Stromberg Carlson 1543 Wall Telephone

This was an addition in 2018 from someone on the Telephone Collector’s International Facebook group who offered to sell these as-is sets.

It has not worked yet. It’s the most vintage of all my vintage telephones. As of this writing, I tried to get it to work this past weekend, but still to no avail. The earpiece (the receiver) was easy to unscrew and open, but the mouthpiece (the “transmitter”) is still sealed shut.

It’s so vintage, that the handset cable is not coiled.

It was likely made in the middle of the 20th Century.

S.C. made some interesting industrial designs; meaning that this wall set was actually designed to be desk mounted, but with a couple of do-hickeys, flip the dial over, and the set could be hung on a wall.

Their approach to wiring was radically different to Western. The “network” didn’t use confusing letters. The same screws used to hold the shell, was used to hold the spade, a soft, rounded flat-head screw.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B1ENNKkAGul/

In fact this set had some hidden documentation literally inside the set, which on an August 2019 weekend, more than a year after I acquired the set came to my surprise.

This isn’t the only S.C. telephone in my possession.  There is another one too.  You’ll have to wait and see for that one.

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