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My Phone Collection - Stephen Furley

Started by Stephen Furley, August 16, 2009, 02:35:25 PM

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Stephen Furley

#15
My 'Fatboy' arrived safely today, I'm still waiting for the Galion, which was posted first.  The Fatboy was sent with the handset on the rest, but very tightly tied down, so it couldn't move.  I think this is what killed the Kellogg; the handset on that is very heavy, and would make quite a good hammer.  Goodness knows how it managed to bend the base though.

I have a feeling that the ringer on the Fatboy may be a tuned one, but I'm not too worried; I don't really need every 'phone I've got to ring.  I can't see any markings on it, but it's got the long cylindrical hammer.

The Kellogg is basically finished, apart from many hours of polishing to get the shine back on it. I have made a call with it, and it works ok.  Will post pictures of all three once the Galion arrives.

HobieSport

Quote from: McHeath
I'm guessing Matt is an AE 40 man. :)

Well I like both the 302s and the AE 40s. Kind of like kids in that I love them the same amount while enjoying their differences. I like the simplicity of the 302 design, but I also really like the more complex "faceted" shapes of the AE 40s. They reflect light so wonderfully when they're all cleaned and polished.

Also of note, in my experience, the AE 40s seem less expensive in general on Ebay than the 302s, I assume because of a larger collector's market for Western Electric. They also seem to be cleaner inside generally, I guess because of the nifty foot/gasket.

But to get back on topic; Stephen we'll enjoy seeing pictures of the Fatboy, and I think you'll like the Gallion too. I just hope it arrives in one piece! ;)
-Matt

Stephen Furley

#17
Kellogg, still looking a bit of a mess at the moment, and in need of many hours of polishing to get the shine back on it, and Fatboy.


I think the Fatboy has the wrong handset on it, can somebody confirm, but if this is the case, then it could be quite useful (Watch this space) :)

It's got black rubber cords (inner and outer) on it, but unlike the rubber in the Kellogg it's in good condition.  I've just given it a quick polish, and added a plug and dial card, otherwise it's as it arrived.  The Dial is an AE, with that rather awkward rotating clip arrangement.  It had got moved past where it's supposed to stop, and the ring fell off in transit, and now I can't get it to engage properly; I think the ring is slightly bent.

The ringer doesn't work; I've tried applying 25 Hz. ringing current directly to it.  Looks like it is a tuned one, though I've no idea what frequency it's for.  The base has a marking which looks like 1212<something>DA, but it's not clear.  The ringer doesn't seem to be marked.


McHeath

Did you glue that Kellogg back together?  It certainly looks great. 

Stephen Furley

#19
Yes, it's been glued, and all the cracks and tiny chips filled and rubbed down, but there's a great deal of polishing still to be done, and I don't have the time at the moment.

It's now in full working order; I've made a couple of calls with it.

All of the old perished rubber wiring has been replaced, but the new dial harness is still just twisted plastic-covered wires, in the correct colours, at the moment; I still need to make up the new cotton covering for them.  I had hoped to use part of the old handset cord for this, but the diameter is too small to thread the new wires through; I'll have to order a bit of new cordage and use the outer covering from that.  I need to order some for other purposes, so I'll just add an extra foot to the order.

bingster

#20
Stephen, the "fatboy" is very similar to the Western Electric 202 in that it was fitted with two different handsets over the course of it's life. The phone you have has the later of the two handsets used with these bases.  So while you will see an older style handset on this base, the handset you have is perfectly correct, too.  If you'd like the earlier handset, ericofon.com sells them individually for USD30, here:

http://www.ericofon.com/catalog/classic1/sc1212.htm
= DARRIN =



Steve

If you're a long way from home,
Can't sleep at night.
Grab your telephone,
Something just ain't right.

Stephen Furley

Quote from: HobieSport on September 04, 2009, 08:12:22 PM
I think you'll like the Gallion too. I just hope it arrives in one piece! ;)

I'm just hoping it arrives.  It's been almost a month now, and there's no sign of it.  Something else which I bought a few days later arrived a week ago.  I've heard nothing from the seller, no confirmation of receipt of payment, nor of dispatch.  No feedback left either.  I sent him a message three days ago asking for confirmation of receipt of payment, but so far no reply.  He's got 100% positive feedback.

I've only ever had one other Ebay item not arrive, a camera lens several years ago.  I read somewhere that the seller had been taken seriously ill, and I suspect he may have died, but what's happened in this case, I don't know.  Maybe the seller's just away for a while.  I'll try sending him another message in a week.

Stephen Furley

Still no sign of the Gallion; auction ended on 11th of August, and I sent payment on the 13th.  No reply from the seller to my message, no confirmation of payment received, nor of item dispatched.  No letter from Parcelforce Worldwide asking for payment of VAT (tax) before they will release the parcel, and without the number which would be printed on that letter I can't make any enquiry about it with them.

The seller has 100% positive feedback, and has other recently-listed items, so he can't be seriously ill, had an accident, personal crisis of some sort.  I'll send another message this evening, but if there's no reply to that then it doesn't look like it's going to arrive.

The only other possibility, which did happen to me once in the past, is that Parcelforce have received the item,
but have either not sent out the letter asking for payment,  or it has got lost in he post.  In this case they will return the item to the sender after three weeks, and I then have to pay another lot of postage, plus two lots of Parcelforce clearance fee, to get it back.

It doesn't usually take this long for something to arrive; something which I bought a couple of days later arrived over a week ago.



bingster

Stephen, are you trying to make contact via e-mail or ebay's internal messaging system?  If you're only using one method, I'd suggest trying the other. 
= DARRIN =



Stephen Furley

Via Ebay.  I can't find an e-mail address to contact him directly.  If I go to the Galion and ask to see the seller's other items it shows me four, but if I click on the seller's name it tells me that he has no items listed.  If I go to the seller's shop it also shows several items.

I received an Ebay invoice on 11-08, and a Paypal receipt on the 13th, but nothing since.  As I said, the seller does seem to be reputable, he's been registered with Ebay since 28th Jan 06 and has a feedback score of 971, with 100% positive.  The Ebay page claims that he is a member of the Antique Telephone Collector's Association.

If he hasn't received the payment then it's odd that he hasn't contacted me to ask for it.  If he's dispatched the item then it's odd that he hasn't responded to my message asking him to confirm this.  He also hasn't left feedback for be, nor asked me to leave same for him.  I hope he's ok, but if anything had happened to him he would be unlikely to have listed other items recently.

I'm wondering if anybody here knows the seller, or even if he's one of us.  His Ebay name is 'Steamboat1962', his Ebay shop is 'Off The Hook Telephones' and he's from waxahachie, Texas.  I'm not even sure how to pronounce that.  Does anybody here know him?


McHeath

The locals pronounce it "WOX-uh-hatch-eee", I lived near there for a few years once.  It's an American Indian name.

I've never heard of this seller but you certainly raise an interesting point of what to do if the seller vanishes. 

bingster

Stephen, if you look at your paypal receipt, it should have his e-mail address listed on it (the destination e-mail for the paypal payment).  Given his feedback and club affiliation, I'm leaning toward some sort of glitch preventing your messages getting through.
= DARRIN =



Stephen Furley

I've just looked, and the seller has now left feedback for me; it wasn't there when I looked yesterday.  Maybe he was away for a while.  The 'Item posted' icon doesn't show up yet.  I'll write to him again to check.   It looks like it's ok.  I hope so; I'd like to bid on the 5302 if the price doesn't go too high.

Stephen Furley

A parcel arrived today from Vilnius, Lithuania.  Somebody there recently had several Russian 'phones for sale on Ebay, so I bought an engineer's test set to join my others; I've got something like ten British ones, plus one American.  This will be my first, and probably only, Russian 'phone of any type.  The dial is strange; the plate has figures only, but there are letters printed on the dial card, but only one letter per hole, so only the first ten letters of the (cyrillic) alphabet are there.

It's Bakelite, and seems to be basically an ordinary handset, of good quality, with a metal 'pan' containing a full-sized dial mounted between the mouthpiece and earpiece; it does seem to rather get in the way when using it.  The 'pan' has some text stamped into it, but some of it is obscured by the handset.  I can make out '1967g', 'AZ' and 'GOST', translating into Latin characters.  It's fitted with a Russian telephone plug, which has four flat blades, rather like two Nema 1-15 two-pin American mains plugs mounted one above the other, with an extra plastic blade between, and slightly below, the lower pair.  The other strange thing is that there seems to be no hookswitch; I assume that you just plug it in to pick up the line, but I haven't tried it yet.  The style of the receiver cap is very similar to the lid of the Bakelite box which Russian camera lenses used to come in if anybody remembers them.  Pictures soon.

The postage was remarkably low, probably less than it would have cost to send within the UK.