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Peg dialer?

Started by countryman, January 17, 2024, 10:42:15 AM

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countryman

I just stumbled across this long expired auction. The texts says "This was introduced in Queens, New York in 1902 [...] This small switching system exchange was Bell's answer to a dialing system", so I assume it is not an intercom or line selector system, but for public use? How was it supposed to work?
Searching "peg dialer" on CRPF finds few mentions but no further information.

Link: https://auctions.morphyauctions.com/LotDetail.aspx?inventoryid=152278


G-Man

IIRC, it was a version of one of Bell's "Village Systems."
 
I believe it is described in one or more of the various volumes of the following publications:
 
  • Bell Labs' "A History of engineering and science in the Bell System" series.
  • In one of the volumes of Stan Swihart's Telecom History series; "The First Automatic Telephone Systems"
  • Chapuis' seminal tome, "100 years of Telephone Switching"

G-Man

Apparently this system survived in Michigan and other parts of the country until at least 1950...
 
Excerpt from various internet sources:
 
[snip] The peg dialer was introduced in Queens, New York in 1902. Only 40 other systems were installed in small communities in the northeast. The switching system was Bell's answer to a dialing system. Most of the systems were discontinued when they outgrew the 100 line capacity. The peg dialer was produced by Western Electric between 1902 and 1904. Bell discontinued the Queens system in 1904.
 
[snip] Among the many items found in my aunt's home when she died last year in a small town in Michigan's Upper Peninsula were two telephones that are examples of the first dial phone.
 
If the once-common rotary dial phone seems strange today, behold the calling function on this 10-pound candlestick phone. On a circular base are 100 numbers. In communities too small to have a full-time operator, each home was assigned a number.
 
So how did the phones from Queens end up in Michigan? My family is from the Keweenaw Peninsula, the northern-most part of Michigan which was once rich in copper.
 
My aunt said these phones were used in the small mining communities that populated the area around Houghton. Along with the phones was a 1945 phone book for the Copper Range Company. It is more like a pamphlet with small towns like South Range (my aunt's town), Trimountain, Baltic and Painsdale. One page for Painsdale lists a handful of homes, a dentist and various shafts being actively mined. For a fire, dial 3.
 
My aunt thought these phones were being used as late as the 1950s and D'Acosto believes as few as one dozen are known to exist.
 
The phones in my aunt's house were actually for residents of Queens, New York, according to a patent filed by the phone's manufacturer, Western Electric. Work began on a dial system in 1900; in 1902, Bell Telephone installed a 50-line system. Within a year, a 100-line phone was created for Queens residents but that, too, quickly became obsolete because of rapid population growth, D'Acosto said.
 
 

Kellogg Kitt

Interesting!  I had never heard of the peg dialer before.

How the final price get up to $11210 when there was only one bidder, and the minimum bid was $1000?

Wade

leejor

I'm going to assume that it used a 100 position rotary switch controlled by the number of pulses(up to 100) coming from the peg dial on the set. Probably one rotary switch connected direct to each set.

TelePlay

Quote from: Kellogg Kitt on January 18, 2024, 05:58:48 PMHow the final price get up to $11210 when there was only one bidder, and the minimum bid was $1000?

That, indeed, is an interesting question, if no typo(s) were involved.

The final price includes the "Buyer's Premium" which if 20% would put the total price at $1,200 if only one bid and a $1,000 minimum.

paul-f

The system is also described in:

Telephone Dials and Pushbuttons, V1, Stanley Swihart
AT&T Queens System 3.4.3
pp. 3-24 - 3-26

The bibliography references this article, which is readily available on-line:
Early Work on Dial Telephone Systems, R. B. Hill, Bell Laboratories Record, Jan. 1953

https://www.worldradiohistory.com/Bell_Laboratories_Record_Issue_Key.htm
Visit: paul-f.com         WE  500  Design_Line

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