But I haven't seen nearly enough of these to know.

I would say that they used similar metal thru-out the phone.
If you use dissimilar metal you can get electrolisis. Which can cause corrision. If you have the metals insulated from each other then it wouldn't be a problem. If Bell used the steel w/ brass they would of designed an insulator between the metal.
I think the electrosis would be minor if any and  it would take years to have any effect.
I wouldn't worry about it.

JMO,
JIm





The bell system knew about electroloisis early on. That is why they use a (+) ground.
On the lead sheath cables  a positive ground will actually thicken the cable jacket over the years, wheras a - ground would lose it's sheathing much quicker.

[benhutcherson]

I'll have to double check, but I'm pretty sure that the "Bulldog" on my 151AL is neither brass nor steel, but rather plastic.

As far as dial types-I would very strongly suspect that a 151AL would have originally been fitted with a 4H. I don't think that a 5H would be inappropriate on one. Remember that the 151AL was a late-production model. I forget the exact years, but I think that they were still being put in service up to and probably even through WWII.

I'll also add that my 151AL came with a dial blank rather than a dial. It was significantly less expensive to buy it this way, and I added my own 5H dial.

[Sargeguy]

For the sake of clarity:

Original Phone:
51 AL modified into a 151AL brassed out missing cup dial and reciever
Bulldog type transmitter with a nickel/ aluminum? cup
4H dial from an old D-1
706A transmitter I found on eBay

New Phone
151AL  all brass
appears original dated 1941
older style transmitter
#2 dial converted to 4H

Things I have learned:
The metal cup on the original  is apparently from a wall phone. Candlestick cups were brass
151 Al came with 4H dials
151 AL did not necessarily come with 706A receivers
Brass candlesticks are nearly impossible to paint without specialized equipment

How do I get rid of dial tap?  When I dial returns there is a nasty clank noise in the transmitter.  This happened with theD-1 that was there as well.