Posted 2 years ago
ttomtucker
(264 items)
This 1897 Viaduct wall telephone is referred to as a "paddle phone" because of the paddle being used in place of a hookswitch. A Dec 1894 ad that Viaduct ran in a trade magazine; " Our arm rest magneto bell is the most convenient form of bell ever made for telephone users who well know how tiresome it is to hold a receiver to a ear during a long conversation. This simple device obviates all the weariness, making it easy and pleasant to use the telephone. An automatic switch is unnecessary with this bell; the arm rest answers the purpose". The Viaduct telephone took me several months to restore and it is now hanging on my office wall.
If These Shirts Could Talk: The Tantalizing Tales Behind Used Clothes
Jockeying for Position: How Boxers and Briefs Got Into Men's Pants
Gloriously Grotesque 19th-Century Pipes
In the Hot Seat: Is Your Antique Windsor a Fake?
Love at First Kite: How Pizza and Pente Led to One Oklahoman's High-Flying Obsession
Blood, Sweat, and Steel: My Afternoon with the Ace of Swords
'The Great Gatsby' Still Gets Flappers Wrong
Say Ahhh: An Oral Surgeon's Quest to Reimagine the Garage-Band Guitar
Forget TV Pickers, Meet the Real Mavericks of the Antiques World
Coveting The Craziest Cat-People Collectibles


Thank you officialfuel and mtn_man
That is a beautiful phone... Can you help me identify mine? its a Western Electric and thats all i no
a7xcho4, send me a photo at mox-nix@cablespeed.com and I I.D. the phone for you.
Steeltoad, thank you for your comment. I am working on another phone this time it's a switchboard.