Wanted - Automatic Electric 88T

[debater88]

Recently got into rotary phones and I'm enjoying using them at home to make calls for my daily life. I find myself needing a speakerphone, however - my work often requires me to type or otherwise use my hands while talking, so speakerphone is very useful.

From my research, it seems like the best rotary speakerphone setups out there were the Automatic Electric 88t and the 880, because they are line powered (so no separate power supply). I'm working on getting an 880 repaired, but what I really want is an 88t - it's less bulky, has the classic Type 80 form, and (most importantly) has real gongs instead of the electric grasshopper chirping in the 880. But the 88t is a rare beast - I've only seen a few pictures online (including on this forum).

Does anyone have one they'd be willing to part with? Or point me in a direction where I might be able to find one? Or, like the poster from 2019 in the link above, do I have to basically hope to get absurdly lucky? Would also be interested in a Stromberg-Carlson 1583

The community and posts here have been a great resource as I've gotten into this hobby. Thanks!

[SUnset2]

If you want a speakerphone for regular use, I would recommend a Western Electric 4A.  They aren't quite as vintage, but they work so much better.  If you don't want Touch-Tone, you can connect it to a 500.  They are self-contained except for a plug-in transformer.  And they are much more common. Be sure it comes with the connecting block, those can be harder to find.

[paul-f]

Welcome to the group!

Ouch, that SC 1583 photo from my site looks pathetic when enlarged as a screenshot.

In my defense, it was taken with my first digital camera in about 2002. The camera was tethered to the desktop computer with a large cable and the maximum resolution was 320 x 240 pixels -- for an image size about about 26KB. Of course, most of us had dial-up service in the dark ages, so large files were avoided. How times have changed. (Updating the older photos obviously hasn't made it to the top of my very long to-do list.)

http://www.paul-f.com/speaker.htm
http://www.paul-f.com/sc1583.htm

there's a better image on the forum here:
https://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=2109.0




I collected most of the speakerphones shown back then. I'll check to see if I still have any of the AE 88s when time permits.

<edit: corrected links>