American Electric Bakelite Monophone 1A

[Doug Rose]

Janet I and went to a Flea market a few weeks ago and a seller has a box set aside for her. Two manual AE1A attached to SC ringer boxes with an extra WE ringer box to boot. They were nice but has been spray painted black, even the cords. I had heard about people doing this, but never actually seen it. He said his Dad used them between to cottages, which was probably correct has it came with yards or wire attached to the ringers. I took one apart last week, a brass AE with a metal cradle nd a WE dial blank with a type 41 handset, at least five coats of bad paint.

Today, raining in MASS and I decided to tackle the other phone. It was a lot lighter. It is bakelite with a bakelite cradle. Under layers of black paint is a Brass AMERICAN Electric monophone. The frontrunner of Automatic Electric This cleaned up wonderfully, type 41 handset has brass rings and a gray rubber handset cord that was painted black. It is a working phone.

Two questions:

A bakelite phone with an American Electric tag. I thought American was before Automatic Electric and made them in metal only. I knew Automatic Electric made bakelite ones. Amazing! Loads of paint kept it pristine underneath.

Question 2: I need a brass retainer ring that clips over the middle of the bakelite Dial blank. Every things is bakelite as after testing area inside the base, back of the dial blank and under the cradle. this guy was liberally doused with stripper more than one. Steel wool to remove the paint. Anyone with a brass retainer ring message me.....Doug

Excuse the pictures. it started to rain AGAIN as I took them

[rdelius]

AE bought Am Electric and Monarch and contuned to use their tradmarks for non dial equiptment.This happened in the 1920s I beleive.
Robby

[AE_Collector]

Not exactly certain about dates but the name American Electric was used for Non Dial (IE: Non Automatic) telephone as Robby says. Eventually they dropped the name presumably as.  Dial phones became the largest part of their market and even Non Dial phones had dial blanks to allow for future conversion to dial.

Is that an AE blank? I don't recognise the mounting for a numbercard ring.

Terry

[GG]

That's a North Electric dial blank.  The ring mounting circle is exactly identical to what you'll find on North Electric 3" dials.   You can get AE dial blanks from the Knappens, at PhoneCoInc.com.

Re. metal vs. plastic 1A Monophones:

Per AE catalog 4055-C, page 13, under "condensed specifications and catalog listing," we find:

"Metal base and cradle: If desired, desk stand [AE 1A Monophone was also called a "desk stand"] can e furnished with black-japanned brass base, and aluminum alloy cradle, instead of molded plastic."

This would indicate that both types were available at the same time, and the operating company could choose which to order.   (That is, there's no implication that either type was discontinued and there were some left in stock to use up.)

Re. "American Electric."

For some reason I had the impression that American Electric was AE's branding for factory-reconditioned equipment.  Was that also the case, or am I mistaken?

It makes sense that AE would want to fork the product line into two distinct brands, rather than "selling against itself" under its main brand.  Keep in mind that until WW2, there was something of a competitive battle between automatic and manual telephone systems, with AE promoting the former and Bell promoting the latter.  During that time, AE's marketing was based on the idea that automatic was inherently better in all cases.

Eventually Bell developed the Panel system for metropolitan areas, and either licensed Strowger patents or developed the "step-by-step" system on its own.  By the end of WW2 at latest, the consensus was for automatic (or per Bell, "machine switching"), and AE didn't have to fight against a prevailing attitude. 

I suspect that the American Electric brand didn't last to the point where the type 40 Monophone was introduced, so if you have a 1A that's branded American Electric, it could be a relatively rare bird, made toward the end of the lifespan of the American Electric brand. 

[AE_Collector]

GG:

Anything is possible as far as AM Electric being refurb but I hadn't heard that. They may have sold refurb under that label as well as new equipment.

The 1A was introduced about 1926 so AM Electric was still around then. I have seen 1A's branded that way on ebaY fairly often.

Terry