Gray 34A 10 2 Piece Paystation Very rare

[Payphone installer]

I was at the telephone show in IN this past weekend and found a phone I have been searching for for years it is a Gray 34A10 I had paper work that showed me that it existed and have found evidence of the phone in the past but have never found up to this point the complete unit, that search ended this past weekend.

[Payphone installer]

The phone appears to be 100% complete.

[Payphone installer]

Finding it with the code plate is about impossible.

[Payphone installer]

After much research and looking at a lot of payphones I have determined that this phone is unique with the type of mount it had. The only other payphone that used this mount was a Strowger.

[Payphone installer]

The Gray payphone following the 34A series were the 60 series.

34A8 was two piece
34A9 was handset
34A10 was two piece
34A11 was handset,this is the most common phone found.  The unique feture of the 34A series is the large hole in the upper,seen here in a refurbished upper. The hole was so the upper would except the early A/E mount used on a Strowger.

[Payphone installer]

note in the catalog pictures it shows the later larger A/E mount. I believe that is because they changed to the later mount where the base was flush and no longer required the large hole. so a 34A with the small hole or later mount could be correct. But I think the early version is the coolest. I think this is one of the rarest two piece payphones out there. I have foundmore 50A's then this thing.

[Payphone installer]

This is a picture of the mount on the front and rear of the housing. I have been hunting these mounts for years and am in the market to buy any if you have one. They were used on A/E metal wall phones and payphones. They are hard to find. Note how the hump or nipple on the mount fits perfectly in the hole. Just as it fits in the top of the Strowger shoe. There is no printed material on this, the only way I have been able to determine what I am sharing is by owning and comparing many phones.

[HarrySmith]

WOW! Very nice! Do you intend to restore it or leave it original, as found?

[Payphone installer]

It will be screwed on the wall with the rest of the collection as is all I did was installed the older mount and I may work on preserving the label, just like with guns you don't want to change the original finish unless it is really bad.

[Stan S]

It's a pleasure looking at the circa 1930s technology. The wooden spool in the upper right hand corner of the back casting is a wire wound 90 ohm resistor. There's an 8 ohm wire wound resistor on a cardboard form screwed to the back casting between terminals 6 and 8 of the wood strip.

These parts were hand made and the values trimmed probably using a 'standard cell' and some sort of Wheatstone Bridge. Same technology used to manufacture meter shunts. Slightly more 'human' than a machine made thick film surface mount chip resistor from China.

Stan S.

[mentalstampede]

Very nice! It's wonderful when something like that comes into the hands of someone such as yourself with the knowledge to appreciate and preserve such an unusual example.

[skyrider]

Happy you found it Jim.
Bill Compton

[Dave203]

Awesome. Glad you finally found it!!!
I think we all know the feeling of finally getting something we want

[Russ62]

Hi, Stromberg-Carlson also made a similar protruding nub transmitter mount as I have one on an old non-dial metal box wall phone.  It does look like it would fit the large center hole on one of theses tops. I actually have 3 of these tops, all with bell/gong brackets, and all came on A.E payphones.  Since 34A series payphones are shown in Stromberg catalogs, and since they used either A.E. or their own similarly styled dials, it makes sense that Gray would supply paystation bodies ready to accept Stromberg  components as they mention they could supply these to fit different phone makers parts in their catalog.  This would explain why more than one of these tops have shown up at southern california swapmeets as they might have been made for both early  A.E. and Stromberg-Carlson parts.             Russell

[Payphone installer]

Russell are you sure it is not a A/E mount with a S/C cup and faceplate? On the subject of the housing I have come to the conclusion that the tops were produced blank with no holes then stamped out based on the need. What led me to this  hypothesis is finding tops that the dial cup had a metal cap on it. There was not enough metal when the dial cup was stamped to provide a complete cup. You had to add a piece to cover the hole after the stamp. Also some were stamped as Strowger tops with many holes for use with the Strowger mount. I would love to see the mount in a picture you are talking about. Who knows maybe it was a S/C mount and sometimes they used a A/E cup. It is interesting you have found 3 on S/C phones. I have a very early Strowger with a Kellogg faceplate and cup.