Western Electric Model 302 - E1 Handset

A woman in Massachusetts sent me her Western Electric Model 302 to be refurbished. Her father had given her the phone years ago to use as a toy. She had told me how as a young girl she played “operator” using this classic old telephone. She would emulate Lilly Tomlin’s character from the 1960’s television show, Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-In by dialing a number and pretending to be the operator. Now many years later with a family of her own, she wants the phone to look nice again as well as being a usable working telephone. There was one unusual aspect of the telephone however, that was mentioned as a “by the way” type of thing. 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 »