I collect swirled telephones as well as clear telephones. Most collectors have seen photos of clear phones, but a lot of folks haven't seen swirled sets
The green Princess is actually made of marble and has SC guts. The trimlines are SC Slenderettes. The last picture shows the 4 official swirl color for the SC Slenderettes. the phone on the left is a modern swirl with a swirled plastic base.
The photos aren't the best and some of the phones are dusty.
Jim S.
We use to make battery cases like that at GM, when you do a color change on the injection mold machine, until it's purged they come out marbled. They never sold batteries that way, but thought it would be a nice custom touch, no two alike.
D/P
Very nice.
I have a handful of transmitter cups that are marbled, but I've never seen a complete telephone in person.
They seem to be pretty rare-is that correct?
I never even knew they made marbled phones. Learn something new all the time.
Wow, what a unique and cool collection! I recall a swirled pattern 500 on e-bay a year or so ago, in fact is that it? (It had a face where the number card went as I recall) And one of the old phone dealers has a swirled Trimline in brown, but other than that I've never seen one. You must have the market cornered.
I call un-official swirl sets "Scarce". SC made 4 official colors, The official colors are findable. they were made in dial and rd button TT. Somewher I have a SunFlower Telephone Catalog. There is a 1 page ad that shows the swirl sets. I think all the official swirls were small swirl vs the marble pattern.
There were also a few other examples that were made. I think NT made a contempra with a white leather handset and white marbled plastic base.
They also made a brown leather Contempra w/ a burled look plastic.
I read that the last production run of (Bell System) WE trimlines (December 1983). were done in a blue /white swirl. I think these were probably employee only phones.
Typically swirled plastic would be recycled into the melt hopper to make transmitter cups. The TT pink princess was made w/ transmitter cup plastic. This phone was notched for mod. I would really like to locate the matching handset.
My black/ white 500 was an Ebay find a year or two ago.It has a green handset and red line cord. I think it is 1962. Eventually I will date match a black phone to the housing and convert it over.
I have seen a pink/white 500, 2 other multi-color Princesses and I have heard of a white/rose 302. I also have a bell lab referance that shows a clear/white swirl 302 housing. The clear/white housing was done to study flow patterns in the molds. I suspect that someone probably made some swirled sculptura telephones. They would look real "Mod".
I know of 1 other collector that has a collection of swirl phones. I think his collection is bigger.
Jim S.
What's the story of the marble Princess?
I bought the green marble princess years ago thru the ATCA newsletter. This was back when you listed your phones in the newsletter. Prospective buyers would call for a verbal description.
The seller had it at the previous show , but no one was interested.
The phone has brass inserts for the handset caps. It should have inserts for base screws but the phone was never fully completed. Inside of the housing it has "made in Italy" written in pencil.
I have never seen or heard of another one of these. I wonder if one of the guys who made marble phones custom made it for himself.
Jim S.
Hi Jim,
Do you know / have the German swirled phones?
Quote from: teka-bb on January 31, 2010, 06:14:52 AM
Hi Jim,
Do you know / have the German swirled phones?
I used to have a Blue W48 that had a very minor bit of black swirl at the front. It was like a few pellets of black accidently got in the mold.
Jim S.
Here are a few WE swirled artifacts:
1:
Transparent G3 handset shell with light ivory and blue swirls. The swirls don't show up very well in the photo. Also of interest, this handset has no cord hole.
2A & B:
Red/black swirled G handset receiver caps.
3:
Pink/black/gray swirled G receiver cap (no holes).
4:
Blue/red swirled G transmitter cap (no holes).
5:
white/blue swirled G transmitter cap (no holes).
My new swirlee: Western Electric 500DM (1976) swirled orange/ivory. This gem was a buy-it-now on eBay last week. It had been up for sale for about 10 minutes when I found it. It's really beautiful. The main color is orange, similar to what would have been used on Trimlines of that time. Dial face and handset caps are ivory. W.E. swirled relics are extremely rare. I think I'm very fortunate to have found this one.
DF
Dave....what a great find. I never knew WE made orange 500 sets, although I do remeber a Howard Johnson's legend from the past. This is just so cool. Wonderful find....Doug
That is one cool phone! I wonder if WE made swirled sets to use up scrap plastic?
Quote from: Doug Rose on November 09, 2013, 09:06:41 AM
Dave....what a great find. I never knew WE made orange 500 sets, although I do remember a Howard Johnson's legend from the past. This is just so cool. Wonderful find....Doug
Thanks Doug,
I'm so lucky -- This has to be one of the coolest phones I have ever seen, and I've certainly seen plenty of nifty phones!
W.E. never made orange 500s for general release. The orange sets that occasionally turn up usually come from ITT or SC. Almost all the Howard Johnson orange 500s were ITT. However, W.E. did do a custom orange run for Howard Johnson. The W.E. specimens are made from a special type of plastic called "Unobtanium" (this is the same material that AUTOVON Card Dialer cards are apparently made from!). I have one of those W.E. rarities, and you can see it here:
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=3831.msg50804#msg50804
DF
Quote from: WEBellSystemChristian on November 09, 2013, 12:44:17 PM
That is one cool phone! I wonder is WE made swirled sets to use up scrap plastic?
I think that the consensus is with some of them at least that when they changed colors in the molds they would wind up with a bunch of cases like these. I am not certain that I buy that as one would think that they could wind up with 100 cases before all traces of a previous color were gone. But, what is 100 cases when you are making 10's of thousands.
Maybe just the best examples were put to the side as obviously an all oronge case with a tiny bit of white on one corner of a handset cradle wouldn't be overly exciting. I could see then using them for awards and milestone gifts or maybe a few employees hiding them to get them home and build a phone from them but I can't imagine WECo just letting people walk out the door at the end of a shift with what ever they wanted to build phones for family and friends.
Terry
It had to be intentional, intentional mixing of two plastics, because each swirlee I've seen is unique in one way or the other.
I can't imagine it was a line or mold flushing problem because of the way plastic is injecting in molding. Those swirlees remind me of marble cake and how those are made so I think that is what the people doing the molding did, when WECo front office wasn't looking. To get that nice swirl had to be intentional. No two swirls would ever be the same, not even taking color into consideration, and the results of the mix of plastic colors would only be known after the molding process ended, IMHO.
Maybe we should start keeping track of the shell dates to see when this began. Any mouse hole swirlees out there? Or just end of WECo era "management didn't really care anymore" DM's? Would be nice if a member had first hand knowledge of doing these or seeing them done.
Quote from: Dave F on November 09, 2013, 02:35:46 PM
Quote from: Doug Rose on November 09, 2013, 09:06:41 AM
Dave....what a great find. I never knew WE made orange 500 sets, although I do remember a Howard Johnson's legend from the past. This is just so cool. Wonderful find....Doug
Thanks Doug,
I'm so lucky -- This has to be one of the coolest phones I have ever seen, and I've certainly seen plenty of nifty phones!
W.E. never made orange 500s for general release. The orange sets that occasionally turn up usually come from ITT or SC. Almost all the Howard Johnson orange 500s were ITT. However, W.E. did do a custom orange run for Howard Johnson. The W.E. specimens are made from a special type of plastic called "Unobtanium" (this is the same material that AUTOVON Card Dialer cards are apparently made from!). I have one of those W.E. rarities, and you can see it here:
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=3831.msg50804#msg50804
DF
Dave ...I would love to see some pictures of your collection. You have some wonderful rarities. I'm sure the rest of the Forum would like to see them as well....many thanks....Doug
Very cool swirlee 500 Dave. An Orange swirl WE 500 is exceptionally unique.
I am pretty sure they made orange plastic phones for Howard Johnson's. The stories make sense and I have an orange back painted WE dial, The dial makes me believe in the HJ phones, Special order colored plastic would make sense on a large run. This phone makes me think that orange plastic was close by to the 500 molding line.
Most swirl phones seem to be 2 colors mixed, however my swirled princess is multiple colors which makes me think it was cast from "Transmitter cup" plastic.
My opinion on the swirled sets is that most WE were from a color change on 3rd shift. Some were made from Transmitter cup plastic (seems to be mainly on princess style, I know of 3, all princess). The SC slenderettes seem the most prevalant. There are 4 official swirls, but many more sample and/or backdoor examples. Official runs seem to have matching dial centers and screw covers (slenderettes) and unofficial ones don't. This is just my observation and guess.
JMO,
Jim
I just noticed that Dave also has a WE F# orange plastic 500. It makes me wonder if he assembles his collection to just make me jealous. We like the same phone items, he just seems to find them to taunt me.
Great stuff Dave.
Jim
My red NE2500 w/AT&T branded shell has some slight swirling in the plastic, nothing too obvious, but I can see it, it looks as though they used the machinery to make grey or black shells prior to making red, either that or there was a contaminant (such as a stray pellet of the wrong colour, or plastic dust that got chipped off the hopper and fell in the mixer) in the batch of plastic pellets they were using, but obviously not such a strong and obvious difference in colour to make it a worthy candidate for a swirled phone.... :D
It counts as a slightly swirled.
Jim
Quote from: Jim S. on November 11, 2013, 02:26:40 PM
It counts as a slightly swirled.
Jim
Took a little colour fiddling but I managed to highlight the swirling in my 2500's shell on the back, I did take another couple of pictures of the right side & top, but they were just not picking up the swirling as it's so faint... :D
Hey twocvbloke, you're a litlle bit joker you know :D... for just a little piec, you have swirled phone . I can do the samething on one of my phones. :D
However, the color of your phone is my prefered color for a phone desk....may be a day....
It's just not as impressive as some of the phones in this thread, it's just an accidental swirl, rather than intentional and boldly coloured swirl... :D
No probs twocvbloke I was joking :D...It must rather be rare to have the modular Jack of the same color as the phone. in any case I only saw black modular Jack.. ;)
I am on a roll buying phones today.
First a mushroom
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=24258.msg241250#new
Now a swirl. It was more than I wanted to pay, but I have an extra $300.00 from overtime this month.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/264846879919
Jim
edit> I even asked my wife's permission before I bought it at full price< edit
You really had a good day. Congratulations.
Scott K.
Congrats that's an awesome phone.
Quote from: Jim Stettler on August 28, 2020, 07:59:21 PM
I am on a roll buying phones today.
First a mushroom
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=24258.msg241250#new
Now a swirl. It was more than I wanted to pay, but I have an extra $300.00 from overtime this month.
Jim
edit> I even asked my wife's permission before I bought it at full price< edit
Here is the same or very similar set.
Phone number appears to match. My phone# is 317-529-7782.
I think this is the first swirl set I ever saw, I didn't buy it , but it sold for 500.00 a long time ago.
I am not able to post the photo from the thread to this thread.
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Jon, I bought this from Jay F.
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=18340.msg190700#msg190700
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the color is actually a pastel yellow/red swirl that makes pink,, it is a really nice color.
I have a similar sc slenderette with a red core, I had already decided it would look better with a pink core.
They look mighty nice together. photo will be coming soon.
JMO,
Jim
>edit< Note: this phone has matching handset caps and a matching grip, hese are very big bonus features on a swirl 500 set.
I have seen 1 set that has a swirl dial face, however , it seems like a back-paint dial ring (these have small Operator font). It sold for close to to 1,500.00 he caps and grip do not match. http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=18340.msg188758#msg188758<edit>
I added a photo Dave F.'s howard Johnson orange swirl set. it doesn't have matching caps or grip. It is a very cool set.
>>EDIt<< I added another photo of Dave F.'s swirled handset caps and swirl/clear handset handle, and Duffy's Nt swirled handset handle>>EDIt<<<
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another side note is I missed this pink swirl at a show @ 500.00. I missed the matching sc slenderette on ebay it went less less than 300.00.
I ended up with both as second chances (over 20ish years) for less than 500 for the pair . I will post a photo showing both together.
I am a happy collector,
Jim
Excuse my ignorance but who made these sets, why did they make them, why are they expensive and is it ABS?
I have heard people say that such phones are the result of changing colour runs but from what I understand of moulding, in particular injection moulding, that can't be the case - there would have to be a mix of pellets in the hopper.
If that is the case, these telephones must have been made on purpose. Were they officially made or were the factory workers mucking about?
While on the subject, who of the telephone manufacturers were capable of moulding their own cases?
They are pretty though.
Thanks
Jack
Jack
I have 2 Automatic Electric injection mold test samples that were used to check the molds. Which were (officially made) R&D samples.
The swirl phones are when they did a change over of colour. Usually from light to dark colour. The would flush the molds using the next colour and the parts that were made came out swirled and were to be discarded. (officially made reject) But as you can see some made it out the backdoor.
Quote from: Duffy on September 08, 2020, 08:48:08 AM
Jack
I have 2 Automatic Electric injection mold test samples that were used to check the molds. Which were (officially made) R&D samples.
The swirl phones are when they did a change over of colour. Usually from light to dark colour. The would flush the molds using the next colour and the parts that were made came out swirled and were to be discarded. (officially made reject) But as you can see some made it out the backdoor.
Thanks for that. Test samples and clear or translucent cases are fine.
I wouldn't have thought that cleaning a mould makes a swirl like colour combination of any consistency. I think to make a consistent swirl, you would need to inject mixed coloured pellets.
In other words, asthetically pleasing colour swirls in a telephone case would be planned, not an accident of cleaning. I'm sure you would get mixed colours if you moulded a case rather than purging when changing colour but I don't think you would want to keep the result.
Perhaps I am wrong but you would need to be extraordinarily lucky to get a good swirl. But then to get a consistent case, handset and caps?
Jack
Most swirl sets are unofficial.
there is a Bell Lab photo of a clear/white swirl 302 housing that was made to study flow patterns of the plastic in the mold.
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=1928.msg234978#msg234978
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sc made slenderettes (trimlines) in 4 official swirl colors.
the base colors were red, green. yellow and brown. these were swirled with white.
they seem to of used 2 different shades of each base color making 4 or 8 different official colors.
these were factory produced and also done as retrofit kits for rebuilders.
the factory ones seem to be ink stamped C2220B-aD2Q .
some rebuilder sets have the same # as a paper tag.
On many of the sc unofficial sets the plastics don't quite match. 4 of my unofficial sc sets were made by an employee on purpose.
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the western Electric swirl sets seem to be non-official for the most part, I think the matching grip is an indicator if it was made on purpose.
I added a photo of Dave F.'s handset caps. Notice these haven't been drilled. I have some slenderette housings that haven't been drilled either.
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the first time I was offered this set was the early 1990's. the story was that it was special made for a salesman.
the plastic dates are June of 1970, the chassis is older. He may of just gotten the plastics.
at that time the phone sold for 500.
I missed the sorta matching sc slenderette at around 250. I later had a chance to buy it at about 160.
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I also have a pink/white we swirl princess with matching caps. however the handset handle seems to be pastel yellow and pink.
It is not noticeable. the guts are 4/61
the black white swirl is a housing only marked 1960. It was trimmed in red and green with a photo dial center.
the green multi-color is an Kellogg/Itt housing only on a green Kellogg chassis. I may change the core color.
the other green set is sc with unmarked plastics, the handset appears to of been made at a different time. this is just housing and handset handle. I will probably change core color on this also.
the multi color princess seems to be a generic housing without a finger-stop cutout. It is a we chassis. I added the faded pink we handset. the components are 4/61
the red/white G3 handset is we from 1962.
Kellogg Itt multi color green swirl
swirl sc's
these are some quick pics I just took of some of my sc non official swirls
Fe tap and ae and ericofon.
the fetap are factory. the ae is a desk model that came with a swirl wall plate
the ericofone is a housing only and didn't come with the earpiece
Quote from: Jack Ryan on September 07, 2020, 08:57:58 PM
why are they expensive and is it ABS?
Were they officially made or were the factory workers mucking about?
While on the subject, who of the telephone manufacturers were capable of moulding their own cases?
they are abs and they are very hard to find which makes the unofficial sets pricey.
Most un official sets seem to be workers mucking around.
about 10 of my unofficial sc swirls a clear sc slenderette a, clear sc 500 housing and a clear sc 554 housing were all purchased from the same ebay seller who got them from an estate sale. most were just housings and some did not have handset holes.
Jim
we,ke,itt, ae all could make there own housings. here were companies that made unmarked housing, to sell to rebuilders ect.
slenderette swirl ad
there is a green swirl slenderette in a sc calendar and a 2 page sc swirl slendertte ad as well.
swirl discussion
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=1896.msg25254#msg25254
swirl topic shortcuts
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=24297.0
Quote from: Jim Stettler on January 31, 2010, 07:37:35 PM
I used to have a Blue W48 that had a very minor bit of black swirl at the front. It was like a few pellets of black accidently got in the mold.
Jim S.
Was that one of the remade w48s? The originals weren't made in blue, mostly they were black, some were ivory, very few were clear and there were some fairly rare dark colours (gray, brown and dark green) - no blue.
Jack
Quote from: Jim Stettler on September 09, 2020, 01:15:30 PM
they are abs and they are very hard to find which makes the unofficial sets pricey.
Most un official sets seem to be workers mucking around.
about 10 of my unofficial sc swirls a clear sc slenderette a, clear sc 500 housing and a clear sc 554 housing were all purchased from the same ebay seller who got them from an estate sale. most were just housings and some did not have handset holes.
Jim
we,ke,itt, ae all could make there own housings. here were companies that made unmarked housing, to sell to rebuilders ect.
OK, thanks Jim.
I assume then that modern moulders don't attempt to reproduce the original manufacturer's markings so if you find a WE marked swirled case you can be confident that it came from a WE mould.
Regards
Jack
Quote from: Jack Ryan on September 09, 2020, 08:57:00 PM
Was that one of the remade w48s? The originals weren't made in blue, mostly they were black, some were ivory, very few were clear and there were some fairly rare dark colours (gray, brown and dark green) - no blue.
Jack
I don't know if it was remade or not. It was a nice phone, I sold at a show cheap because I spent to much on other phones.
I do have a clear one.
Jim
Just noticed I had a swirled handset part, I think I got the phone it was on for $5.
I have some swirled parts as well.
The First swirl telephone I saw in person was a Ray Kotke Creation.
That was a while back and since then I have seen a boat load of swirl phones.
Ben Salem
Quote from: phonetech87 on October 06, 2020, 05:39:42 PM
The First swirl telephone I saw in person was a Ray Kotke Creation.
That was a while back and since then I have seen a boat load of swirl phones.
Ben Salem
I am always interested in expanding my swirl collection. trades preferred.
Jim
I have a handful of transmitter cups that are marbled, but I've never seen a complete telephone in person.
They seem to be pretty rare-is that correct?
[/quote]
I call them HTF.
SC had 4 official swirl colors. Red. Green yellow and Brown. These were swirled with white.
It seems they may have used 2 shades of the base colors on the official swirls.
There seem to be a lot of unofficial back -door swirl sets. On these sets the pieces seem to made at different times and created into phones later.
You can tell by the color variations of the parts in regard to main color of the phone.
Another variation I call 'Marbleized Swirl. This is when the swirls are larger and look more like marble vs official swirl sets.
It is very hard to find a swirl 500 that has all parts swirl. Usually the grip and/ handset caps are not. I have only seen 1 with a swirl dial. It may be a back painted dial.
Some of the guys that were really good at creating swirl sets used pastel yellow vs white. Some of them mixed the color pellets together before adding them to the mold. Vs dumping the 2 colors together and letting them mix in the mold.
These are just observations and opinions.
Jim
Sorry about the 13 year wait on reply
Quote from: benhutcherson on December 20, 2009, 04:33:45 PM
Very nice.
Quote from: phonetech87 on October 06, 2020, 05:39:42 PMThe First swirl telephone I saw in person was a Ray Kotke Creation.
That was a while back and since then I have seen a boat load of swirl phones.
Ben Salem
My latest project - Swirled.... Or as I like to say, "Marblesque" ;-) Yes, I still have work to do on it!
Quote from: Jim Stettler on December 20, 2009, 02:10:24 PM...The green Princess is actually made of marble and has SC guts. The trimlines are SC Slenderettes. The last picture shows the 4 official swirl color for the SC Slenderettes...
Nice!
Mike