The Telephone - Stories from the Attic

In our great attic clean-out, we came across a couple of family "heirlooms." This is the story of one of our finds.

Of all the items we drug out of the attic, these may be the only things that actually have any value:

In telephone parlance, this box is a 1940's era Magneto Desk Set. The phone attached is circa 1930, known as the "French" phone. And it still works. Either one is a collector's item - but not in the price range of that Picasso I hoped we would find in the attic.

My father was a telephone man his entire working career, so it was not unusual to have various phone parts and pieces around the house; the U-shaped magnets that are part of the magnetos were among my first toys. And the magnetos themselves provided a lot of excitement as well. More about them in a moment.

The oak box - the "Desk Set" - was actually normally mounted on the wall; its only purpose was to hold the magneto, the bell, and provide mounting points for the phone line, the cord for the transmitter and receiver (which was probably of the "candle stick" design) and for the wires from the battery, which were placed elsewhere, not in the box (telephone systems have always provided their own power, but in the rural areas it was often necessary to boost the signal with batteries).

The low voltage in the phone line was sufficient to power a voice conversation, but ringing the bell was a different story. That of course, is the reason for the magneto; when you give the crank on the side of the box several good turns, you can generate quite a few volts - 50, 60, or more. This current "rings" the operator: "Hello, Central!"

The magneto in this desk set is a "three bar" unit - three U-shaped magnets. Four and five bar units, as well as other designs, were also used over the years. You may be able to see that this unit was made by the Kellogg Switchboard and Supply Company of Chicago, and that provides a clue as to how this particular device might have come to be in my father's possession.

Kellogg was a competitor to the Bell Systems; they provided equipment for many of the independents around the country. Back in the day, anyone with the capital and the equipment could go into the telephone business. My grandfather, my mother's father, had just such an exchange located in his home in Johnson County, Texas. The older children in the family worked as operators and repairmen! Here is a picture of my mother's sisters, my Aunt Lou Amma and Aunt Elna "manning" the switchboard.

So it is possible, if not likely, that my father installed a Western Electric (manufacturing arm of the Bell System) telephone in some rancher's home as Southwestern Bell began to provide service in an area previously serviced by just such an independent. He pitched this "off-brand" unit in the back of his truck and it eventually ended up in his garage. I think the penciled-in date, 3/14/1946, is in his hand writing; it is perhaps the date that he took this unit out of service.

The attached telephone, however, is genuine Bell System. Designated the "D1," it was an early 202 model, a series introduced in 1930, and was among the first telephones in the United States with the receiver and transmitter in one piece. It was called the "French" telephone because it was modeled after similar European units.

So why did these two unmatched components end up connected to each other?

The bell. The 200 series hand sets did not have an internal bell - they depended on a smaller, external (usually plastic) box, or "subset" to house the bell. I have no doubt that my father needed a phone somewhere around the house - perhaps an extension in the garage. He had the old D1 hand set (Bell was replacing them with the new, improved, internal-bell 300 series by 1938), and he had a bell unit with the old Kellogg desk set. The magneto was an unneeded part of the equipment at this point.

For many years, old telephone magnetos were highly sought after by fishermen; attach a couple of wires, drop the ends overboard into the water and "telephone for fish" by cranking away on the magneto. The voltage temporarily stunned nearby fish, particularly cat fish, and they floated to the surface to be scooped up. And yes, it is now illegal to do so. So old telephone magnetos are now useful only for practical jokes, and as collector's items. And family heirlooms.