Western Electric 2GB Dial

[Desert Phone Guy]

I found this dial in a box of parts I had in the garage for quite a while.. Actually forgot I had it.  Don't really know a lot about it.  Read some threads on this site stating it could be a central office dial, or go on an A1 desk set. 

If anyone can use it, please contact me directly.  The dial plate is a decent 132B with the squared off "S" letter, which I think is an earlier version.

thanks,

Steve

[Desert Phone Guy]

The dial has sold.  The new owner believes the dial goes on an A1 desk set.

Steve

[poplar1]

AT&T Specification 4810 is dated Dec., 1927 (TCI Library). Page 5 states that the A-type hand set mounting requires either a 50-D apparatus blank or a 2HA, 2HB, or 2HE dial. The 2H is also listed for the B- and C-type hand set mountings.

So, even if someone tried to make the case for a 2GB (as manufactured or modified somehow) on earliest A1 mountings (Dr. Woolf's unrestricted access to the Archives?), this would not explain the use of a 2GB with the late date (330 = Quarter 3 of 1930) on the dial pictured here. WE was already making 4H dials by 1930. There was some overlap of the manufacture of 2- and 4-types, but it seems unlikely that WE would have continued to install -- if they ever did -- a test board dial in place of a station dial.

Handset mountings require dials with 6 springs (contacts). Otherwise,  a 4-conductor handset cord would have been necessary.