Posted 10 years ago
Blueyedame
(14 items)
EARLY ANTIQUE Kellogg 1000 Redbar Pre-Dial Telephone circa 1947. This belonged to my Mother in law. She was a telephone operator from 1939 to 1960.
We no longer have a house line, we're all cellular. Even though you cannot dial, I'd love to know if this still gets a dial tone :)
Kellogg 1000 Redbar history
By Roger Conklin, (c) 2004
(pdf version)
Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company was founded by Milo G. Kellogg in 1897. He started in telephony in 1872 as an engineer with Gray & Barton, a company that soon changed its name to Western Electric, where he had been promoted to manufacturing superintendent by the time he left to start his own company. A prolific inventor, he already had some 150 patents to his name when he established Kellogg.
The Type 1000 Masterphone, known by telephone collectors today as the Kellogg Redbar, went into production in 1947, the 50th anniversary year of this family-owned company, while Jim Kellogg, Milo's grandson, was president. Four years later, Kellogg's controlling interest was purchased by International Telephone & Telegraph (ITT). A series of name changes - ITT Kellogg and then ITT Telecommunications, followed later.
The Redbar is easily recognized by its bright red hook switch actuator plunger. It is similar in size, weight and general shape to Western Electric's 302, Stromberg Carlson's 1243 and Automatic Electric's 40 type telephones, all of which were introduced earlier and were Redbar contemporaries. Its molded black bakelite housing has smooth contours and a slightly puffed-up appearance. But inside, the Type 1000 is very different from the others. Rather than the mass of tangled wires connecting the various components together in other telephones, there is instead a one-piece molded interconnecting block that includes the hook switch. The condenser and induction coil are fully encapsulated and equipped with plugs that are inserted into sockets just like tubes in the radios of that era. The sockets and screw terminals are interconnected by a grid of tinned brass bars soldered in place on the underside of the block. The 3 conductor spade-tipped handset cord connects to screw terminals on the left side of the connecting block and the 3-conductor line cord to terminals on the right side. Screw terminals are clearly marked with their function. There is no confusion, such as exists with other kinds of phones from that era, about which wire goes where if cords or internal components are disconnected and replaced. Installation and repair was a cinch.
The Type 1000 Masterphone was supplied either with a dial for automatic service or with a dial blank for manual service. Conversion from manual to dial was accomplished by simply removing the dial blank, replacing it with a dial and connecting it to the interconnecting base by means of a 4-pin plug on one end of a dial cord attached to the dial terminals.
According to Ralph Meyer's "Old Time Telephones" the anti-side tone transmission characteristics of the 1000 Masterphone are very similar to Western Electric's 302. Side tone is the sound that is produced in his receiver when a person talks into his own transmitter. Anti-side tone circuits make more efficient used of sound energy by minimizing the sound in the talking-person's receiver and maximizing the sound transmitted to and heard by the person on the other end of the line. "Side tone" results from other persons in the same room talking, or other background noise being transmitted through the transmitter and back into talker's ear, making it difficult to hear the person on the other end of the line. Especially with earlier non-anti side tone phones it is often necessary to cover your telephone transmitter with your hand while listening, to suppress the background noise in order to be able hear the person on the other end of the line. (Covering your other ear with your hand doesn't help at all.) Background noise is much more tolerable with anti-side tone telephones. With the 1000 Masterphone, Kellogg was the first to introduce a manual screwdriver adjustment which the telephone installer can use to fine tune the transmitter current to more closely match line to which it is connected, so as to further minimize side tone. This was a predecessor to the circuit later developed by Bell Labs and first utilized in Western Electric's 500 set which, calibrated by the current level from the central office -48 volt power, performed a similar adjustment automatically.
Information provided via http://www.telephonearchive.com/
Perhaps just a little more info? Kidding that excellent information. Looks like it has been converted and will get a dial tone.
Lol...I like to be thorough... I'm going to take it to a neighbors one of these days & see if it gets a tone.