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Find of the Month - July 2012

Started by AE_Collector, July 01, 2012, 11:44:53 PM

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Find of the Month - July 2012

Doug (really Janet) Rose's 302 12/36 - Vents, riveted feet, wood post, short ears, small plungers $15!
16 (61.5%)
Sebbel's WE 40AL with 315H Subset for $5
5 (19.2%)
HowardPgh's 5302G with GF handset from a Fea Market for $10
3 (11.5%)
d_s_k's restored "Bunker Telephone". I think it followed him home (free)
7 (26.9%)
Kleenax -> Ben Salem's late-1800's American Electric Potbelly Candlestick. Over $600, exact total unknown!
8 (30.8%)
Kleenax's 3 Michigan Bell Telephone Gold tie clasps (undisclosed price)
1 (3.8%)
Kleenax's 2 - WE 202's with an E and an F handset and a 4 and a 6 dial $35.00 at the flea market
0 (0%)
LM Ericsson's soft plastic 500 in aqua blue that he found at antique store for $55
3 (11.5%)
zapper's Western Electric Interphone system purchased at an estate sale for less than $20
17 (65.4%)

Total Members Voted: 26

AE_Collector

Post your "Finds of the Month" for July 2012 Here.

"Finds of the Month" are items that you acquired this month that you are particulatly excited about either because of its rarity, the difficulty you had in trying to find one for your collection or the exceptional "deal" you got on it etc.

Terry


Doug Rose

#1
I'd like to nominate Janet who found a 12/36 Western Electric 302 yesterday at  a Flea market at 5:05 AM. Vents, riveted feet, wood post, short ears, small plungers. Where one with a dial went last week for $579...this was a steal at $15.

She called me about a half hour after she bought it. I got a metal 302 with vents. AAAAHHHH...True Love!!

Doug
Kidphone

Doug Rose

more pics
Kidphone

sebbel

I think I'll nominate my WE 40AL with 315H. It's 2 items but technically a single complete phone. I got the pair for 5$. Both are in good shape and only the receiver disk and cap are missing.
Seb.

HowardPgh

#4
I'll nominate my $10.00 5302G from the flea market. It has a GF handset.
This is a before picture. After coming soon.
PS Janet must be agreat phone finder/magnet!!
Howard
Howard

dsk

Maybe not a good nominee, but maybe the right place to put the story.

A rotary installed in 1983, with a history.

I have an old magneto bunker telephone with cast iron case, I got it from the fortress where I served in 82-83. They modernized, and got rotary phones, so the old ones installed in 1942 was meant to be thrown into the sea. Well it happend to end up here. The fortress was built during German occupation of Norway, built by east European and Russian prisoners of war. Equipped with German weapons, phones etc. Our artillery in 1983 was 15cm canons designed in 1928, and still a part of the Norwegian defence.   Later the fortress was upgraded for about $ 344 000 000 and shut down.  That's (NATO) politics!  I visited the fortress this summer, far in a wet open tunnel I found this abandoned telephone installed in 1983.  Now, i understand why, it had lots of defects., but it looked not bad.  The hook was bended, and the ringer chrome was not nice, and the dial did just almost returned.  I brought it out in daylight and home. If you have been in a wet cave, you know the smell of my telephone. Inside this watertight telephone it was corroded contacts, something looking like the chalice that hangs in the cave roof . I started with the dial, and I had an almost identical dial, but white to cannibalize so the fingerstop and the spring was replaced. The original spring was in 15 parts!  A little cleaning with meths, and here we go. Then I discovered the blinker relay cantacts was extremely corroded, and one of the soldering was bad. The chalice stopped me from soldering so carefully cleaning was needed first (only that point). The contacts was brushed up with some sandpaper strips from the dentists, and some minor cleaning was needed. Time for electrical testing, but the line terminal screw was broken so I decided to pick the contact apart, and switch the part with one contact not used. Yes it rings, but the field telephone used for cranking was heavy to turn, so I discovered a 250 ohms ringer. The 2 coils was in parallel! I changed it to series, and added a 1µF capacitor in series.  A little adjustment of the clapper and and it rings well. The visual signal was only working once in a while, so the action there had to be adjusted too.  The voice circuit: not a sound, But the receiver capsule was just to replace, and it has still the same contacts and size as the 1928 German telephones!  Actually the transmitter capsules are equal too!  The capsules was held in position by a plastic lock ring. The contacts for the transmitter was broken, but nothing worse then melting glue could fix. The transmitter capsule are actually working!  A littel cleaning made it far better looking. The phone will need some sanding painting to look perfect, but now its working.

So what may we learn: Germay are now an allied, but we their telephones are not suitable. A 250 ohms ringer in series with a 2 µF capacitor will kill my exchange. The speech circuitry are 1920 ish. But the housing are bulletproof, just like the US: TA43PT   Actually The Ta43 TP and a dial would be better!

So I have had some experience, I have 2 telephones representing "my" fortress history from end to end.

dsk

kleenax

I will nominate Ben Salem's find at the Michigan Antique Radio Flea Market last Saturday.

We were holding a smallish telephone show with the radio club inside the ballroom in Lansing, Michigan, and I was the host. Ben came running in and was all excited about a phone that he found outside at the flea market, and wanted me to appraise/evaluate it for purchase.

We hurried outside to see what he had found, and I was blown over by what I saw! There, sitting on the table at this flea market with over 500 people walking around, was a late-1800's American Electric Potbelly Candlestick telephone!

I all of my years of telephone-hunting, I have NEVER found a true potbelly! And there Ben found one right under my nose!

You can see his wonderful find-of-a-lifetime here:

Needless to say, Ben know owns this fantastic find, and is probably one of the happiest telephone collectors in the world. The radio collector knew it was worth more than the $600 that a previous shopper offered, so we had to do a bunch of haggling to get to the point of sale, but Ben was successful, and after a quick trip to the ATM, he owned it!
Ray Kotke
Recumbent Casting, LLC

kleenax

Here are really 2 finds of the month of July - 2012 for me.

First are 3 Michigan Bell Telephone Gold tie clasps that came through the door at the Michigan Show last Saturday. All are marked "12K", and the one with the diamond in it (30 yr clasp) is marked, "12K - 1/20", so I assume that the diamond is 1/20th of a carat.

The 2nd find is 2 - WE 202's that I picked up for the princely sum of $35.00 at the flea market. I figured with an E1 handset, a #4 dial in one, and a #6 in the other, I couldn't go wrong for that price.

These 2 finds are for sale; I just don't collect Telephone Tie Clasps, and I really don't need any more 202s.........I know; I'm crazy ;-)

Ray Kotke
Recumbent Casting, LLC

LM Ericsson

#8
I will nominate my first soft plastic 500 in aqua blue that I found at antique store for the first time on my own. For only $55. All original parts.

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=7358.0
Regards,
-Grayson

zapper

I will nominate myself for the Western Electric Interphone system I purchased at an estate sale this past Friday.

zapper

I boxed everything up and will clean and polish the components  as time permits. My main concern is how to remove the paint from the 759A covers without removing the gaskets?? attached to them. Will probably be a project over the winter. 
While waiting to go in to the sale I met a neighbor of the family and he told me her niece sold all the antiques and took everything of value (there was a 1960 Thunderbird) before the sale opened. The prices on the remaining items were cheap as they wanted to clean out the house.  I brought the phones , components and 1,700 35MM slides for $20.00.
This was a once in a lifetime purchase.  My knowledge of the inter phone system came from the Rotary Forum.  Back in Feburary I purchased 6 Princess phones and the seller included 6 Ringer's.  One of the ringers turned out to be a 759A. Searching on the board I found info on the 759A and was able to list it properly to maximize the selling price.

AE_Collector

OKAY, we have a couple of "Finds" this month.....9 of them actually!

So, EVERYONE get's 3 votes this month. Pick your top three fav's. AND, if for some reason you change your mind after you have vboted, not a problem, I've set it so that you can change your vote. Will have to see how that works but give it a try. Any problems, post in this thread and I'll try to figure it out. You still have to place your votes first though before you can see the current results.

Vote soon and vote often!

Terry

AE_Collector

#12
Okay, that's it for July's Find of the Month.

By ONE VOTE, Zappers WECo Interphone system has edged out Doug (and Janet's) early 302 set. Sorry Doug and Janet and everyone else who ran into some tough competition this month. 26 different people voted and a total of 60 votes were cast since everyone could vote for up to three items.

It was a busy month for the "Find of the Month" and hopefully there are lots of "Finds" turning up over the summer holidays. If so, report them to us in the "August Find of the Month" thread.

Terry