Those old 500 sets were indestructible.

Western Electric built them to last for a few centuries. Not like the crap you can buy today.

Grew up down the street from Hawthorne Works. Really a fixture of the economy back then. Huge plant even by today's standards.

The Hawthorne Works produced a large output of telephone equipment. In addition, Western Electric produced a wide variety of consumer products and electrical equipment, such as refrigerators and electric fans. The works employed up to 45,000 employees at the height of operations. Workers regularly used bicycles for transit within the plant.

I remember thinking that as a little kid. The phone seemed like it weighed 10 lbs to a little kid. It was replaced with another rotary that hung on the wall and had a 25' spiral cord. That one seemed like cheap plastic to me, he had that one until the Berlin Wall fell.

quote:

Originally posted by V-Tail:
Those old 500 sets were indestructible.

Western Electric built them to last for a few centuries. Not like the crap you can buy today.

remember the keyed lock that would go on the dial, so someone couldn't make unauthorized outgoing calls?

Bonus points if someone has one of those locks.

quote:

Originally posted by radioman:

remember the keyed lock that would go on the dial, so someone couldn't make unauthorized outgoing calls?

It took a lot of practice, but it was possible to tap the switch hook to create the pulse train for dialing.