Old phones

[electrolux137]

I've had this old phone (late 1930s I think) for many years but never tried to use it because I didn't have a modular jack adapter for it.

I found an adapter, tried the phone, it works! Well, kinda — you get a dial tone and can talk on it if someone calls you, but since modern phone systems no longer support pulse-dialing technology you can't place calls on it. It was manufactured by North Electric Company of Galion, Ohio.

I also have a lovely yellow wall phone that I love. Many people had these in their kitchens back in the day.

 

[justjunque]

That's great, Charles!
I have a thing for older phones, and I own several.
We still have a landline in our house too. I have a few Western Electric 500 sets that we use. Like you experienced, we couldn't originally dial out on them. But, we found converters that plug into the wall jack, then you plug the phone into the converter. It was called Dialgizmo. I'm not sure if they're still available, but something similar should be.
I also have a few different colors of the 554 wall phone. I grew up with that model in either ivory or beige.
Eventually, I intend to have a converter wired into one or more of them, so I can dial out on it.
Until then, we have a 2554 as our kitchen wall phone. It's the touch tone version. I installed a polarity guard in that one, so it functions properly.

 

[human]

I remember those phones. I had a 1957 vintage Western Electric desk phone that was black and had a black metal dial. The handset cord was straight, not coiled. Sometime in the late 2000's, my dad bought a green wall phone, like Charles' yellow one, except the handset cord was permanently attached, for something like 50 cents at a yard sale. He'd built a four-bay garage in the back yard for his antique cars and put it out there so he didn't have to walk back to the house to answer the phone or carry a cordless handset out there, which he would inevitably forget.

 

[texaskirbyguy]

Nice old phones - I like em, and prefer them! However I am spoiled by cordless for convenience.
I am probably the last one in the city to have a COPPER LINE landline. I am waiting for the day it just disappears.

My GF 20 years back had one also, along with an old desk pushbutton phone. When we talked, it felt like she was right there - the clarity, lack of noise, and frequency response of her voice was supurb compared to todays digital. Compression just stinks...

I still have a standard desk rotary with a polished brass personalized beauty cover over the receiver. Yep, decorating your phone happened back then also.

You can still initiate calls - start on a touch tone phone, then pick up the rotary one and hang up the TT one.

Funny thing - I once saw a youngster looking at a rotary dial phone, asking her mom how you texted with it. Her mom's response had me laughing...

 

[texaskirbyguy]

A picture of my phone, plus the North Pole phone directory just right for this time of year.
The phone book is real, not a novelty.

 

[justjunque]

Nice!
That looks like the Western Electric 500 set.
Is that a Norman Rockwell print on the phone book cover?
I see those handset trim pieces on eBay sometimes. They're usually like a filigree design or something. Yours looks like it has a name engraved on it, but my screen is too small to make it out.

 

[texaskirbyguy]

Yes, mine is a 500DM (dial, modular plug). It weighs a full 4lbs.
I remember long ago when I was a kid I was on my mom's similar phone and I got too far away from the base. My sister was sitting below it on the floor when I had pulled the base unit off the counter and onto her head.
Ouch... We still remember that event today - "Dial 'M' for migraine"...

The handset cover is indeed personalized with a full name. I suppose that the sky was the limit for other options.

The phone book cover art is by Robert Gunn. Inside it said that it was specially made for PTI (the phone company) for that one phone book. It also stated that you could buy a poster of that print by calling 488-HOHO (but only if you were not an elf). I can bet that offer is no longer valid though, lol...

 

[paul]

Here's a website that provides detailed information and photos of vintage telephone models:


homepage—http://www.paul-f.com/index.html

Northern Electric page—http://www.paul-f.com/neUNI.html