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Interesting Wall Mount Automatic Electric Phone

Started by bellsystemproperty, February 22, 2010, 10:46:10 PM

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bellsystemproperty

Look at this, it is like those Western Electric panel phones, except it is from A.E. It must not be as advanced though because this one doesn't have a retractable cord like the W.E. one does. My mom had the W.E. in her house when she was a kid, and it was very high tech. Anyways, I have not heard of one of these before.
http://tinyurl.com/yjkn976
I'd post a screenshot but I can't get that working right with dual monitors.

jsowers

AE did make panel phones for a while. In addition to the copper finish they made them in brushed aluminum finish too. I think they came with a choice of stick-on panels to match your decor. I have a few of those panels I got in an auction, and a couple AE panel phones awaiting them. You're right in that the AE version isn't nearly as high tech as the WE version. Besides lacking the retractile cord, it also didn't have a ringer volume control like the WE one did. Below is one of the pics from the auction.
Jonathan

bellsystemproperty

They must have not been very popular compared to the W.E. ones. Still, they have their applications, maybe like at an entry to an apartment.

jsowers

The WE ones went along with their "Telephone Planned Homes" project where your contractor got the phone company to pre-wire your new house free for phone service, with jacks in every room or a multi-pair cable snaking into and out of a wall in every room. They would install the device box for the panel phone in the wall beforehand and then when the wall was finished, they'd come back and install the phone. I'm sure they could be retrofitted too, but maybe not as neatly.

I think kitchens were the main focus of these phones, though I have heard of a WE Copper Panel being installed in the bathroom of a Howard Johnson's motel room in Lancaster, PA. Now that was one fancy bathroom. I don't think either the WE or the AE phone was weatherproof, though. So it would have to be inside. I'm not sure either phone was very popular, from the small number of them we see for sale.

Here is a shot of a WE 750B Silver Panel from the movie The Glass Bottom Boat. It's installed in the kitchen of a very high tech house. That's Doris Day in the yellow coat and Ellen Corby (Grandma Walton) in the blue dress.
Jonathan