MY PAYPHONES
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The direction card is a Gray #3, used by |
Skilled craftsman and cabinet makers manufactured telephone booths of the early periods of telephony. Here is an example of an 1897 oak double-walled telephone booth. This booth is equipped with inside and outside walls, to facilitate soundproofing. There is a full panel door with brass hardware, and a half glass panel on one side. This booth was designed for indoor use because of its flat roof design. At the time, booths that were being used outdoors were also constructed of wood, but would have had a lead shield over a teepee style roof. |
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Installed in this oak wooden telephone booth is a Western Electric model 301 fiddleback telephone with a Gray Telephone Pay Station model No. 11. This pay station has a back plate, with a triangle shape that is used to attach to the back of the telephone before the phone is mounted in the booth. Again, this model No.11 is equipped with an independent #3 instruction card. |
A close-up look at the inside of the oak telephone booth, with its separated raised panel construction and one-piece solid door. |
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This is
a Gray Telephone Pay Station |
Shown here is a Gray Telephone Portable Pay Station model No. 14 equipped with a Western Electric upright desk telephone model 20B. This model pay station has a plate mounted to its bottom that extends outward, holding the base of the desk set. You would remove the desk set bottom cover, set the candlestick onto the mounting plate, and then affix the bottom cover of the phone onto the bottom of the mounting plate. This pay station is also equipped with a mounting bar from the center of the desk phone to the pay station, and also a carrying handle, making it one of the first portable pay stations. Phones like these were first introduced for use in the Frick Building in Pittsburg, but soon were in demand for use in restaurants and other gathering places. |
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On the left, is a Western Electric model 13A single slot coin collector. On the right is a 5-cent coin collector with a timer. You would drop in a nickel and turn the key to the right as far as it would go. The timer would activate and you would be able to use the phone. As the timer ran down, service would be terminated. This type of collector was used on phones in business where the proprietor did not want his phone tied up. |
These two Gray Telephone Pay Stations are model 23’s. On the left is a model 23D compact type public station. It is equipped with butterfly transmitter mount, a nickel 329 transmitter, and a Western Electric number cardholder. The model on the right is a model 23B ‘Washington Model’ Gray coin collector. It would have been mounted on the front of a wooden wall telephone, and if the model needed service, the repairman could open the top portion with a key, and the top portion would swing forward for inspection. This particular set also has a water decal on the front indicating it was used in the Lincoln Telephone & Telegraph operating area. |
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Pictured here on the left, is another model 7 Gray Coin Collector. On the right is a Gray Telephone Pay Station model No. 24 (the backboard is not correct on this set, it is a repro backboard). This set was designed for the Wannamaker Department store in Philadelphia and is casually known as the Wannamaker pay station. At one time it was said that over 2000 of these pay stations were in service at this store. |
Here is a very early Gray Telephone Pay Station, equipped with a Western Electric 10A transmitter mount and W.E. transmitter. This pay station has the early coin chute dated Feb. 8, 1892. This collector also has the brass direction card with a registration number of 381. |
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This particular Gray Pay Station has a 10A transmitter mounting, nickel plated transmitter and cup, and a nice Western Electric number cardholder. It also is equipped with the #3 independent direction card with the independent logos. |
MY TELEPHONE SIGNS
My collection of telephone signs is limited to signs that were produced for the
Lincoln Telephone & Telegraph Co. of Lincoln Nebraska. This is due to the
fact that I was employed by this company for the majority of my working career.
If you should have any signs that relate to this company for sale, would you
please contact me via my e-mail address on the home page.
This example is a porcelain sign designed to be installed on a wooden telephone booth, circa 1909. This is one of the earliest signs relating to Lincoln Telephone & Telegraph Company. It is a one sided sign, measuring 5.5” by 18” and showing the original company logo, the candlestick telephone, with the light blue center with orange lettering on the standard dark blue background with white lettering and border. |
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Another one-sided porcelain payphone booth sign, measuring 5.5” by 18”, has the next variation of the Lincoln Telephone & Telegraph company logo, the cradle phone, in dark blue and white, circa 1928. |
During the early years of Lincoln Telephone & Telegraph, the installation and construction vehicles were emblazoned with logo signs made of aluminum. Here is one of the first styles of signs used to identify the company trucks. This sign is approximately 8” by 11”. These signs were merely screwed to the doors, or workboxes of these vehicles, and if you look closely, you will see the mounting holes. |
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In
approximately 1939, the truck
logo signs were changed to represent the newly introduced Automatic Electric model AE40 desk set. Here this 8” diameter aluminum sign has a representation of that telephone set with the company name around the circumference. |
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This payphone sign is a double-sided
(same
image on both sides) sign that is referred to as a ‘flanged’ design that is approximately 16” in diameter. Flanged model signs had an ‘L’ shaped bent into the side of the sign for mounting purposes (on the right of this sign) and were used anywhere a public telephone was installed to make the public aware of its location. These signs would have been installed on the outside walls of buildings that contained a payphone, on the side of exterior telephone booths, or on the inside of business on the wall above where the payphone was installed. The Lincoln Telephone Company adopted this type of sign from a generic design, and had their name inscripted in the center, circa 1935. |
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