What is this handset?

[Doug Rose]

Jim...I have a been phone-man for over 40 years. Always known it as a butt set or butt-in set. A lineman's set. I thought buttinski was slang like " my mother in law is a real buttinski " ..she interrupts all the time. Does she ever 

If you have documentation From Harris then I am mistaken....wouldn't be the first time  . Terry are you out there?  . .....Doug

[stub]

Here's what I got in AE Catalog 4055 , 1934 , pg. 20.  Not the same as Howard's but it's as close as my catalogs will get. Hope this helps.   stub

[Buttinski]

This isn't a buttset, though I do not doubt that telephones like this inspired the first automatic lineman's buttinskis. It's a subscriber's set and would have had a subset mounted to the wall with a bell etc and has a switch hook mounted in the ring on the end of the phone. Going by the patents, AE pioneered these types but I don't know whether they were ever actually installed in homes.

[Buttinski]

This is my example. I bought it thinking it was a buttinski only to discover that it wasn't. As mentioned earlier about inspiring automatic test telephones, I think most probably became butts.

[HowardPgh]

I've had this handset for 12 years, and I have yet to find the parts to complete it!