Today we created a short YouTube video of our 400-line Western Electric Step-by-Step Switch.
Tag: Western Electric
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.
Photo 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
Bell System Series 200 Dial Communications Service
Recently we acquired this folder about the Bell System Series 200 Dial Communications Service.
It appears to be dated May 1965.
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.
Photo 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.
This early b&w Bell System News Features photo shows the 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.
Early Touch Tone dial
Today we discovered this early Touch Tone dial, dated March 1966.
It is mounted in a Western Electric card dialer which has seen better days.
Can you spot what makes it special?
Early Touch Tone dial
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.
Western Electric PicturePhone Model II
We thought you might enjoy this photo of the Western Electric PicturePhone Model II:
“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
Happy Birthday, Trimline!
Happy Birthday, Trimline! ??? Guess you just missed it too? According to Events in Telephone History by AT&T, August 2 1965, was when “Michigan Bell became the first company to sell Trimline phones on a companywide basis.”
Interested in reading more about the Trimline? Check out the upcoming August 2015 issue of the Telephone Collectors International publication Singing Wires Journal. It contains an article “From Butt Set to Beauty” The Trimline is 50 Years Old by Paul Fassbender.
The JKL Museum of Telephony collection contains many antique telephones and a few not so antique. There are several telephones in the JKL Museum collection that are related to the Trimline development.
You can check them out on our site in the virtual exhibit “Pre—production models, prototype, display telephones, and related objects.”
Look for the Demitasse, Schmoo, Contour, Trimline I, a golden Trimline and others.
You are also welcome to come and see them for yourselves at our telephone museum. Check out our homepage or use the contact option in the menu bar to get in touch.
Also don’t forget to check out the Trimline page at Paul Fassbender’s site