Kings County Museum 2023 Exhibit – Communications

In 2023 the Kings County Museum borrowed a significant number of telephones for their Communications exhibit. While I was installing the exhibit I took a number of photos and provided captions for the museum. The exhibit is open until February 2024, so go check them out while you can!

Not pictured here are four 500 sets that are part of an interactive exhibit for the museum – letting kids of all ages make phone calls on a rotary phone. This portion of the exhibit will be on a long-term loan to the museum, so if you missed the communications exhibit you can still try out a rotary phone!

Salesman samples were used to show customers what the phone looked like without having to carry around a bunch of heavy phones. This early telephone toy as likely hand crafted for someone’s child.

Climbing telephone poles is dangerous work. These spikes were strapped to the leg and help the linesman stay steady or move up and down with the help of the large spikes sticking out of the bottom.

Ericophones — The Ericophone was made by Ericsson in Europe and by North Electric in North America (under license). In North America they were marketed as a Cobra Phone.

AE Strowger Wall Phone — Automatic Electric Strowger telephone, Circa 1906. This is the first telephone dial – and it wasn’t even invented by Bell! An undertaker found out the operator was routing business to her husband’s funeral home decided that there had to be a better way. He invented the automatic dial and promptly sold it to Automatic Electric, returning to work as an undertaker.

Northern Electric Type 301 Fiddleback (1907) — This Northern Electric Type 301 Fiddleback was a used for phones that were quite far from the Central Office, as they could hold three batteries in the large battery compartment.

Kellogg Fiddleback made for the New Brunswick Telephone Company (1907) — This is a Fiddleback phone made by the Kellogg Switchboard and Supply Company of Chicago. The New Brunswick Telephone Company purchased phones from Kellogg when they first began their operations. Later phones were purchased from Northern Electric.

Kellogg 2485 Wall Phone (1911) – With a cathedral top and a picture frame front, this telephone would have been one of the premium models when it first appeared.

Kellogg 2536 Wall Telephone (1915) – This model includes a carbon lightning arrestor at the top. The New Brunswick Telephone Company had the transmitter stamped with their company name.

Northern Electric 211 Space Saver (Circa 1930) – A compact phone with no dial or ringer. The Space Saver was also available with a dial on top and could be easily wired to an external ringer box when required.

Northern Electric 293 (Circa 1940) – This was a small wall phone that was common in Prince Edward Island, as well as other parts of Canada. When phones were sent back to the factory to be modified they were often painted black.

Northern Electric 201 Space Saver (Circa 1920) – The precursor to the 211 Space Saver (#7), the 201 could also be fitted with a dial and ringer box.

Automatic Electric 3-slot payphone (1940s-1960s) – A standard payphone for a very long time, each coin that you could deposit went into its own slot.

Automatic Electric 3-slot Payphone (1940s-1960s) - INSIDE — Inside view of Automatic Electric 3-slot Payphone (1940s-1960s) – This shows the inside of a 3-slot payphone. Each wired connection in the back part of the phone makes contact with a harness in the front of the phone (below)

Automatic Electric 3-slot payphone Front cover (1940s-1960s) – This is the inside view of a three slot payphone front piece. It would be attached to the body of the phone with the grey cable to the left. You can see the bells and the coin chutes. The operator would have to listen to the different sounds made by the coins as they went down the chutes.

Northern Electric #2 (Circa 1930) – This wall mounted phone is an early plastic wall phone. Available in black or brown, with or without a dial, this phone was mostly found in Atlantic Canada and the Prairies.

Northern Electric #354 (1937-1950s) – A wall mounted version of the 302 telephone. These phones contained everything you would need in one place – the dial, ringer, condenser, and induction coil were all contained in one unit. This design is a precursor to the 554 and 2554 telephones that still exist in some houses today.

Northern Electric 302 (1937-1950s) – This is the desk version of the 354 pictured elsewhere. An identical version was made by Western Electric for US customers. Northern Telecom manufactured these under license from Western Electric.

Northern Electric Explosion Proof Telephone (1969) – This phone was designed to ensure that it never produced an electrical spark that could cause an explosion or fire. It would typically be found in mines and grain elevators.

Stromberg-Carlson Candlestick (Circa 1920) – This phone is attached to a wall-mounted subset pictured below. It has a bulldog transmitter, making it slightly more rare than other similar phones.

Stromberg-Carlson Subset (Circa 1920) – This box contains the electronics that sit between the telephone and the Central Office. It contains a magneto, bells, a condenser, and an induction coil. This subset is attached to a candlestick phone, pictured above.

Pin-dial Buttset (Circa 1945) – This buttset has a very small dial. Field technicians called it a pin-dial set because if they had big hands they would have a hard time turning the dial without a pin!

Rotary buttset (Circa 1970) – Telephone linesman test sets are often called Buttsets, after the original name Buttinski. This model was standard issue to Bell telephone technicians starting in the late 1960s.

Bell Canada Buttset (Circa 1950s) – This buttset was made by Northern Electric for Bell Canada. It was standard issue for field technicians.

Western Electric 1001 Handset (Circa 1910) – This handset was used by field technicians, in field telephones, and interphones (in-building intercom systems) for decades.

Western Electric 1002 Handset (Circa 1915) – This would have been used on a switchboard. The loop at the top is used as a hook switch. When it is hung up by the loop gravity pulls the phone down, ‘hanging up’ the phone. When it is lifted the loop snaps back into place and the phone is ‘off the hook’.

Kellogg 1016 Test Set (Circa 1930) – This would be issued to a field service technician and used to test lines without having to use the subscriber equipment. This set has a separate transmitter (attached to the front) and receiver (hanging on the side). The phone had two batteries inside to provide the electricity needed for a phone call.

Modified 554 (Circa 1980) – This phone started its life out as a black 554, however someone wanted a wooden phone and created a box to replace the plastic housing.

Northern Telecom 1500 (1963-1968) – This is a very rare early touch-tone telephone. Manufactured with just ten keys, the 1500 did not last long. It was replaced by the 2500 in 1969. This model has a round face that is the same size as a rotary dial on a 500 set. Nothing was wasted as these phones were developed. Later models had a square cover.

Northern Electric 1500 (1963-1968) – This 1500 set shows the different dial and faceplate.

Northern Telecom Multi-line Wall Phone (Circa 1980) – This is a multi-line phone that would have been used in a business. These phones were powered by a Key Telephone system that allowed multiple phones to share the same physical lines. This system was a precursor to the modern business telephone system.

Northern Electric Multi-line Telephone (Circa 1960) – This multi-line telephone would be used in a business. This phone has the capacity for five lines.

Northern Electric Logic 10 (1979) – This is a multi-line set that would be used on a Key Telephone System. The plastic covering could be replaced with different coloured faces.

GrabaPhone (Circa 1920) – The GrabaPhone was invented by European manufacture Ericsson (who are still around today). They were produced in North America for Federal Telephone and later Kellogg Switchboard and Supply Company. In 1918 Ericsson closed their US factory in Buffalo and sold the parts and dies to Federal and Kellogg. They were still manufactured for several years after this by both companies.

Jydsk Model 1914 Manual Desk Telephone (Circa 1900) – This phones was made for Dutch telecom Jydsk by En Gammel Telefon, a Danish phone manufacturer. This model was popular until dial service began. It was made from sheets of steel and painted black before having a label for the local telco applied to the outside of the phone.

RTT 56 (1956-1965) – This phone was made in Belgium for use on their national telephone service. Originally painted black, when they were taken out of service they were stripped of the black paint and a brass coating was applied.

Breastplate Headset (Circa 1930) – This headset had a separate piece for the microphone – and it rested on the chest of the wearer! This one is missing the cloth strap that would go around the neck.

Operators Headset (Circa 1965) – This is an example of an operator’s headset that would be used in a business environment. The hard plastic would have been very uncomfortable to wear for extended periods of time!

Northern Telecom Touch Tone Princess Telephone (1963-1992) – This Princess Phone has the full twelve buttons. The Princess phone was available in many colours – including pink, red, yellow, green, and black. Pink was the most common colour.

Motorola Bag Phone (Circa 1990) – Would you call this a cell phone? Well it is! The early cellular phones were bulky, and often came in a bag with a charger, antenna, and battery. The phone itself was attached physically inside the bag.

Dyck Telephone Collection

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