Posted 10 years ago
Baller_on_…
(8 items)
I have this vintage / antique desk phone that I would like to gain some more history knowlege on it. As you can see there is no rotary for it and the phone still has the cloth wire. I believe phones went to the plastic wiring around the early 1940's. Anyone that can help fill me in I would be appreciative. I believe the dust that is on it is also from the late 30's / early 40's....LOL!!!
Not sure about other parts of the country but this type phone came out in Vermont during the mid 1950's. We had a three digit phone number written on the round disk. Before these we just picked up the phone and told the operator I want to talk to grandma etc. When these came out we had to tell the operator the number we wanted. Operator would say Number Please and you gave her the number. If you wanted to call long distance it took close to an hour and going through three or four different operators. If the line was busy you started all over again. Driving there would have been quicker sometimes.
Thank you fhrjr2, for your feedback. I don't know what it is about old phones, I just love them...
Great thing about these phones is you could slam them down... giving you that great satisfaction of hanging up on someone, miss that with these stupid end buttons... just not the same.
In Canada we used these also into the 50's in areas, they were made of a bakelite.
Most times they say on the bottom the model number, or if you take the bottom plate off, there should be a number, do a search with this number and you'll get everything you want to know about this phone almost. Numerous collectors.
Thank you Ericocon, I will have to remove the plate to look for the number, there is no number on the plate.
Your Western Electric type 302 made of thermo-plastic started appearing on the market in 1946. Early production (1936-1941) of the 302 were made of painted pot metal.
Thank you ttomtucker