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Posted 3 years ago
seearekern
(1 item)
This is a Western Electric phone (circa 1885) that I acquired about 45 years ago while doing installation/repair for Northwestern Bell in Omaha, NE.
The phone was on loan to the Telephone Pioneers Museum for a number of years and I reclaimed it about 15 years ago.
I have never seen a phone with the thick glass insert on the magneto box before or since acquiring this one. The museum curator said that he had read about them but had never seen one.
The receiver was broken by my niece and I have not located the correct replacement. I'm not sure that the mouthpiece is the original style and make.
If anyone has additional information about the history of this model, I would appreciate hearing from you.
Western Electric TelephonesWestern Electric, the equipment division of the Bell System, was the major …
Wood TelephonesThe telephone was introduced by Alexander Graham Bell at a world's fair, th…
Neat old phone. Is this telephone available to be purchased?
Western Electric was one of several companies that made glass front magneto boxes. Some of the other companies were Chicago Telephone Supply, Sun Electric Co, Williams Abbott Electric Co. It was a good marketing tool to let the subsciber see the internal working of a telephone. Western Electric had the glass front telephone on the market around 1896, the 1885 date you have is for the magneto patent. I will post some of the glass fronts on my show and tell.