Thread: Do you recognise this: vintage wooden box for electronics...?

A pity one couldn't send an HT charge down the line, that may have helped Flossie drop the handpiece or her drawers.


Well, it might have....

Originally Posted by oka374

As Goingbush said it is an old wall telephone case, two bells at the top and a mouthpiece in the large hole towards the bottom. The slot in the side is for the switchhooks where the bell receiver hung.
I used to work on them when I started my PMG apprenticeship and still have one hanging on the wall here.

Would you be able to post a picture of yours? Would love to see what it looked like originally.

We used to be on a "Party Line" in Tenindewa WA and we had a big black bakerlite phone with a windup handle on it.
I can't remember how many rings was our que to answer the phone But everyone's ring sequence was different and yes nosey bastards could listen in if they so desired.

My mother operated a rural exchange with either 12 or 20, can't remember which, of those phones connected to it. In an emergency such as a fire she would plug in all the lines, ring everyone at once, and call everyone out to respond.

If you ever get near Beechworth look at the telegraph museum. Pretty sure you'll find the phone and a lot more.

Telegraph Station - Beechworth

We had one on the farm where I grew up. Hand crank to call the exchange in the village shop. Separate earpiece and the microphone stuck out the from the front of the box. Can't remember if it had the little shelf on it for a notepad. Our number was "6". (not a "party line")

Strange thing with them. It must of been how hard the exchange operator cranked the calling handle at the exchange, because there was a certain "urgent" tone to the bell if there was a callout to a bushfire!

Beware: The exchange was in the post office part of the small village shop. Unfortunately, they employed what appeared to be a nice young girl as an operator. She became my wife after a year or so, but like the telephone is now obsolete and consigned to the scrap heap!

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Australian rental telephones 1901-2015 - Old Australian Telephones

Somebody reckons they are worth some money:

Vintage Magneto Telephones, ex PMG British Erricsson (two) | Collectables | Gumtree Australia Kingston Area - Mentone | 1206782761

I'm still laughing at that last line above!

IIRC Bundarra had the last manual exchange in NSW where you needed to crank the handle to ring the exchange to get a line.
A friends farm had one of the bakerlite phones, had to use it a few times over 30 years ago.

On of my first real jobs whilst I was a Telecom apprentice was a field trip to Hopetoun Vic for a month, we apprentices stayed in the Pub on TA (yay) They old Manual plug & cord exchange was getting upgraded to crossbar & I had a lot of fun changing Magneto phones & battery boxes for rotary dials , Bagged quite a good collection too, mind .