Nearly two years ago I wrote an article about a pair of Mahogany telephones made by Western Electric. About a year later I was lucky enough to come upon another example of this color—one that is not commonly found in a set of this vintage.

From my collection is this brown (Mahogany) Model 500 made by Western Electric.

1957 Mahogany Western Electric

The first of the plastic color Model 500’s were made in 1953.  Those colors were Ivory, Moss Green, Dark Gray (Oxford Gray) and Cherry Red.  In 1954 colors that were introduced were Mediterranean Blue, Pastel Yellow, Dark Beige (Rose Beige) and Mahogany.  These brown sets were discontinued in 1957, making a very short run of three years for this color.  A while ago I came upon an example of a Mahogany Western Electric that had lived a rough life.  Come with me as I take you along on my journey to refurbish this great piece of American history. Read the rest of this post »

One of my latest telephone refurbish projects is this handsome North Electric “Galion” phone.  So called because it was manufactured by the North Electric Company of Galion, Ohio.  Early models of this phone were made with metal housings but were later made of Bakelite.

North Electric "Galion" Phone

Although North Electric (not to be confused with Northern Electric of Canada) did manufacture their own dials, they also released phones with dials from other manufacturers.  This particular telephone was made in 1953 with an Automatic Electric rotary dial. Read the rest of this post »