Rochester
Werner Schwiering
I was able to make it to Rochester Wednesday morning. Got there at 7AM
after leaving home at 3:30AM. Not bad time.
It was a pleasure meeting Mark Oppat in person - nice to put a face to the
key strokes we are used to. I also met and some of my friends from the LVRC
there.
Weather was fantastic! I picked up some grill cloths, UV199's and WD11 tube
adapters and a knob for my Splitdorf Abbey.
I also picked up a 1918 Western Electric candlestick telephone. I have
always wanted a "Sam Drucker Phone" - ref Green Acres. I would like to use
it. Anyone with information on how it was originaly connected would be
appreciated. The cord has a 3 wire connection, the phone itself has no
ringer. I can only imagine that there was a separate ringer box it
connected to originaly.
Thanks
Werner Schwiering
www.joystick.ca/radiola.html
Bill Jeffrey
> I also picked up a 1918 Western Electric candlestick telephone. I have
> always wanted a "Sam Drucker Phone" - ref Green Acres. I would like to use
> it. Anyone with information on how it was originaly connected would be
> appreciated. The cord has a 3 wire connection, the phone itself has no
> ringer. I can only imagine that there was a separate ringer box it
> connected to originaly.
>
I have a similar phone. Mine has a separate dovetailed oak "ringer box",
which contains the hand-crank dynamo and ringer mechanism. More
important, it also contains the "induction coil" which couples the phone
line to the phone, enables simultaneous talk and listen (duplex),
provides sidetone, etc. Unfortunately, I have never figured out how to
hook it up to a modern two-wire phone line. Been years since I tried it,
but ISTR that the audio levels on a modern line seem too low.
Phone restoration places like Phoneco.com seem to steer you in the
direction of a small new "module" that goes inside the phone. I am
willing to jigger the internal wiring a bit, but no permanent mods, so
there it sits.
I have the Mountjoy book (100 Years of Bell Telephones), which contains
some scattered information on Bell/WE phones. If you can send me any
numbers off your phone, I will forward any info to you.
If anyone has hookup ideas, Werner and I would both like to hear them.
And if anyone knows of a better source of reference info for old phones
- I envision a Rider's for phones - I sure would like to hear about it.
Thanks
Bil Jeffrey
Remove NOSPAM from my address before e-mailing a reply.
Werner Schwiering
http://atcaonline.com , it had all the info on my phone.
You ar right Bill, you need the box. I suspect that it should not be too
hard to modify a cheap phone to hook up to the old set - It seems to consist
of little more than a ear piece and microphone.
Werner
"Bill Jeffrey" <wjef...@alumNOSPAM.mit.edu> wrote in message
news:3D70B7D1...@alum.mit.edu...
Bill Jeffrey
>
> Nice to know I am not the only one that wants to do this. I found this page
> http://atcaonline.com , it had all the info on my phone.
>
> You ar right Bill, you need the box. I suspect that it should not be too
> hard to modify a cheap phone to hook up to the old set - It seems to consist
> of little more than a ear piece and microphone.
Good find, Werner - I missed this one last time I looked.
The 315H ringer box (shown on the WE-20AL.pdf diagram) is not hard to
find. When I run across them, they are usually lying alone (no phone),
under a table, dusty and sad, at a flea market or antique consignment
shop. They are easy to identify - open the front door, and look at the
top edge of the box. The model number is impressed into the wood. It
usually has a 3-bar (i.e., 3-magnet) magneto as shown in the sketch you
found, but some versions had 5 bars (more power for longer phone line
loops, I think). Many times someone has removed the magneto for "science
experiments" - sad. Of course, once you find one, I still don't know how
to hook it up ...
Bill Jeffrey