Mystery Wallphone?

[Eric Klassen]

Hello everyone,

I just found this site and I am very pleased. I'm a retired BC Tel I&R guy from the 1960s. I have a wallphone that looks like an AE set closely resembling a Type 90 BUT the handset does not hang on the left side. I sits in a hook-switch cradle across the front (below the rotary dial) much like the old Type 50s did in the previous generation.

Is there a way that I can identify it?

Thanks for listening.

ERIC

[ae_collector]

Hi Erik.

Guess what, I am retired BC Tel guy as well. What you describe sounds like an AE 50, the predecessor to the AE 90. Almost all of the 50’s were black Bakelite.

Here’s the thing with this group. Dave Hunter started it 15-20 years ago and asked me if I would be a back up admin in case it was ever needed. Dave passed away 5 or more years ago so the group is sort of orphaned now. But I got an email indicating a new member had posted.

Are you on Facebook at all? There is an Automatic Electric telephones group there. “GTE - Automatic Electric Telephones….” Otherwise, email me at A1A3...@telus.net. I haven’t checked here for years and not sure I can find my way back again!!

Terry

[Eric Klassen]

Hey Terry, thanks for the reply. The subject of my inquiry is not an AE 50. I know AE 40s and 50s. They were the bread and butter of my era in the 1960s. No, this phone, in the simplest explanation, looks like an AE 80, upside down and hanging on the wall instead of sitting on the table. I don't recall where I acquired it since it has collected dust in my basement for a quarter century, and I have never seen another one like it. I was gonna rip the innards out to refurbish an AE 21 but now I'm thinking it might be a keeper.

I can text a pic to you if you leave your cell number with me.

ERIC

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "telecom_museum" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to telecom_museu...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/telecom_museum/1fa07457-568f-4c2b-b766-992149003137n%40googlegroups.com.

[ae_collector]

Is this it? There was a British desk phone called a 706 that looked very much like an AE 80. They made a wall version that put the handset on a chromed steel cradle that operated the plunger buttons when the handset was on the cradle. ATEA was the British AE equipment manufacturer in liverpool I think. They might have made these, I am not certain though. I think I have one around here somewhere. Quite a few British phones and even Strowger telephone exchanges made it to Canada beginning after WW2. Used in the prairie provinces and in the maritime provinces primarily. Can you email me a picture or post one here? What do you need for your type 21? Wall or desk?

Terry

[Eric Klassen]

Thanks Terry. That's it (mine is black)

I had thought of using the guts of the 706 as a replacement transmission unit for my T21. My T21 is incomplete --- it looks perfect but it can't work with so much of it missing.

Do you have an alternative suggestion to make it functional? I suspect the 706 is worth saving. I have no other set that I could cannibalize.

Thanks

ERIC

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/telecom_museum/868b8232-0cf8-4a4e-8dfb-216e025d4d3an%40googlegroups.com.

[ae_collector]

That inebis from the internet. Mine is black as well. I have several spare AE 80/90 transmission networks around here. I think a T21 wall phone just had an induction coil and one or two condensers inside. Is that all that is missing? Are you in greater Vancouver area or elsewhere? Im in coquitlam. 

Terry

[Eric Klassen]

I'm in Surrey/Newton. Do you have an 80 or 90 network that you could give me? Also, is that 706 collectible? I'm kinda torn between saving it or gutting it for the network.

Eric

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/telecom_museum/7d212d07-75b0-4ea1-8b59-a83a668a22dan%40googlegroups.com.

[ae_collector]

Yes I can give you a AE network board. I am just across the Port Mann bridge from Surrey. Can see it from here.

 I think the wall arrangement may be removable from the 706 making it back to a desk phone. Dial gets flipped around again as well. I wouldn’t gut it for the network. Send me an email (it is in one of my earlier replies) and can exchange addresses etc. I lived between 72-76 Avenue on 149A street for my first 20 years of life and worked in Newton exchange on a couple of occasions with CT&S. 

Terry