Australian Bakelite Telephones

[admin]

Came across these in my father in laws shed, he was an ex Telecom technician and no doubt stole them I notice he has put modern plugs on them, how would you call out on them ?

I was wondering if anyone had anything to add about them ? There isnt a lot of info on the net about them which is surprising, I am presuming they are 1930s/40s party line phones ?

I bet Gordon knows something about them

[Au_radio]

Nice ! What brand are they ?

[mtv]

The person wanting to make a call would lift the receiver and wind the crank.

This rang an operator at the telephone exchange who you then told who you wished to be connected to.

I've seen some set up as intercoms, which perhaps accounts for the modern plugs.

You could perhaps use one as a normal 'modern' phone, but for incoming calls only.

[Au_radio]

These are desk style magneto sets. Can be placed on a line with a battery and induction coil. They will all ring if you turn the crank.

Probably used around a railroad, logging camp or between farms but also used by PMG

Further
Originally based upon an Ericsson design, these magneto phones were made for a wide variety of telephone companies. The British PO used then, as did the Australian PMG. In Australia, they were made by AWA and STC, with some British imports. The later style handset (curved) show them to probably be what the PMG called 400 series, and your models are similar to our 408, from the 1950s.

[admin]

Nice ! What brand are they ?

None of them have any brand marks, and one has what appears to be a modern stamp from the 90's (possibly when the plug was converted).

The one on the left has some sort of speaker or air holes just below where the receiver sits (you can see one on the right hand side).

[admin]

If you pick up the receiver and listen, then turn the crank handle you can hear static when you crank them so I am presuming the magnetos are all good.

I might plug them in to the home line and see if they ring.

Prices on them on Ebay seem to vary a bit, I will be selling 2 of them for my mother in law. I might actually see if I can put them on consignment at a local collectables store, we have 2 big ones because for some reason every idiot from Melbourne that drives down on weekends thinks we are some sort of antiques haven.....I have no idea why. I also have to sell my father in laws record collection, so need to have a chat with them about that also. There is 6,000+ records. And I am the lucky person who has to price each single one of them.

[mtv]

Looks like the curly cords may have been replaced with a later plastic-covered type, as these old phones typically had cotton-covered cables.

That might detract from a serious collector's offer to buy, although there are those who would buy them for parts, or to restore... or just as a conversation piece.

[Keith]

I maybe wrong, but if you connect them to a battery they should ring without cranking. They still use this type of system on the rail system in Sydney now. When you crank the handle you produce a current that activates the bell in the receiving location only while cranking the handle. When the person on the other end lifts their handpiece to answer the call, this sends a current from the receiver to liven up the line and the sender phone so they can talk. The magneto is only to make the receivers phone ring.
As I said, I know of one location in Sydney where they still use this system. The primary active phone is in a signalbox, the secondary crank phone is in a yard

[lsemmens]

The maggie to "ring" the other end produced an AC signal so, a battery will not do it. The holes on the sides are only to "let the sound" out of the ringing bell. I agree they look like a 400 series maggie phone in common use in remote and rural areas up until the mid 70s. FYI Adelaide River Exchange was not cut over until 1980. The phones that had been used up until that time would have been like those displayed. If a new service was connected immediately prior to that cut over date, the 610 plug would have been retrofitted, given that most services back then were using the early 800 series phones. And, Yes, they will work on current lines but only for incoming calls. If, you happened to wind the maggie whilst connected, I would not be so bold as to say that you won't do any damage to the exchange equipment, or any connected peripherals at home, but, I would suggest that you probably won't cause any issues.

[LeroyPatrol]

I've got a rotary dial version. I swapped a guy for a brand new TF200. It has the cotton cord and the part that screws to the wall. I wonder if it will work when I cut over to the NBN?

.........Leroy

[lsemmens]

Actually, even when the first electronic exchanges were installed in the 80s they would all respond to "loop disconnect" dialling (rotary dials). I'm uncertain if the newest exchanges still do, but I doubt that they have retired decadic dialling given that there would still be many of the 800 series phones still in service. The old "if it ain't broke" analogy. There would still be some old biddies out there that would resist those new fangled things with buttons on them.

[ol' boy]

To think, from there to a Smartphone!
What "Apps" run on those phones admin

[OSIRUS]

We had one of these phones in the 1960's before they installed the automatic telephone exchange

I think two batteries about the size of tall soup cans sat just below the floor boards .... at that time

as said above cranking the handle caused it to ring at the other end ..... in our case to the manual telephone exchange where a lady would say "number please" etc ... & she would patch you into the line to where you wanted to talk to .... (usually big plugs that fitted into holes on a "switch board")

[Antennaman]

I think two batteries about the size of tall soup cans sat just below the floor boards .... at that time

as said above cranking the handle caused it to ring at the other end ..... in our case to the manual telephone exchange where a lady would say "number please" etc ... & she would patch you into the line to where you wanted to talk to .... (usually big plugs that fitted into holes on a "switch board")

2 Eveready batteries with a black cat jumping through a red 9....

Party lines with morse code ring cadence for a particular subscriber....

Manual exchange only open when the post mistress was on site.....

Booking a trunk call , & then hanging by the phone until called back.....

[gordon_s1942]

The NSW Railways used these types of phones in offices for the clerks to call the switchboard who would then connect them to who ever they wanted.
This type with the generator handle on top would be awkward to use if it was a party line and to call others, you turned the handle and pressed the button to give a morse code type ring to call them or a location.
On 402 circuit,a long and 2 shorts ( - .. , repeated until they answered) was the code for Katoomba parcel office.
Some places had the large wooden box type of telephone or a frame with one or 2 handsets on top and a group of 'kellog' keys to connect to the circuit you wanted.
Key UP connected one handset or handcombe, key Down connected the other but you couldnt connect both to the one circuit at a time.
Although I have seen those shown, I never lived or worked where these or similar phones were used by the PMG/Telcom.

[trash]

They should work fine on the modern pots network.
To dial, you have two options. Put a DTMF dialer in them or put a decadic dialer in.
Obviously you don't want to change the look so the best solution is to just build the dialer into a box on it's own lead that plugs into the socket with the phone.
Then all you have to do is pick up the phone, which will loop the line and dial on the box and next thing you know.... <Indian accent>"Hello Telstra technical support, how can I ignore you?"

[exited]

I've got a rotary dial version. I swapped a guy for a brand new TF200. It has the cotton cord and the part that screws to the wall. I wonder if it will work when I cut over to the NBN?

.........Leroy

You can receive calls and it rings as normal.
To dial out you'll need to generate the DTMF tones as in the above post.
Easy test is to use an online dailler >

It works on the NBN