Last year I made a blog posting about what we called the “Beep-Beep Line”. Back in the 1960’s it was discovered, mostly by the teen-aged population that if one dialed one’s own phone number and got the busy signal that communication was possible with others that were also experiencing a busy signal. The conversation takes place during the silent portions of the beep, or buzzing. Read the rest of this post »

From a recent eBay purchase this 1958 Western Electric Model 554 wall phone looked promising. From the eBay description and the answers provided by the seller it had the potential to be a very nice Vintage Rotary Phone. But a couple of questions that were not asked were, “….have there been any modifications to the electrical components? Has the network block been removed and some Read the rest of this post »

Some ten days after I began this project the Western Electric Model 354 wall phone is finally ready to hang on the wall. I had ordered some replacement rubber dial gaskets so that I could put a new one between the dial and the housing of the phone. They apparently got lost in the mail but eventually reached me and the project could go forward. Read the rest of this post »

This Bakelite Western Electric F1 handset and associated parts are all dated similarly to the rest of the telephone—September of 1952. I have cleaned and polished my share of Bakelite handsets and this one is one of the nicest handsets “as removed from service.” As always I wash the plastic in warm sudsy water and then apply liberal amounts of Novus #2 polish. Read the rest of this post »