Wooden ATEA phone 1925-1930

Origin: Atea, +/-1925-1930

Obtained in 1985

			double click on a picture to enlarge it.
My phone	Name of the 1925 catalogue	1925 ATEA logo			label in the catalogue

Originally I thought, based on the military type of microtelephone, that this phone was from the late 1930. Until Carlos came to tell me this was  the "wrong" microtelephone. The phone itself must be from the 1920s, but the original microtelephone was replaced.

Excerpt of the 1925 catalogue "Postes  Téléphoniques, appel magnétique et batterie  locale": the phone itself	Excerpt of the 1925 catalogue "Postes  Téléphoniques, appel magnétique et batterie  locale": the microtelephone
double click on a picture to enlarge it

How did I obtain this phone?

It was a Sunday morning , September 8, 1985. I had to prepare to fly to Automatic Electric in Chicago, but in the early morning we went to a fleamarket in Boechout. People were still coming in wih their stuff. I saw one guy with a lot of junk, but with two wooden telephones, connected to each other. One BTMC and one ATEA. Somebody justed has asked what his price was for those telephones, and left. I asked it again, telling him I was only interested in the ATEA one. He hesistated to answer "you are already the third man who asks me in 2 minutes", he said. I replied "I have heart you saying 1500 Belgian Francs (about 37,5 euro) to the other guy, I offer you 750 Belgians Francs for this one, I so many people have interest in this phone, you will certainly sell the other one too". And he finally agreed!

Last changed on 29/05/11 by  Jan