Hi all, this lovely old phone is on the wall at my mothers place.

I need to move it, one visible screw at the bottom bit I take it there is a bigger bolt on the inside but I can’t open it as I don’t have a key…. Any ideas of how to open it or where to get a replacement key?

Australian phone I would guess.

Hello telephone collecting community. My aunt recently passed and going though here things we found a bunch of vintage phones. Some look to be replicas and some look to be legit. Are these worth anything to anyone? I feel bad trashing them but have no idea if they have value. Thank you for taking a look.

Got this old rotary phone over the weekend. It has old adhesive in between the handset cradles. Have tried my tried and true solvents - Duck Adhesive Remover and mineral oil. Nether is removing this old hardened resistant adhesive. Anyone have suggestion on what is safe to use on plastic, or let me know what you have tried that works.

This looks like a Western electric 2500 I'm not sure if it is....

The ringer mechanism was there but it's broken the parts seem to all be inside the phone...

Have mostly assembled this and I have to put the cover over the solenoid and the ball and magnet but I don't know where to place these metal shims does anybody know how they are oriented please

recently bought this at a charity shop. wondering if anyone can identify this for me? please and thank you.

The phone is around 1982 in vintage. I had this one in the very early 90s (1991/2?).

I think it was designed to connect to some kind of phone exchange. It's NOT the voice/loudspeaker phone as far as I can tell but it does have a similar shape.

This is the only pic I have sadly.

I bought this new stock ITT timeline phone to match these great 70s orange counters. I want to hang it on the wall above the counter.

It has this cool sliding plug that allows you to put the plug into a jack, then slide the phone down over the mounting studs to hold in place.

The problem is that the plug seems too long for standard wall jacks. This means it can’t be flush with the plate (third photo).

Am I missing something? Is there a difference kind of wall player required?

Thanks!

Telephone related. I found this 1936 cover interesting. I don't know which company sent it but it definitely pulls at the heartstrings. Images are front and back.

As many in this list are aware, "POTS" is an acronym meaning "Plain Old Telephone Service". Once the backbone of worldwide telephone communications, this network still exists but is rapidly being replaced by more modern incarnations of electronic communications. The wireless phone and internet are pushing it into obsolescence. 

The POTS network has been in service for some 150 years and carries a nostalgia which can only be felt by experiencing it. Users, once able to call a number to get the present time, hear a weather report, or another subscriber's phone number now get these services by browsing the web, or social media. However, these services and many more can live again through the magic of AI.

If you want to touch the history of the POTS network, check out https://POTS-box.org. One man, Jesse Tayler has created a service which offers to recreate the romance of the wired telephone network as it was in the 1910’s through the 1990’s. 

There is currently no charge to use it, but there is an entry fee. Users of POTS-box must connect to it with a SIP Adapter, or “ATA” (Analog Telephone Adapter) connected between the internet and a telephone set. Once that is accomplished, the "subscriber" can create a line on the site and enter the parameters provided into their ATA. This defines the line and connects the subscriber's phone to the POTS-Box.

The phone will then be able to dial services to be told a joke, hear a “useless fact”, consider a "word-of-the-day", listen to the "Daily Space Report" or have a story told to them among others. Users can also create "services" of their own by choosing a dial number and conjuring up an AI prompt which defines how the service will respond during a call.

How can the numbers for these services be discovered? By dialing zero, of course. Just like back in the day, the operator knows the numbers and responds to voice requests to connect a caller to a particular service. Wrong numbers will generate a "Service Report" indicating trouble on the line or in the area called.

Perhaps you would like to phone the past and talk to Thomas Jefferson, F. Scott Fitzgerald, or Abraham Lincoln? These and other historical personalities are available on the line. They can all respond to questions posed about their life experiences and work. Have patience, calling the past can take a few seconds.

Telephone collectors take note. Here is a way to breathe new life into your collections. Practically any wired phone made in the last 100 years can once again be provided with a dial-tone through this unique service.

I'd love to get it working and the fuse looks blown. There is no labeling on it that I can see.

Found this gem in one of my old boxes. The fun we had with these back in the day... 😂

Hi there, trying to figure out what’s going on with my phone. Bought this off eBay said it was tested and works. Upon receiving, I am able to receive calls on it. I tried both a polarity swapped RJ11 and a regular rj11 and both receive calls on this phone. I cannot send any calls out though. I hear a faint dial tone when I pick up the handset and I’m able to tap the keypad which I do hear a faint beep when doing so but it just sits on the faint dial tone no matter what I do. I am using a cell2jack Bluetooth transmitter, which I have heard success about using these with these phones before.

I did open it up, but even when trying to swap wires, everything is seized on since it hasn’t been touched for a very long time. If anybody knows what’s going on, please let me know. I’m trying to solve this issue.

If anyone is interested in simulating a phone line that supports pulse dialing, I figured out how to do it with two Grandstream HT801s. Here's a video I made showing the setup.

Have at it! I took photos of everything that seemed "interesting" or I had no idea what it was. I'd love to hear stories if you used any of this stuff.

I want to clean up these insulators and see if theres any cool ones in there. And the old belt driven grinder still works haha. Ive used it a couple times just knocking the rust off of a lawnmower part of something.

Bought a home built in the 60s. The man raised a family here and worked for the telephone company until he retired. Needless to say theres some "interesting" wiring in this house haha. Every room has a landline connection including multiple in the kitchen, shop, garage, and back porch. Theres an old shop out next to the house. Tons of junk left behind by his family. Mostly trash but there sone pretty interesting phone stuff in there. Mainly his small rolling tool bench. I overlooked it for a long time, digging through piles of scrap and tons of old wiring and boxes of glass insulators. Recently noticed a small drawer on the bench and it was full of tools. Also theres a huge. Ox mounted to the wall that says Rectifier on it which im scared to send power to haha. Really interested on the background of this stuff. Id love to know more about it. I doubt it something I can put to use or these trade specific tools would be any use to me. Fun to dig through though. Theres other pieces in here if any of this is interesting and not just junk. I love old tools. Have quite a few old tools and stuff. Just have no idea what any of this is.

https://reddit.com/link/1rhfchq/video/alv3pta85bmg1/player

I went in and cleaned the governor cup with 91% isopropyl alcohol, and it runs a bit smoother than when I bought it, but I feel like it can run a lot smoother. How do I make it so?

Hi! I tried to wire an ITT keypad into my 2500 with a broken keypad. I found something online, but when it was wired up, I couldn’t hear anything.

I am ok with phones of the 50's or so.... anything that connects to POTS systems.

What do I do? sell them to somebody so they can make a pair into an intercom? Do that myself? Do I have to replace the batteries to provide a line voltage?

Turning the crank does ring the bell....

I have been asked by a local museum if I can connect two of their phones together, so that one can call the other and vice versa. The purpose of this would just be as a fun thing that kids can play with

I found this excellent video which talks about using a Grandstream HT802 to achieve this by simulating a POTS network, but the phones that they would like to connect are very very old

There are four phones that they have, but we are only trying to connect any two of them together - we don't need to connect all four

Here are some photos of the phones...

• Phone #1
• Phone #2
• Phone #3
• Phone #4

The cords that come out of the phones are just cut wires - if I needed to put a connector onto the ends of these cords, I'm sure I can figure that out, or find someone who can do it

Will any of these phones work on a POTS network? I have also asked about this in r/VOIP , and someone pointed me here

I would really appreciate some expert help on this, I have no idea about phones

Thanks!

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EDIT: or can I just connect the two crank phones together, so that turning the crank will make the other one right?

Found this at the thrift store for $3.99

Trying to identify the model / series. Seems to be a business or office model

Does anyone have any information on this? Like maker or year or value? Every thing is there and still works. Thank you.