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wooden receiver need help identifying please

Started by Butch Harlow, August 05, 2019, 09:22:28 AM

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Butch Harlow

I was at the Virginia Telephone Museum this weekend and in a pile of recent donations I picked this up. Nobody knew what it was, and it had no identifying marks.  Any help would be appreciated.
Butch Harlow

rdelius


Jim Stettler

I call it a find of the month, but that is just me.
Jim
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

paul-f

Early receivers were a favorite for repro makers, so that realistic examples could be displayed in museums and collections. It's worth a close look -- inside and out.
Visit: paul-f.com         WE  500  Design_Line

.

dycom

I am not absolutely sure but I think that receiver is from a company called Overlander

wds

It's a Williams.  Definitely find of the month.
Dave

Jim Stettler

Quote from: paul-f on August 05, 2019, 07:24:28 PM
Early receivers were a favorite for repro makers, so that realistic examples could be displayed in museums and collections. It's worth a close look -- inside and out.
The receiver doesn't look like it had much use. It is worthwhile to consider it a remake until you can prove to yourself otherwise.
Even it is a remake, it is a nice looking piece. As Paul said , it is worth a close look, the inside in particular. wds says williams, even if it is just a copy of a williams, it has good value to someone restoring a williams. I still think it is FOTM even if it is a remake. BTW many of the early remakes were done in the 70's. that would still make it 40-50 years old.
JMO,
Jim S.
JMO,
Jim
You live, You learn,
You die, you forget it all.

Butch Harlow

As far as find of the month goes, it's not mine. It belongs to the Virginia Telephone Museum here in Richmond.  However it was in a small pile of recent donations to the museum and had not been put on display. My tour guide was nice enough to let me look through a couple boxes. I can tell you that it looks and feels quite old. I will absolutely see if I can do further exploration on the piece in order to fully document it for the museum if they will allow that. I made sure that my guide knew it was valuable and he put it in a better place where it would be safer. More on the museum trip to come. It was an unbelievably fantastic day for me.
Butch Harlow

rdelius

It is not a repro or remake.As i said it might be an early 1890s Manhattan .The metal part is a magnet. I think it clipped into a hookswitch around the magnet. This was to get around the Bell gravity automatic hookswitch patent

Sargeguy

Manhattan was a major supplier of early telephone equipment, so this may be identical to those found on other manufacturer's phones. 
Greg Sargeant
Providence, RI
TCI /ATCA #4409

Key2871

Butch, I think your idea to try to explore the receiver is an awesome one. It would be very cool for the museum to know who made it, and an approximate date of manufacture.
Really speaks well of you and your passion for old phones.
Good luck!
KEN