Share your favorites on Show & Tell

US Navy phone

In Military and Wartime > Show & Tell and Telephones > Show & Tell.
Collectables59's loves1026 of 2718For Lawyers OnlyAntique Cameos Mystery
18
Love it
3
Like it

DragonflypearlDragonflypearl loves this.
ttomtuckerttomtucker loves this.
Collectables59Collectables59 loves this.
Vynil33rpmVynil33rpm loves this.
LaureniscontentLaureniscontent loves this.
ho2cultchaho2cultcha loves this.
aircooledaircooled likes this.
mrmajestic1mrmajestic1 loves this.
miKKoChristmas11miKKoChristmas11 loves this.
TomGTomG loves this.
chevy59chevy59 loves this.
beachbombbeachbomb loves this.
LostinspaceLostinspace loves this.
packrat-placepackrat-place loves this.
nwclocksnwclocks loves this.
aycockonxionaycockonxion likes this.
mtn_manmtn_man loves this.
Purpleisafruit6Purpleisafruit6 loves this.
ChrisnpChrisnp loves this.
trgrubaughtrgrubaugh loves this.
IlikeartIlikeart likes this.
See 19 more
Add to collection

    Please create an account, or Log in here

    If you don't have an account, create one here.


    Create a Show & TellReport as inappropriate


    Posted 13 years ago

    Alida
    (1 item)

    Does anyone know the authenticity of this phone and how to find out what ship it may have been on???

    logo
    Military and Wartime
    See all
    Old Rare Vintage Antique Civil War Relic Confederate Canister Shot Appomattox VA
    Old Rare Vintage Antique Civil War ...
    $20
    Old Rare Antique Civil War Relic Bullets CSA & US Miniballs Appomattox, Virginia
    Old Rare Antique Civil War Relic Bu...
    $35
    Old Rare Vintage Antique Civil War Relic Miniball, Button and Marble
    Old Rare Vintage Antique Civil War ...
    $15
    Old Rare Vintage Antique Civil War Relic 3 Flint For Flintlock Hammer Musket Gun
    Old Rare Vintage Antique Civil War ...
    $20
    logo
    Old Rare Vintage Antique Civil War Relic Confederate Canister Shot Appomattox VA
    Old Rare Vintage Antique Civil War ...
    $20
    See all

    Comments

    1. Ilikeart Ilikeart, 13 years ago
      This is very nice, never seen anything like it.
    2. Alida, 13 years ago
      @ilikeart~it is what some of us thought to be a "unique" item. seems there are three of us so far that i have found on this sight.
      @ttom~i saw your phone and it is a bit different. there is another one on here that they say they have hooked up and is actually being used as a dial phone.
    3. Chrisnp Chrisnp, 13 years ago
      Could "CH staff" be Chief of Staff?
    4. Alida, 13 years ago
      My Dad and Brother are/were both Navy. Dad served on the Shangrila and the O'Bannon. Not sure what ship my brother was on. He has passed away and we don't have any of his military records.
    5. chevy59 chevy59, 13 years ago
      Do you still have the phone?
    6. TomG, 13 years ago
      I found a picture of the same model phone installed on the USS Salem,
      a heavy cruiser WWII era on the following site. I also have a phone like this. http://gadgets.boingboing.net/2008/06/12/the-uss-salems-steam.html
    7. Bootson Bootson, 13 years ago
      I just saw a phone like this on 'American Pickers'. Unfortunately I didn't get to see what was said about it. I'll have to look up the Monday April 23rd. episodes.
    8. Bootson Bootson, 13 years ago
      Did anyone see what they said about this phone?
    9. keramikos, 5 months ago
      ttomtucker, Thanks for bringing this back to the front page. Story number 31601 is pretty old in Collectors Weekly Show & Tell terms.

      Google/Google Lens turned up some twins/near twins, including the one in your post (an even older CW story):

      https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/20695-navy-admirals-command-telephone

      An even older CW story (4161)!:

      https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/4161-automatic-electric-type-d

      This WorthPoint listing is mostly good for the tidbit that the phone weighs about 32 pounds. Yeah, that would sit well in a hip pocket. };-)

      https://www.worthpoint.com/worthopedia/flagship-admiral-nautical-naval-1868884568

      One that had been installed on the USS Missouri:

      https://hamptonroadsnavalmuseum.blogspot.com/2020/09/vj-day-artifact-series-part-3-uss.html

      Technical tidbits:

      *snip*

      Automatic Electric Type D - Ship Phone / Intercom -- Based on AE40 components plus an amplifier for hands-free operation. Lines are marked for ship's departments: engine, radio, etc. Nice anchor motif on the brass speaker covers. Typically used on large vessels, such as battleships and aircraft carriers. Ships phone functions were handled through a Strowger step switch. Intercom lines were directly wired point-to-point.

      *snip*

      http://www.paul-f.com/curious.htm

      More pictures, including one with the housing removed:

      https://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=17948.0

      The Pawn Stars TV show segment wherein somebody brought a similar phone to the Gold & Silver Pawn shop:

      Pawn Stars: Old Man's TOUGH NEGOTIATION for a HISTORIC Navy Phone

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNtPE4LEp5M

      About the Automatic Electric company:

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatic_Electric

      About Almon B. Strowger:

      *snip*

      Truly, necessity is the mother of invention.

      Imagine you’re an undertaker working in Kansas City in the late 19th century. You’re one of just two undertakers serving a city of more than 50,000 people, so business must be booming, right?

      Not if your competitor is stealing all of your clients.

      Legend has it that Almon Brown Strowger found himself in this exact position in the 1870s and 1880s. The wife of the other undertaker in town worked at the local telephone exchange, and whenever a caller would ask for Strowger’s services, she’d put the call through to her husband, instead. This left Strowger’s business in grave straits.

      His complaints to the telephone company proved unfruitful, so Strowger took matters into his own hands — by cobbling together hat pins and electromagnets into the first automated telephone exchange.

      *snip*

      https://www.sparkmuseum.org/almon-b-strowger-the-undertaker-who-revolutionized-telephone-technology/

      https://www.slate.com/blogs/the_eye/2013/10/03/strowger_switch_the_19th_century_design_invention_that_flipped_the_phone.html

      Strowger's 1892 patent:

      https://patents.google.com/patent/US486909A/en

    Want to post a comment?

    Create an account or login in order to post a comment.