ATEA keysystem 1927

Origin: Atea, +/-1927

Obtained in 2010

			double click on this picture to enlarge it.
My phone	close up of the buttons	close up atea label

In the first half of this decade, ATEA was a great company to manufacture traditional wooden telephones. After the company was taken over by a British American Holding (who owned also Automatic Electric of Chicago and ATM of Liverpool) in October 1926, ATEA gained access to newer technology in telephony. Besides the Strowger technology used in telephone exchanges, also new telephone manufacturing techniques were obtained.

The basic material of phones was now metal, to become bakelite in the early 1930s.

The styling of the microtelephone  tells me this is a telephone manufactured in the second half of the 1920s, the grip for the user is still ebonite, but the shape is curved. To my surprise this phone is also manufactured by ATM Liverpool, and profiled as a  "mining telephone" in the ATM 1928 mining catalogue

Here we see a transfer of knowledge from ATEA to ATM (at least: the microtelephone).

We could not locate this phone in an ATEA catalogue, but pictures were found in an old ATEA photoalbum.

A picture in a NATEW photoalbum	ATM shows the very same  telephone ATM 2246 in his 1928
double click on a picture to enlarge it

How did I obtain this phone?

This phone was obtained from a Dutch collectioner.

Last changed on 29/05/11 by  Jan