Posted by Franz on February 11, 2009, 23:22:37, in reply to "Telephone "butt sets" - Info? "
4.156.234.199
The one you had hands on for $20- is pre 1960 and should have an only numeric dial face. Your thinking on the pin ballpoint pen worked best is also correct, although they did have metal fingers that supposedly allowed the user to employ a fingertip.
Probably made of hard rubber, as they could survive a gravity trip 40 feet straight down generally. Manufactured in a suburb of Allentown Pa. It is rotary pulse only, and may well not be functional in the near future as rotary translators are being employed in less CO systems.
The blue/blue sets are generally a product of Harris Dracon, that began showing up in 1980+. It was state of the art technology offering tone/pulse and a couple other useful features. The sets were made of cheap components, with factory only repair built in. I'd personally love to meet the bustard who developed and marketed the one I have so I could shove them far enough up his a$$ to clip the belthook on his tonsils.
Later models are the orange/yellow housings, and have more features. The last one I looked at closely had damn near a laptop built in with touchscrene for testing SLC service from the customer location.
The only really rare sets will be made by Stromberg Carlson and have a Dial X logo on the dial. That system employed a reverse dial pulse so phones installed in large school & factory locations were worthless when stolen.
Can I intrest you in a Dial X switch testset?
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