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Lamp Phone Atrocities!

Started by Greg G., May 06, 2009, 12:43:09 AM

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mienaichizu


JorgeAmely

I bet you D/P doesn't have one of these early mushroom models. He won't be able to hold two flashlights and operate the camera all by himself.  ;D ;D ;D ;D
Jorge

Dan/Panther

I had that model, what a joke, every time I used the phone, I either burned my ear or my lips. I finally ended up buying the version of the 302.
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

McHeath

D/P, you were supposed to use mouth and ear guards when you used that handset, geesh did'nt you read the directions?
;)

Pretty, uh, "cool" phone, in a mutilated, hacked up sort of way.  Not sure what the point is, it's useless as a lamp, useless as a phone, though I guess it would hold papers down on the desk and you can still spin the dial. 

Dan/Panther

It comes in handy if you have cold ears, or like sucking light bulbs.
D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

Stephen Furley

They seem to be popular at the moment.

http://tinyurl.com/n6rs5x

This one is a bit odd, it's a No. 2 which was converted into a No. 150; that was very common, the base was replaced with one which could take a dial, and the 'phone re-wired, the model number stamping on the transmitter mount was struck out, and the new number stamped in its place.  What is odd in this case is that the 'phone is not fitted with a dial, but with a blank.  Was it converted for automatic use, and then converted back again, or was it converted from No.2 to CB (dial-less) No.150?  This would seem pointless, but I suppose it would have allowed quick and easy conversion to auto operation at a later date if required.  Then of course it was converted again into the lamp.  Quite a history.

bingster

If there's a saving grace, it would be that the alteration appears to be rather reversible.  Some of these have major damage done to them in order to make a lamp, but this one looks like it would be left with only one unobtrusive hole if the lamp parts were removed.

= DARRIN =



McHeath

Yeah thankfully this one could be reversed pretty easily.  What gets into people's heads?  "Hey I think I will take this cool antique phone and ruin it by making it into a kitchy lamp!!"

Stephen Furley

To be honest, if they hadn't converted it into a lamp the most likely thing they would have done with it would probably have been to throw it away.  By the '50s and '60s people wanted modern things they wouldn't have wanted an old 'phone, and certainly not one this old.  To make matters worse, it had no dial, which would have made it almost useless by that time.  On the other hand, it was nothing like old enough to have had any 'antique' value.  Somebody might have used it as a stage prop in a play, but that's about the only use that it might have had.

McHeath

Yeah that's true, there is a time period that things go through when they are seen as merely outdated and not collectable, and so are subject to being destroyed or modified as people see no real value yet in the objects.  (cars, homes, buildings, phones etc)


HobieSport

#25
Quote from: Brinybay
In cyberspace, no one can hear you scream!

NOOO!!!

...the hideous horrors to which Brinybay refers:

-sigh-
-Matt

Doug Rose

Why do people do this?  eBay 230435490321. Really nice AE 1A with a built in ringer savaged into a lamp......Doug
Kidphone

Dennis Markham

That is a shame.  I wonder if someone will be  $99 on it??

Craig T

The Lamp Phone...   The Modular Jack of Antique Phones  :(

Doug Rose

Dennis...take the pole out and it displays well from the front and these are toughies to find without cracks or breaks. What a shame. Aren't sacrificing Candlesticks and Imperials enough to appease the Lamp Gods!!!!
Kidphone