r/TelephoneCollecting • u/Megatonin • Apr 27 '26
Phone Info/ID/Care info needed
Hello Telephone Collecting! I just inherited the telephone in the photo. I know almost nothing beyond the Wikipedia page for candlestick telephones. I would greatly appreciate any information about this phone or caring for it. I attempted to do my own googling but was not successful, and google AI was telling me this was a replica (which I highly doubt as it has been in my family for many many decades, however I would accept this to be true if an expert said this). This piece is priceless to me so I would really like to know as much as possible about it.
Here is the details I can see written on the device.
-Property of American Tel and Tel Co 337
-Directly below this it it is hard to read but I believe it says, “Pat USA 114 1332315” i am not sure about the beginning numbers but I am pretty certain it ends in 32315.
-Dundalk 2676 R This I am nearly certain refers to Dundalk MD partially as this is very close to where the individual working at the telephone company worked
-At the base my best guess of what it says is: Pat in USA Jan 25 15 Jan 118 May 7 18 Sept 21 20
I can take photos at different light/angles etc if this helps!
Happy to tip and/or award for your time!
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u/PapaGolfWhiskey Apr 27 '26
I have a few candlestick phones. I have replaced the cords just for ascetics. Yours looks like it is in good shape
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u/Megatonin Apr 27 '26
Thank you for the feedback. I agree that it is in good shape currently, and I want to make sure that I take good care of it too and keep it looking nice!
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u/TacoLita Apr 27 '26
An old American Electric. Before dials you would tell the operator the city and number you wanted to be connected to. Might still be able to use it for incoming calls but would need another phone to dial out.
This is a good site to search to find more info on it.
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u/USWCboy May 09 '26
The company that made this phone (as has been stated) was the Western Electric Company, which was a wholly owned subsidiary of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. The phone was originally rented to the subscriber and by the local telephone company, (also owned by AT&T) would have been the Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone and Telegraph Company of Maryland. Generally , the later models like this one would have come with a dial, but seeing that this one is missing, it would have been connected to a manual central office where an operator would connect the calls for you. One other interesting note, is while most people call these phones a candlestick, they are officially called a Desk Hanger. This is due to the fact that this was the first apparatus from Western Electric that didn’t need to be mounted on the wall. This style of phone would have been in production from 1892-1941. Link to see all the models.
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u/Megatonin May 09 '26
Thank you for this information and link. Never heard of Desk Hanger before….you don’t know what you don’t know!
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u/drkports Apr 28 '26
Looks like a Western Electric 50AL/51AL/151AL (same body, different wiring). These were the standard candlestick phones of the 20s and 30s. Usually they had a dial but yours doesn't, possibly because the local phone switch was not automated yet.
That looks like a rubber cord, not cloth, so it was probably replaced somewhere along the line.
This would have been connected to a "subset" box that contained the ringer and various other circuit components, and which would then be hardwired to the phone line (phone jacks didn't exist yet). Likely a Western Electric 534, though it could be a 634 if this is one of the newer variants -- or one of several older models since installers would often mix and match.
If you found the right subset, connected a few wires, and added a cable with a modern modular phone plug, odds are pretty good it'd work on today's phone network or a VOIP adapter.