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| Re: Why do people want antique radios? [message #91789 is a reply to message #91780] |
Wed, 29 April 2020 10:49  |
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Wayne Parham
Messages: 18791
Registered: January 2001
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Illuminati (33rd Degree) |
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Phones!
I have a Western Electric Model 202 phone and a Model 302. Both were manufactured for use by the Bell Telephone company and were never sold. Back then, phones were leased as a part of the phone service. You returned the phone if you stopped using their service.
Both are genuine metal phones and both work, both dial and both ring. I've got 'em hooked up to my land line and I use them from time to time. I love to hear them ring.
Western Electric Model 202
The Model 202 is a sort of delicate looking phone with a detached ringer box. It (and the 102 that looks very similar) replaced the "candlestick" phone in 1930 and was in common use until the early 1950s. Mine shown above has the handset and dial unit sitting on top of its detached ringer box.
Western Electric Model 302
The Model 302 was made in the 1940s and 1950s, and some were still in use in the 1960s. It's the first one that took on the popular look most "baby boomers" were familiar with. All the electronics, the switching mechanism and the ringer are contained in this unit, as was the case for all models that followed.
The Model 500 - which looked similar to the 302 - was offered in the 1960s. Both the 302 and the 500 had rotary dials, which were eventually replaced by DTMF "touch-tone" phones, models 1500 and 2500. Touch tone phones were available in the 1960s, but they could only be used if the central office supported DTMF dialing, which took some time to rollout, especially in rural areas. So some places had rotary phones through the 1970s.
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