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Normally I am interested in ATEA phones only. One day I visited a collector, and I could not resist to buy this marvelous candlestick phone for a reasonable price. Candlestick phones were popular in the first 3 decades of the 20th century. (Also ATEA made this kind of phones around 1930.)
There exists also versions with a dial, most likely manufactured at the end of the 1920s and early 1930s, when automatic telephone switching became more and more popular.
Based on the date of patents seen on the phone itself, I presume this phone must have been manufactured around 1920. A candlestick has a separate bell box containing the bell and (in this case ) the magneto to call the operator.
The bell box has connections to:
Some versions have also a central battery in the exchange, making it easier for battery maintenance. Mostly those systems don't have a magneto to dial the operator. If a user of such a phone goes off hook, a contact is made between the wires, so a light is switched on at the operator's desk. This is an indication for the operator that the user wants to setup a call.
The look of these phones always reminds me on Al Capone movies ;-)
Background information:
Last changed on 12/03/20 by Jan