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Princess with a difference (Face Standard)

Started by migette, February 15, 2011, 03:41:55 PM

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migette

At present I am in the middle of restoring this Italian Princess lookalike. This is manufactured by the FACE STANDARD which is one of the ITT companies in Europe.

I am particularly interested in the subtle differences and circuitry involved with these phones as this example is totally different from the American version. Of particular note and something I have not seen elsewhere is the dual use of the ringer circuit wound on the same former as the anti sidetone induction coil. I would also be interested in knowing whether anyone has seen this in other phones.The purpose of the induction coil is to allow some of the speech to be heard in the receiver at a lower volume, this has the effect of making the person speak up and also to prevent feedback from the receiver to the transmitter ending in a high pitch whistle. The other purpose of the induction coil is to match the circuitry to line conditions and also indicate that the phone is infact connected (as the receiver is producing some sound when speaking into the transmitter).

I do not know the age of the phone but assume that it is probably from the 70's. The dial mechanism is similar to the WE dial except the finger stop is at the 5 o'clock position which seems to be the preferred European standard. Also there are no letters on the dial, which seems usual in some European countries.

Notice the bell arrangement with the on/off feature is quite effective. Perhaps why this dual use of the bell circuit and induction coil is used here and not in America is the fact that various types of ringers were used on party lines and this would have obviously added to extra complications.

Hope this is of general interest and look forward to receiving your comments......

Peter

jsowers

The ringer looks a bit like early panel phone and external Princess ringers, and they even had the same kind of adjustment cam. I attached a picture of a panel phone ringer.

As far as frequency ringers go, they never put them in a Princess, that I've ever seen. The Bell System rarely, if ever used frequency ringers for party lines at all. Independent telcos used them a lot more.

Is the fingerstop made so you have to wind the fingerwheel counter-clockwise to dial, instead of clockwise? The area that looks curved is on the left, is why I ask. So one pulse is 0 and 10 pulses are 1? That's insane! I hope I'm wrong on that.
Jonathan

migette

Hi thanks for your info. The dial is the normal type just got that reverse looking stop which seems to be common in Italy.  Peter

LM Ericsson

The ringer also looks similar to the northern telecom contempra ringer.
Regards,
-Grayson

GG



FACE Standard is/was ITT Italy, and that dial was developed by them and spread to other parts of Europe as well.  The fingerstop is typical of some other Italian dials for example as used by Telcer in some of their decorator phones and their AE 1A replica: the dial is used normally, the fingerstop only looks odd. 

That ringer with the built-in induction coil is very very clever, except that replacing it during repairs could be a bit of a pain.  I've never seen anything like that before.




migette

Hi thanks for the follow up info, have come across the telcer name, here  and they did novelty phones in the 60's can remember a shop in the Soho district which sold these. Also the name citessa was used I think they were from Spain and they made the Gondola.    Peter

GG



Gondola was ITT's name for the Trimline they made in Spain, that was (as far as I could tell) otherwise identical with the USA version. I'm not familiar with Citessa which only means I haven't seen one yet ; - )   From context it sounds as if you're saying they were ITT Spain.

There were dedicated telephone shops in NYC back in the day, that sold all kinds of stuff.  Metropolitan Teletronics was one, GrandCom was another, if I recall correctly, and both issued catalogs that you can sometimes find around.  I don't think any such places exist today.

teka-bb

This phone is called the 'Lillo' and was introduced in Italy in 1965.
=============================================
Regards,

Remco, JKL Museum of Telephony Curator

JKL Museum of Telephony: http://jklmuseum.com/
=============================================
TCI Library: http://www.telephonecollectors.info/
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teka-bb

=============================================
Regards,

Remco, JKL Museum of Telephony Curator

JKL Museum of Telephony: http://jklmuseum.com/
=============================================
TCI Library: http://www.telephonecollectors.info/
=============================================