Re: OT - Another Goody For The Old-timers

"notbob" <notbob@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On 2007-04-30, Cindy Hamilton <angelicapaganelli@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

old, black, Western Electric, mechanical bell, curly-corded
phones. They even work when the power goes out.

Bingo! I've got a beige push-button one for the exact same reason.
They run off the DC line volage that runs through the 2 wire phone
line and will work and ring even when all power is out. Also, despite
all the advances over the years, the fidelity of the voice signal of
these old clunkers is unrivaled by today's ultra trick high-buck
cordless/cell phones. Even though I disliked them back in the day,
I'd now like to find one of the old origial Pincess phones. They not
only are built like a tank and take up less room, but the the
push-button dial is backlit, another handy feature when the power goes
out at night.

I've got three of these Western Electic "antiques", and they are my phones of choice even though I have a couple of newer phones too. One of the big reasons I like them (at least two of them) is they have a much more comfortable handset when you are on the phone for an extended time. The rounded earpiece feels a lot better than the angular modernistic ones. Then there's the sound quality.

One phone is a Princess from the 1960s with a rotary dial. The second it a Trimline pushbutton desk phone from the early 1970s (this one is not so comfortable). The third is a standard pushbutton wall phone from the early 1980s. They are all built like a tank. If one compares these to newer phones, the meaning of the old saying "they don't build them like they used to" becomes crystal clear.

The mechanical bells are great. The only problem is the phone company doesn't provide enough "oomph" to ring three mechanical bells. I should have no problem according to what I've read regarding ringer equivalence numbers, but I do. I asked the phone company (Verizon) about it and they had NO ONE even at the corporate level who even knew about ringer equivalence numbers. Ringer equivalence numbers? that's like, so yesterday! ;-)

Two of the phones ring, while the Princess is silent. But if I disconnect the Trimline, the Princess will ring fine.

--
wff_ng_7 (at) verizon (dot) net

.

Loading