larry@uunet.uu.net (Larry Lippman) (04/09/91)
In article <telecom11.253.9@eecs.nwu.edu> 0004133373@mcimail.com (Donald E. Kimberlin) writes: > As to frequency-selective ringers, I came along late in the territory > of an Independent that seemed to have bought its equipment from > wherever there was some that week. You could go into one house and > find and Automatic Electric phone; a WECo in the next, and a Stromberg > in the third ... plus assorted cats and dogs from time to time. Ain't that the truth! Some of the Rube Goldberg installations I have seen in small independent operating telephone companies boggle the mind. A common source of telephones, components and wiring supplies during the 1950's was World War II surplus! In the early 1970's I did some consulting work for an independent telephone company who had a variety of troubles, not the least of which was trouble between some N1 carrier that they had installed between two of their CO's several years earlier. They had excessive transmission loss between the CO's and were unable to maintain line equalization for any period of time. It turns out that to save money, they had run some of the carrier circuit using buried "spiral-four" cable that was war surplus from 1945. The cable was rubber-insulated and its dielectric was badly deteriorated. They sure were upset when I told them it was the source of their trouble and had to be dug up and replaced with a more "state of the art" cable! One of the more memorable independent telephone companies which actually used war surplus telephone apparatus was the Germantown Telephone Company in Germantown, NY (located along the Hudson River somewhat south of Albany). The telephone company was owned by the Bohnsack family, who also owned quite a bit of Germantown (or so it seemed). :-) In all fairness, I must first point out that in 1978 they obtained REA financing, axed their old CO apparatus and installed Stromberg-Carlson electronic Crossreed apparatus. Their old CO was a sight to behold, however, put together by Walter Bohnsack over the years using an extensive amount of war surplus. The first clue that his CO was "different" was the use of grocery store-variety light bulbs as ringing lead ballast lamps! Obtaining copious quantities of war surplus was easy for Walter Bohnsack since he also ran a used telephone apparatus company called Bohnsack Equipment Company (BECO). Some readers may recognize this name from their surplus catalogs from years past. I usually don't mention on the Net the names of specific people and telephone companies I have known and dealt with, but I have made an exception here since I don't believe the Bohnsacks would mind and since some readers may have heard of their used telephone apparatus sales company. > Reminiscent of that time, when WECo built a pink Princess telephone, > AT&T was so proud, they ran an double-page color ad about how modern > they were in {Life Magazine}. One of my neighbors remarked to their > chum who worked for "the phone company" how classy that looked. ... > But then, it was a different time and a different society, wasn't it? Ah, yes, colored telephones. When one now considers the logistics and expense of maintaining stocks of appropriately colored components and cords, it does seem a little silly. I remember how disappointed I was in the early 1970's when colored 500-type sets starting arriving with "neutral" slate station cords instead of those with the matching color. Horrors! - what American tradition will they eliminate next? :-) > And, thanks Larry, for telling me what a "pole-changer" was for. I > saw old references to them, but never in a context that explained what > their function was. They must have been very archaic, for by the time > this kid came along, all the offices I saw had motor generators for > ringing current. I guess they were more maintenance free. I can only > guess pole-changers went out before WW II. In my travels with independent operating telephone companies during the early 1970's, I saw still in service a few ancient AC line operated 20 Hz ringing power plants that used pole changers. They were used with 1A key telephone systems and were manufactured by a company under the tradename "Tele-Ring". I can't remember the name of the manufacturer, though. Larry Lippman @ Recognition Research Corp. "Have you hugged your cat today?" VOICE: 716/688-1231 {boulder, rutgers, watmath}!ub!kitty!larry FAX: 716/741-9635 [note: ub=acsu.buffalo.edu] uunet!/ \aerion!larry