Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!spool.mu.edu!sdd.hp.com!uakari.primate.wisc.edu!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!casbah.acns.nwu.edu!nucsrl!telecom-request From: gabe@sirius.ctr.columbia.edu (Gabe Wiener) Newsgroups: comp.dcom.telecom Subject: Re: How do You Hook up a Phone For a Play? Message-ID: Date: 20 Feb 91 16:38:02 GMT Sender: news@casbah.acns.nwu.edu Organization: Columbia University Center for Telecommunications Research Lines: 31 Approved: Telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Submissions-To: telecom@eecs.nwu.edu X-Administrivia-To: telecom-request@eecs.nwu.edu X-Telecom-Digest: Volume 11, Issue 139, Message 11 of 12 Originator: telecom@delta.eecs.nwu.edu In article motcid!foos@uunet.uu.net (John Foos) writes: > I hate to dissagree, but... > I am the proud owner of a Western Electric (?) desk phone. I don't > know its age, but it is the same model that Bogie talks on in > Casablanca. It is quite heavy and when the dial is released it makes > a pleasant whir. I got it from a retired electrician who had used it > for many years as a 120 volt tester. He had wired a power plug to the > cord and would test a circuit by plugging in the phone. If it rang > the circuit was live. I have used it for many years now and the sound > quality is better than any modern phone I have used (as a phone I > mean). I would imagine, though, this is the exception rather than the > rule. By the way, were these earlier phones made of bakelight (sp?) > rather than plastic? The danger isn't necessarily frying the phone (though I'm quite sure that with the low level of quality of today's telephones, most of them would fry) as much as it is frying the ACTOR who picks up the phone while wall current is flowing through it. Most early phones from the 20's and even into the 30's were metal. Some of the later models, particularly the first models with internal ringers, were indeed plastic. I don't remember if it's bakelite or not. Gabe Wiener - Columbia Univ. gabe@ctr.columbia.edu gmw1@cunixa.cc.columbia.edu 72355.1226@compuserve.com