atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums Other TDM Phone Systems Antique Telephones What type of vintage device is this?

Hi and thanks gain with all the help. I have been running into brick walls everywhere I have gone. Either emails have gone unanswered, or messages on machines never responded to. I do know that the cottage was in fact very remote and was situated on one of the smaller islands that cover the Lake of the Woods. It does make some sense that the old fella may have used the unit to communicate with a neighbour or ??? Man I didn't have enough hair to begin with, but I may have to buy some Rogaine before this is all over.

FINALLY!!!! This is an email I received from the Prince Edward Island telephone museum;
Hi Ted:

That isn't actually a field phone. It was a train telephone
made by Northern Electric for the Canadian railways for
communication to the dispatcher before the advent of radio
on trains.

At the side of the tracks, there were boxes on the poles,
that the crew could open and connect the phone to - crank
it, and get through to the dispatcher...

I have one of these shown in: https://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum4.jpg

Bottom shelf, right. Now, if I remember correctly, they
aren't self powered. If you remove the metal section
behind, you will find batteries.

Dave

Dave

On 31 May 2010 at 10:59, Ted W Lepp wrote:

> You have a new entry in your Telephone On P.E.I. Guest/Queries Book:
>
> ------------------------------------------------------
> Hostname:
> IP: 38.113.114.156
> Browser: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0;
> Trident/4.0; GTB0.0; Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0;
> Windows NT 5.1; SV1) ; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; Media
> Center PC 5.0; .NET CLR 3.0.30618; .NET CLR 3.5.30729)
>
> Ted W Lepp <[email protected]>
> Steinbach, Manitoba CAN
>
> Dear Sir/Madam,

> I have in my possession a self powered Northern Electric
> talk set?? Can you help identify it? The item was found in a small
> remote cottage in the Lake of the Woods along the Manitoba/Ontario
> border. The following are links to pictures of my unit.
> [IMG]https://i439.photobucket.c
> om/albums/qq113/twlepp/th_fieldphone3.jpg[/IMG]

> [IMG]https://i439.photobucket.c
> om/albums/qq113/twlepp/th_fieldphone2.jpg[/IMG]

> [IMG]https://i439.photobucket.co
> m/albums/qq113/twlepp/th_fieldphone.jpg[/IMG]

> [IMG]https://i439.photobucket.c
> om/albums/qq113/twlepp/th_fieldphone5.jpg[/IMG]

> [IMG]https://i439.photobucket.c
> om/albums/qq113/twlepp/th_fieldphone4.jpg[/IMG]

>
Any assistance you could give me would be greatly
> appreciated as so far I have hit only dead ends


> Thank You, Ted Lepp
>
> Monday, May 31, 2010 at 10:59:59 (ADT)
> ------------------------------------------------------
>


The Telephone on Prince Edward Island: https://www.islandregister.com/phones/phones.html

The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island: https://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit!

Congratulations on finding out what it was and letting us know.

Like I thought a few posts above the CN4A marks on the face and where it was found suggested to me that it had to be something railway related.

There are at least two companies in the Winnipeg area that appraise antique's like this and may be able to give you an idea of what its worth.

Ted, glad to hear you finally got an answer!

I wonder, did the pole mounted box that the engineer plugged into contain a hand-cranked magneto to ring the operator? I ask because there is no provision for signaling on your phone, at least not that I can see. I have seen portable boxes that contained a hand-cranked magneto and a ringer (and ringer cap) made by WE and others, so if the user also had one of those, they could plug in anywhere.

I was confused at first when Dave said "they aren't self powered." Then I remembered that in the world of Historic Telephones, there were phone sets that relied on voice energy for talk power (they were somewhat weak in the decibels department). These are sometimes referred to as "self-powered." To us guys with modern butt-sets on our belts, "self powered" means you provide your own talk battery (like your phone does).

If you find any more cool old equipment, wheel it on out (we can't enough of this stuff)!!

Jim
**************************************************
Speaking from a secure undisclosed location.

Edit to add this: mbhydro, I just went back and read your earlier post. Dude, you nailed it right on the money!!

Thanks again to all, I really am greatfull for all the assistance and guidance you have all given. Thanks for sharing this investigative journey with me.