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Sunday, January 16, 2011

Retro Sunday- The WE 1904 Candlestick!

Last weeks post of a WE 302 desk phone seemed to garner some attention. I need to correct an error on that post, the phone came from the Kingsport area of TN. Thanks to my friend for pointing that error out!

I have posted previously about old phones, so have others including here. So here is a WE 20B or otherwise known as the 1904 candlestick. It works! I can only wonder about what was said over this phone! It was a gift from a dear friend and they got it at an antique store in the mountains of northwestern North Carolina, somewhere near Sparta.

Click to enlarge!
The centennial coffee cups were a gift from another great friend!

It is amazing that some of the terminology from those days is still used. On-hook, off-hook are still used to denote if a phone is on-line or not. You can see where it got its name when you can actually see the hook the receiver is on!

Oh, don't worry, we will give the Firestone Air Chief its due another Sunday!

I hope everyone has a great week! Stay safe!

6 comments:

  1. That is truly cool! I love the old radio it is sitting on; what is it?

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  3. @ Brooke- The radio is a Firestone Air Chief, it was my grandparents and will get it's own post on another Retro Sunday! It is a beautiful radio!

    @ Supi- Yes they do!

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  4. I actually remember talking on one of those when I was little. Down in Louisiana up through the 1950's they still had party lines, and some of my family still had candlesticks in addition to the Magneto crank phones.

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  5. @NFO- I have anouther model here with the magneto and bell/battery box intact. I have not checked it out yet!

    Thanks for the post, I have never used one of these except for testing.

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