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My Phone Collection - Stephen Furley

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

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bingster

I imagine these must be difficult to use.  They must be awfully awkward to hold on to with the dial where it is.
= DARRIN =



Stephen Furley

Quote from: gpo706 on January 10, 2010, 11:20:28 AM
Stephen, is this in any way similar to your Russian "buttinski"?

It's a Polish machine.



Similar, bit not identical.  The mouthpiece is a different shape.

bellsystemproperty

They do seem hard to hold. With butt sets though, you really aren't going to be talking on them for a long time, so it is not such an issue.

Stephen Furley

It's been a long time with nothing added to the collection, but two new 'phones are on their way to me, one is a North Electric 540 and the other will be my 2nd 500, but this time it's a Stromberg Carlson made one, with hardwired cords.  The line cord is a horrible modern one which looks rather tatty, but a replacement one of the correct type and colour is also on its way to me from another source.  Other than that, it looks good.

A couple of years ago I bought a Galion on Ebay, but it never turned up; there's a possibility that I may be getting another one.  It's like buses; nothing for ages, then three come along together.

Will post pictures when they arrive.

Stephen Furley

#64
My first new telephone has arrived; a GPO telephone No. 80, to join my other engineer's test sets.  I don't have a photograph yet, but it's exactly the same as the one on Sam Hallas's site: http://www.samhallas.co.uk/collection/test.htm and on British Telephones here: http://www.britishtelephones.com/t080.htm

It's the later Mk.5 version which I have.

This is probably the ugliest telephone which I will ever own.  It's made of cast metal, some sort of aluminium alloy by the feel of it, and has some sort of coating on it which is not paint; it's almost as it's had a wash in water with a small amount of cement added to it, leaving a very thin coating which is almost invisible.  The receiver, together with it's diaphragm and cap, and the transmitter element are the same as those used in British Bakelite telephones, but the mouthpiece is a flattened version rather than the usual 'spit cup' type.  The mouthpiece is the same as the one used on the Telephone No. 250, in the brown case, seen further down Sam's page.  Set into the handle is a press to talk switch, and it's fitted with a special plug to fit test jacks in Strowger exchange equipment.  The earlier version seen at the top of the British Telephones page is a much neater-looking design, but seems to have the same strange coating on it.  Bakerlite seems to be a poor choice for the caps which are bound to get rather rough use by engineers.  My receiver cap is cracked; I know where I can get a replacement, but I might just leave it as it is, and probably was for most of its life.  I'll take some pictures when the 'phones which I'm waiting for arrive from the US, including the North Electric 540, the Stromberg Carlson version of the 500, and a brace of Leichs no less!

Stephen Furley

#65
Not having bought any 'phones for about eighteen months I've recently bought several, and will soon have to stop spending for a while.

Firstly, there are two British GPO telephones:

No. 80 exchange test set; this has no dial.

TELEPHONE 2/SA4271-1; the Silver Jubilee version of the Compact Telephone 776-1.  Several interesting differences from the standard 776-1 which I've already got.

Then there are several American models:

Brown late 500 model by Stromberg Carlson.

Black North Electric 540.  Very nice looking 'phone.  I think it's soft plastic, feels rather like my SC 1543, and has a feint strange smell, a bit like vomit.   The handset seems to be Bakelite.  How old are these; there doesn't seem to be a date on it.  Has a flat line cord with a modular plug; I'm going to replace this with a round one, and use the flat one on another 'phone where it will be more appropriate.

Two different Leichs are sitting at the depot waiting for me to pay the tax on them; should be with me in a few days.

Aqua 500 by Kellogg ITT.  This arrived today.  This seems to be older than my other 500s.  There are three hand written dates inside, 9-19-62, 5-25-65 and 10-16-67.  Were they making Aqua ones in 1962?  Slight discolouration, but some of this seems to be just dirt, will probably come up with a bit of polish.  Thick cords look original; handset cord is tangled.  Heavier than my other 500s.

I wrote to the seller of the toaster and asked for shipping costs, but haven't had a reply yet.

Will post some pictures when the Leichs arrive.

paul-f

Quote from: Stephen Furley on August 31, 2011, 04:55:13 PM
Were they making Aqua ones in 1962?  

Aqua was announced by Western Electric in 1957 and picked up by most other 500-style phone makers soon thereafter.

http://www.paul-f.com/color.htm#WE500
Visit: paul-f.com         WE  500  Design_Line

.

Stephen Furley

#67
So this could easily date from 1962 then.

Time for some pictures of the new additions.  They don't come much uglier than the first one which is the GPO No. 80.  Metal handle, receiver and transmitter are similar to those used on Bakelite telephones, receiver and earpiece cap are the later of the two types used on normal telephones.  Mouthpiece is a flattened shape, rather than the normal spit cup shape.  The special plug to fit test jacks in Strowger exchange equipment is rather nice, it's chrome and Bakelite.  Later versions of this plug had pins at booth ends to fit two different types of jacks.

Next comes the Silver Jubilee compact in its original state with long all-coiled cord to the bell unit as it was officially known.  These cords are unobtainable, so my other Compact can't be restored to original condition.

The next picture shows the bell unit with the cover removed.  Note the early style large black and yellow bell capacitor.  The next one shows the two models together.  The finger wheel on the standard model is not metal, but chromed plastic; I don't think it's original, but it looks quite good.  The way that this telephone was converted to the new BT socket system, using a part-coiled Trimphone line cord and a two-way splitter can be seen.

The close-up of the bell units shows several differences;  The capacitor has disappeared, to be replaced by a smaller one located under one of the gongs, the top one in this picture.  In this unit it is still there, but was taken out of circuit as part of the BT plug and socket conversion.  It's (the original large capacitor) place has been taken by a second set of terminals, why these are needed isn't clear.  The black plastic tab on the right of the later unit, more clearly seen in the previous picture, is a mechanical three position bell loudness control.  A fourth position operates a switch, the component marked '354-2' which turns the bell off completely.  This switch is the same one as used in the Trimphone.  The design of the ringer has been changed, as has that of the plastic base moulding.  The last picture in this section shows little change inside the telephone when viewed from the front.  One change which cannot be seen without opening the handset is that the standard model is fitted with the 21A electret transmitter, while the Silver Jubilee has the older type 16 carbon one.  I think this is a later modificationhowever, as the telephone dates from 1979,and I think the 21A was introduced in the early '80s.

Stephen Furley

#68
More pictures.  The first one shows rather more differences in the back.  The large red object in the standard model on the right is just some tape wrapped around a terminal block used to extend one of the wires to reach a different terminal when the set was converted to the BT three-wire plug-in system.  This also explains why some of the wires, and straps between terminals are in different positions; the Jubilee model on the left is in original condition.  The small red object in both sets, but in different positions contains a pair of diodes connected across the receiver to prevent acoustic shock.  In the earlier version it's attached to two terminals; in the later one it's included in the design, and soldered to the board.  In telephones which did not have these, such as the 706, they were supposed to be fitted when the set was converted to the plug-in system, and were supplied as part of the conversion kit.

Since the royal crest was fitted in the dial centre a normal card could not be fitted.  A rectangular holder was fitted under the handset.  I'm pretty sure that this takes the same cards as the push-button Trimphones, but while I have two of these stored in the same room where I took this picture neither has a card, so I couldn't fit one for the picture.

The third picture shows various differences in the base mouldings.

The last three pictures show the method for wall mounting.  Firstly the bell unit with the cover removed, and the mounting plate slid half way out.  Normally this plate would be screwed to the wall, and then the bell unit slid onto it.  For wall mounting the 'phone the bracket slides onto the plate, as seen in the next picture,  In the final picture the bell unit, minus cover and mounting plate, fits inside the wall mount bracket.  The blue plastic cover is then fitted over the bell unit, and the 'phone sits on this.  When this cover is fitted the two tabs at the back lock the bracket onto the mounting plate.  A plastic plug, held in place by tape, fills a hole in the side of the bracket where a socket could be fitted for the Plan 4 system.

Wallphone

Stephen, your two 776 phones look neat. What years were they produced? They look to be very light and the foot pads almost look like suction cups. They probably should be suction cups to prevent them from being dragged off the desk. It doesn't look like the bell boxes were meant to be mounted on a wall. And the one with the curly cord between the ringer & phone looks like it could pull both units off the desk and to the floor if the cord was draped over the edge. The ringer clappers look large, what frequency are the ringers on these phones?
Doug Pav

GG



Those chromed dial fingerwheels are new replacement parts being produced right now to enable reconditioning of old GPO telephones.  The alphanumeric number plates may be new production as well. 

Originally the 776 always and only came with a numeric number plate and clear fingerwheel.   Though, that combination looks nice as it is.  Had the 776 been made in black, a chrome fingerwheel would be even more suggestive of a latter-day update of the 232 with separate bell.

Stephen Furley

#71
Quote from: Wallphone on September 07, 2011, 06:27:01 AM
Stephen, your two 776 phones look neat. What years were they produced? They look to be very light and the foot pads almost look like suction cups. They probably should be suction cups to prevent them from being dragged off the desk. It doesn't look like the bell boxes were meant to be mounted on a wall. And the one with the curly cord between the ringer & phone looks like it could pull both units off the desk and to the floor if the cord was draped over the edge. The ringer clappers look large, what frequency are the ringers on these phones?
Doug Pav

The Silver Jubilee was in 1977, and the standard one is 1979.  They are lighter the standard set; they were fitted with a special dial with a weaker spring to stop them sliding about while dialling.  There were several mounting options:

1. Bell unit mounted on wall, skirting board, window sill etc, with cord to telephone nearby.

2. Bell unit mounted as above but further from the telephone.  Cable from the bell unit to a block terminal (small junction box) installed where the telephone was needed), with the curled cord then being connected to the block terminal rather than directly to the bell unit.

3. Wall bracket, which was an optional extra, mounted on wall, bell unit removed brom its box and installed inside the wall bracket, with the curled cord then connected to the telephone, which sits on top.  The length of the cord permits the telephone to be picked up from the bracket and carried around if desired.

4. This was before the BT type plug system, when telephones were generally hard-wired.  However, there was an old plug system, Plan 4 I think it was, which could be used for extension telephones.  This wasn't widely used, mainly in places like hospitals where a telephone trolley could be wheeled to any bed in the ward and plugged in.  The wireing for this was rather complicated, it used the then standard low-impedance bells connected in series, so each socket had to contain switch contacts to maintain continuity of the bell circuit when the plug was removed.  In theory this was available with the Compact Telephone, there was provision to mount a socket in either the bell unit or the wall bracket; I can't remember which.  Whether any were ever installed this way I don't know, but I don't think it's likely, other than as a demonstration.

The bell unit was always hard wired to the line with cable; it wasn't designed to take a line cord and be plugged in; that was why my standard one was modified with the Trimphone cord, short cord on the bell unit, and two-way splitter.

Standard British ringing current is 75 V 25 Hz., with a cadence of 400 on, 200 off, 400 on, 4000 off, so a five second cycle for each double ring.

Look back at my previous post tomorrow; I'm going to add a couple more pictures and some comments.  I'll get a picture of the mounting plate for the bell unit.

Wallphone

Thanks for the info Stephen. I think that there was a picture posted on this Forum awhile ago that showed the phone sitting on top of the bell box.
Doug Pav