Updated Telephony History Page
Mike Sandman
years!
http://www.sandman.com/telhist.html
I'm still working on it, but it's already got lots of pictures, and
some pretty strange stuff. I particularly like strange stuff.
I have two complete BECO catalogs there from the 1960's and 70's,
which are full of very neat old items. These catalogs are a history
lesson in themselves, since BECO started by selling refurbished and
war surplus stuff in the 1950's.
They also sold perfectly good "antique" candlestick phones, made into
lamps and flower planters. I guess maybe the phones we use today will
end up as flower planters some day?
BECO also had some wild pictures of scantily clad women in their later
catalog, including one of "Ma Bell" looking like you have probably
never thought of her.
There's also an ad for the Dan Mac Magneto Worm Harvestor. Dan
McNulty, who owned Telephone Repair Co. in Chicago (not "the" phone
company), sold the magnetos out of old phones to fishermen, in ads in
magazines like Popular Science. He also manufactured the Dan Mac Loud
Ringing Bell for years, which was very popular at non-Bell companies.
Have fun... Mike Sandman
Mike Sandman 630-980-7710
E-mail: mi...@sandman.com
WWW: http://www.sandman.com
Our 112 page catalog of Unique Telecom Products & Tools
is on the World Wide Web.
We have a fantastic assortment of Cable Installation Tools
and Training Videos to help you use them. NEW "Basic ISDN",
"Intro to T1" and Fiber Optic/CAT 5 Training Videos are now available.
Also check out our Telephony History Page, which contains
ads and articles from telephony related magazines from the
first part of the century.
[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: Mike Sandman's large catalog is free
for the asking. I strongly urge every one of you to get a copy by
asking Mike for it. You can write mi...@sandman.com or visit his
pages on the web. Mike has been a very big supporter of TELECOM
Digest for a number of years. If you order someting from him through
the mail, he is very trustworthy and reliable. PAT]