dunne@uunet.uu.net (Jim E. Dunne) (03/16/91)
I've got an old telephone, acquired from a GTE service area in far Northern IL. Embossed on the bottom is "THE NORTH ELECTRIC MFG. CO, GALION, OHIO", and stamped on the bottom is "50 CYCLE RINGER". Its housing is Bakelite, and it has the brown cloth-covered cord that PAT described on his Western Electric "Model Z". I had it hooked up in the early 80's, and it worked fine except for a low volume characteristic (might be due to the cheesy speaker wire connection I made for it!). It didn't ring when it was hooked up; I'm guessing because of the 50 Hz ringer vs. the 20 Hz ringer of today that I have read about in the Digest. My question is, who were the phone manufacturers of old? I'm sure that Western Electric made the phones for the Bell system, but who made the phones for the "other" companies? And how/when did these other service providers, and their hardware makers, come on the scene? Finally, let me state that I very much enjoy reading the TELECOM Digest and derive a special pleasure from the Chicago-based bent that Mr. Townson offers. As well as the sarcastic wit of John Higdon et al.! Jim Dunne Motorola Cellular ...uunet!motcid!dunne
99700000 <haynes@ucscc.ucsc.edu> (03/18/91)
I suppose way back in ancient times there were lots and lots of them. Anyway, the ones I can think of, aside from North (which is still in business) were Stromberg-Carlson, and Kellogg (Switchboard and Supply, not the breakfast cereal outfit), and Automatic Electric, and Leich. Then someone mentioned Gray telephone pay stations, and I distinctly remember seeing once in a non-Bell town a pay phone with a name something like "The Gray Telephone Pay Station Company" on it - other than that and the Automatic Electric dial it looked just like a Western Electric phone.