Home
News Etc
Catalogs
Research
Telephone Companies
Essays
Links
Glossary
Contact Me
Books
<h2>Research</h2> <h2> </h2> <h2>European Phones of Bell and Western Electric</h2> <p>This is something of a grey area. Alexander Graham Bell set out to sell his invention in Europe but ran into the nationalistic feelings of a number of countries. After a few years of sorting out, the situation was pretty much like this:</p> <p>Siemens and Halske were building unlicensed Bell-style phones in Germany, and for export. </p> <p>Ericssons were building unlicensed Bell-style phones in Sweden, where Bell had omitted to patent his invention.</p> <p>The National Telephone Company in Britain was using Bell phones and held the Bell patents in Britain, but was initially getting their phones from the Bell factory in Antwerp. They were considering changing to the somewhat superior Ericsson phones.</p> <p>Inventors in France, Germany and Britain were busily producing new inventions which (only sometimes) worked around the Bell patents. The patent holders in each country were busily taking the inventors to court.</p> <p>Although Bell had set up a factory in Antwerp, they found that many governments wanted a local manufacturing facility before they would consider buying Bell phones. In this respect Europe was unlike the United States where the telephone system was run by private companies. Bell therefore set up manufacturing arrangements with a number of companies to get the local presence that the governments required. </p> <p>In Britain, many Bell components and possibly some complete phones were built by Peel Conner. What was the relationship between this company and Bell? Did they produce Bell parts under license or were they more of a subsidiary Bell company? Sterling Telephone and Electric also produced Bell / Western Electric parts, but this appears to have been purely a contract arrangement. </p> <p>I am trying to compile a catalog of the Bell / Western Electric phones known to have been produced in Europe. I would appreciate any help or information. The work-in-progress is<a href="Bell_WE_files/BellWEHistory.htm"> here</a></p> <h2> </h2> <h2>Bakelite Phones of the India Post Office</h2> <p>What do you know about the bakelite phones of the India Post Office? There are quite a few of these turning up now on the international markets. The IPO seems to have had a range of interesting colors which were not made in Britain, such as pink, blue, and a mottled "woodgrain" sort of finish. There are also some modern reproductions, apparently produced from the old moulds, with rather ill-fitting parts. There seems to have been a pyramid-shaped model and a later model similar to the British Post Office 300 and 400 series. </p> <p><br> I would like to get some more information on these if anyone can help. Any details of color, dates of manufacture, IPO model number, type of cordage used, details of any of these phones in your collection - any of this would help. If I can get enough information to work out something useful, I will put it on this site for reference.</p> <p> </p> <h2>Ericsson phones from countries other than Britain or Sweden.</h2> <p>I am compiling a catalog of Ericsson's early phones (pre-bakelite) and I am having trouble finding information on the phones built in each country where Ericssons manufactured. Were phones completely built in these factories, or assembled from imported parts? Which models were built? Did they continue manufacturing the phones of the companies they bought into? Of particular interest to me are the phones built at Buffalo in the U.S.A. Ericssons sold a lot of parts , both branded and unbranded, into the U.S. market. There are many phones in the U.S. called "Ericsson" which are not. Anything with an Ericsson-branded part seems to be listed as an Ericsson. This area needs more research.</p> <h2> </h2> <h2>Dictograph. </h2> <p>Their phones are known from Britain, U.S.A., Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. They were built over quite a long period, but seem to be ignored by most collectors. I would like more information on the styles they built, the dates of production and whether there was much variation between the U.S. and Briish models.</p> <p> </p> <h2>Phonopore (British)</h2> <p>This company produced a railways phone in the very early days of the twentieth century, until they were taken over by Sterling. As a result their history is obscure, yet their phones were in use well into the last quarter of the twentieth century. A lot of useful and interesting information has been forthcoming but I feel there is a lot more out there.</p> <p> </p> <h2>Sterling Telephone and Electric (Britain)</h2> <p>Another prolific British company that made many overseas sales. Their factory was at one time a showpiece of British industry, but information on them has all but vanished. We now know they were the successor of J Berliner in Britain, but who financed the company? Why and when did Berliner sell the company?<br> </p> <p><br> </p>
