Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Old-Time Telephones! Design History and Restoration by Ralph O. Meyer Old-time telephones!; design, history, and restoration. Old-time telephones!; design, history, and restoration. Schiffer Publishing Ltd. Meyer provides the history of the telephone from Alexander Graham Bell in 1875 to the dissolution of AT&T's Bell System in 1984, as well as observations about development and components, those used for commercial services, electrical circuits, and restoration and repair. Many photos and diagrams reinforce information on designers and companies such as Henry Dreyfuss, Bell Laboratories, and Western Electric. The new edition is expanded, covers Automatic Electric telephones, and has a price guide. It includes a foreword by the Smithsonian's Dr. Bernard S. Finn. Meyer, a physicist who has done 20 years of research on the subject, is a phone collector himself. Model 102 telephone. The model 102 telephone was Western Electric's first widely distributed telephone set to feature the transmitter and receiver in a common handset. It was produced starting approximately in 1927. Earlier telephones by Western Electric had been of the candlestick type which featured a transmitter fixed to the base, and a receiver held by the user to the ear. Initially the 102 featured a circular base, the A1 mount, a design inherited from the candlestick desk stands, as well as in the redesigned B1 base, produced between 1927 and 1930. Later models, starting in 1930, used an oval design (D1 base) to improve physical stability when dialing. The model 102 telephone consisted of the desktop set (handset mounting) and a physically separate subscriber set ( subset ), a box that was typically mounted on a wall near the phone or on the side of a desk. The desktop unit contained only the dial, a handset cradle with hook-switch, and the handset positioned in the cradle, while the subscriber set contained the ringer and the electrical components to interface the unit with the telephone network. The model 102 was plagued by problems with excessive sidetone, resulting in a poor experience for users hearing their own voice very loudly, and in extreme cases in early versions also unstable feedback from the receiver into the transmitter. This resulted in users lowering their voice to the point where the other party found them difficult to hear. This problem was resolved when the model 102 was upgraded in approximately 1930 to the model 202. Contents. History. As early as 1890, Western Electric had been experimenting with handset types that combined the transmitter and the receiver in the same hand- held unit, but two technical problems prevented them from reaching production at that time. First, the transmitters of the day did not work well unless oriented in a vertical plane. If operated at other angles, as would be expected in a hand-held unit, carbon granules in the transmitter would shift and move in an unacceptable manner, resulting in poor voice quality, [1] referred to as carbon noise. Another hurdle to the acceptance of a common handset model was that audio from the receiver was picked up acoustically by the transmitter and amplified, resulting in howling tones, called acoustic feedback, due to the hollow handles providing an acoustic channel between receiver and transmitter. The problems were aggravated by the signal boosting circuitry used in the subscriber set which resulted in a strong signal (sidetone) at the receiver of the speech of the user. [2] Sidetone is desirable only to some fraction of volume so that the user has the assurance that the telephone is working correctly. Strong sidetone may cause users to lower the voice to unacceptable levels, so that the recipient receives insufficient signal level. In the 1920s, developments in anti-sidetone circuitry and non-positional transmitters, which worked in any orientation, permitted Western Electric to develop a handset model free of these problems. The resulting E1 handset was ready for production in 1927. This handset was paired with a base that was essentially a candlestick with a shortened neck of approximately one inch in height, topped with a new cradle for the handset. The cradle incorporated the hookswitch as a vertical plunger actuating the electrical switch contacts. This initial design was tested in the central offices and released in limited supply as Western Electric's first handset subscriber telephone, the model A1 . Although the E1 handset was built to complement the anti-sidetone circuitry, such circuitry was still not ready by the time the A-type desk set was released. However, the solid Bakelite construction of the handset suppressed acoustic feedback to acceptable levels. [3] As work continued on the anti-sidetone circuitry, a new base was designed for the E1 handset to replace the shortened candlestick. The new mount was designated by the part number B1 , and was similar in overall shape to the A-base, but with more flowing lines and a shell cast completely in aluminum or metal alloy. This is the combination that is most commonly associated with the designation 102 . During the model's production life, however, it was just referred to by its component parts. The B-type desk set was followed by a wall-mounted handset telephone, designated as the C-type hangup telephone, with the E1 handset hanging on one side of the unit in a cradle for the receiver end. In use, the B-type telephone base proved unstable during dialing, and was replaced with the D-type handset mounting in 1930. A wider, oval base improved its stability. While the D1 mounting base was initially deployed electrically identical to the prior models, advances in the anti-sidetone audio circuitry soon reached production quality, so that D1 sets are most commonly identified as the 202-type telephone. The assembly codes 102 and 202 referred whence to the electrical capabilities of the sets, the 102 having no sidetone reduction, and the 202 containing the anti-sidetone improvements. Thus, some of the early oval D mounts, would still be designated as model 102 if they did not yet have the anti-sidetone circuitry. [4] Old-Time Telephones!: Design History and Restoration by Ralph O. Meyer. BOOKS ABOUT ANTIQUE TELEPHONES. This is a listing of current books, some out of print, that are available at the bookstore, Amazon.com, Phonecoinc.com and Schiffer Publishing Company. Hopefully this list can help give you ideas as to where you can find these different books and photo books online about antique telephones. Dooner, Kate, Telephones Antique to Modern, West Chester, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., First Edition 1992; Second Printing. Over 500 color photographs cover the development of the telephone from the Bell's first experimental equipment. Exquisite examples of wooden box phones; vanities; upright "candlesticks"; and desk stand or "cradle" phones. An important reference for novice and avid telephone collectors alike. Dooner, Kate, Telephone Collecting, Seven Decades of Design , West Chester, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 1993 A history of the design of the telephone is presented from Art Deco years to novelty phones of the 1980s in text and over 250 color photos. Memories will be awakened as you page through the book to see the phones you grew up with. Old telephones are appearing in antique and collector shops throughout America; becoming one of the hottest new finds for colloecting or just as accent pieces. Evenson, Edward, Amazon.com., 2001 The Telephone Patent Conspiracy of 1876. The Elisha Gray-Alexander Bell Controversy and Its Many Players by A. Edward Evenson. Meyer, Ralph, Old-Time Telephones! Design, History, and Restoration, 2nd Edition (now includes AE phones), Atglen, Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2005. Old-Time Telephones traces the development of the telephone from Alexander Graham Bell to 1984, when the Bell Ssytem was broken up. Fundamental engineering principles, design concepts, and historical facts are interwoven in the fascinating and down-to-earth context of antqiue telephones. Montjoy, Richard, 100 Years of Bell Telephones, West Chester Pennsylvania: Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 1995. This 176 page book traces the history of the first hundred years of the telephones in the Bell System. Wolff, Lawrence, Desk Telephones of the Bell System, Burbank, California: CompuGrafix & Printing, 1993 now in it's second printing. 178 pages. Great schematics and information about dials, handsets, transmitters, etc. Old-Time Telephones!: Design History and Restoration by Ralph O. Meyer. RALPH MEYER'S BOOK. "OLD TIME TELEPHONES" Design History and Restoration. Ralph Meyer's book is the "Bible" for information on old telephones. In my humble opinion, it is a landmark publication that encapsulates the important schematics and specifications for major "pioneer" telephone brands such as Western Electric, Automatic Electric, Kellogg Switchboard and Supply, & Stromberg-Carlson. I heartily recommend this book for novices and professionals alike. Model 202 telephone. The model 202 telephone was a desktop telephone produced by Western Electric from 1930 through ca. 1937. Refurbished units appeared into the 1950s. It was a modified version of the 102-type telephone, and contained newly developed anti-sidetone circuitry to reduce electronic feedback from the transmitter (mouthpiece) to the receiver (earpiece). This sidetone created an unpleasant experience for users, hearing their own voice very loudly, and causing them to lower their own speech volume to unacceptable levels. Contents. History. The model 202 telephone, like the 102, consisted of the desk top set, containing only the dial, the handset with integrated receiver and transmitter, a handset cradle with hookswitch, and a physically separate subscriber set ( subset ) which contained the ringer and the electrical components to interface the desk set with the telephone network. The first versions of the 202 were produced by installing into existing model 102s newly developed circuitry that electrically cancels a major fraction of sidetone feedback into the receiver.