Tag: Bell System

Photo Exhibit: One Bell System. It works. “One hundred Years of Telephony in America” 1876 – 1976

Photo Exhibit: One Bell System. It works. “One hundred Years of Telephony in America” 1876 – 1976.

We recently acquired a set of 81 AT&T Photo Center photos. We hope you will enjoy this Photo Exhibit

Picturephone Model II Demo Video

We had a working demonstration of two Picturephone Model II at the Southern California Telephone Collectors Show on Saturday, March 19, 2016.

The video shows two working examples of the Model II Picturephones. They were setup to show the picture they took on their own screen. In the future we hope to be able to connect them together and maybe even make an actual video call. We are very pleased that Chris Brawner got these working after so many years.

We apologize for the first few minutes of the video not being in focus but hope that you will enjoy this little video.

Picturephone Model II Demo VideoPhoto source:
http://long-lines.net/tech-equip/Picturephone/BLR0569/picturephone.pdf
PDF of the May 1969 Bell Labs Record about the Western Electric PicturePhone Model II

Picturephone Model II Demo

We plan to have a working demonstration of a Picturephone Model II at the Southern California Telephone Collectors Show on Saturday, March 19.

Picturephone Model II DemoPhoto source:
http://long-lines.net/tech-equip/Picturephone/BLR0569/picturephone.pdf
PDF of the May 1969 Bell Labs Record about the Western Electric PicturePhone Model II

See you at the Southern California Telephone Collectors Show.

Click here for the Southern California Telephone Collectors Show info.

Click here for the show blog. There will be photos posted to the blog on the day of the show.

 

 

Code-Com Set

Found this Bell System Code-Com Set. Do you know what it is?
It is actually pretty cool:

According to the BSP “This set provides a means of communicating over telephone lines for persons who
are handicapped through loss of hearing, speech, or sight.”

We wish it were it better shape but guess it will have to do for now. Let us if you have more information about this device or a nicer one to spare.

Code-Com Set

Code-Com Set

This early b&w Bell System News Features photo shows the Code-Com Set.

Code-Com Set
TOUCH-A-PHONE. This is the Code-Com set being developed by Bell Telephone Laboraties and Western Electric. The set, connected to a conventional telephone, will aloow the deaf-blind to “feel” phone messages in vibrations of a finger pad, and the deaf to “see” messages in coded flashes of light. The circular vibrating pad is on the left. Light flashes some from a recess (black rectangle) in the center of the raised portion of the set. The sending key, used like a telegraph key, is on the right.
Photo JE6910 — Touch-a-Phone — Bell System News Features

Advertising about the Code-Com Set can be found here.

The 1976 Bell System Telephone Book Cover

This week we received a very generous donation of two large original pencil sketches with a total of thirty vignettes by Stanley Meltzoff (1917-2006). The artwork,  created for the 1976 Bell System telephone directory cover,  was inspired by a piece known as the Gossips by Norman Rockwell.
Stanley Meltzhoff’s work has appeared in Saturday Evening Post, Life, Scientific American, National Geographic and Sports Illustrated.

DSC02003DSC02005 DSC02004

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

DSC01998 DSC01997

 

 

 

 

 
We are very excited about this donation. It’s a wonderful piece of telephone history.
In the art work, various characters from American history were depicted on the 1976 telephone book cover, each talking on one of the various types of telephones that were designed since Alexander Graham Bell patented the telephone.
The cover commemorates the 200th birthday of the United States and the 100th anniversary of the telephone. It appeared on more than 184 million Bell System telephone directory covers throughout the U.S.

The Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania sign

Today several signs were mounted in and outside of the museum. Something interesting was discovered while mounting a Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania sign.

The old 1964 Bell System logo was covered with the 1969 Bell System logo. The replacement  1969 Bell System logo has now been mounted above the sign. You can see the mounting holes in the sign were the replacement logo was mounted. It must have been a lot cheaper to create covers for the old logo than create more signs.

The sign is a very heavy one that has been cast in bronze.

DSC00011
The Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania sign

Western Electric PicturePhone Model II

We thought you might enjoy this photo of the Western Electric PicturePhone Model II:

WE_Picturephones_Mod_II
Western Electric PicturePhone Model II (June 1970)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“PICTUREPHONE® sets come rolling along conveyor belt toward final packaging at Western Electric’s Indianapolis plant. Most of Western Electric’s 19 plants funnel parts to Indianapolis for final assembly in preparation for the inaugural of PICTUREPHONE service on July 1 in Pittsburgh by the Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania.”

For more information about the Western Electric Picturesphones see:

  • http://www.beatriceco.com/bti/porticus/bell/telephones-picturephone.html
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Videophone
  • http://www.corp.att.com/attlabs/reputation/timeline/70picture.html
  • http://long-lines.net/tech-equip/Picturephone/BLR0569/picturephone.pdf
    PDF of the May 1969 Bell Labs Record about the Western Electric PicturePhone Model II

 

 

GPO (BT) Vision of the Future