Newbie with a question

[btye]

hi guys,
Years ago my grandfather worked for P.M.G in australia aand keep a couple of old wooden phones. Unfortunately i never got to meet my grandfather so never got the chance to ask him about the phones he left me. I have 3 of them,1: a british ericsson, 2: a number 5 bell set and 3 : completely unknown cannot find any pictures or anything about it. and unfortunately its not complete.

Any help is appreciated..
Brad

[Phonesrfun]

The front appears to have a former place for a transmitter, but I don't see any evidence by the photos you have shown of a hook switch or receiver on the left-hand side.  Perhaps there is a switch, and no receiver. 

Other than that, it appears to be a magneto-based phone that is either made for common battery talk, or had a separate battery compartment.

Other than the fact that country to country phones are all very similar in electrical components and operations, I have no experience with Austrailian phones, if that's what it is.

[btye]

heres a pic of the other side, sorry i forgot that earlier

brad

[dsk]

Interesting.

It seems like the hole on the left side could have been for a hook switch, is it any screw marks, or loos wires inside near that hole?

The right side metal half rings with are probably connected to the wire terminals, and the center to a protective ground. (often skipped)

Then 2 of the 3 upp3r right terminals is for a line, the next 2 might be foe a 3V battery.
On the left side the 3 terminals could be for transmitter, common and receivcer.

The capacitor might very well be newer than the phone.

The capacitor together with a press to talk handset might have excluded the need of a hook-switch.

As you see, this is a lot of could bee's and might's.  Detailed pictures and measurements might help us to understand what kind of circuit you have.

dsk

[G-Man]

Stromberg Carlson magneto subset.

The hole on the left-side is for the deskstand's cord and the other marks are from a hook often used for hanging directories.

On the right-side the brass pieces above the crank are the remains of a cleanable lightning arrestor.

The wrench is for the nuts retaining the gongs and for the terminals on an ost receiver.

I doubt that the capacitor is original.

The hole in the door is either for a push-button for secret signaling or perhaps an ill-fitted attempt to fit a transmitter on it to turn it into an antique wallset.

[dsk]

That seems reasonable.
dsk

[poplar1]

I believe that Stromberg-Carlson 896 wall magneto sets have a similar wrench but do not have an Outside Terminal Receiver. I agree that the hole on the left is for a desk stand cord because there is no evidence of a hook switch having been there before. If there had been a transmitter on the front, there probably would have been terminals for same on the back of the door. Since this box does not appear to be old enough to be part of a two-box phone, it is doubtful that the transmitter would have been part of the box. Rather, as G-man said, this is a subset that was used with a desk stand or hand telephone set similar to a  WE 102. The hole on the front was most likely added later.

[poplar1]

http://www.telephonecollectors.info/index.php/document-repository/doc_details/2072-desk-set-boxes-subscriber-sets-ar327-tl

Thanks to TCI and remco.

[AE_Collector]

So as an answer to byte, it isn't a phone but a subset. Subsets have many of the components inside that were required with early desk phones such as candlesticks or cradle phones.

Terry

Edit: Even though I made certain to spell btye's name properly above, apparently the Ipad I was on then knows best!

[Phonesrfun]

After reading everything, I would concur that it is a subset.  The hole in the front with the dangling wires is confusing, but the wires appear to not be the same as the inside wires, suggesting some attempt to add something later.

[btye]

thanks heaps for all your help guys.. thats one problem with the old PMG in australia, especially out in regional areas like myself (mount gambier ) they loved to switch and change things alot 
I wish my grandfather was still alive so he could tell me more about it and help me complete it , with whatever was hooked up to it.
But thanks again guys!

Brad