Western Electric Telephone

This Western Electric telephone we have on display here is an Model 317 magneto wall phone that was introduced in specific its late model with plain case from about 1911. To operate with this type of phone you first have to turn the handle of the side of the telephone to alert an operator at telephone exchange, then you will have to verbally request a connection to a specific number which the operator will manually plug a cord to connect you to that the number you want to call. To listen to your call you pick on the receiver (on the left side of the phone) and speak into the transmitter in the (on the centre of the phone). If you wanted to call your friend that lives across the country, then you were out of luck since long-distance calls were more expensive and less reliable. Early phones were more common for local calls and connecting businesses.

The company behind the phone might be familiar to you. Western Electric was an electrical engineering and manufacturing company that was the primary manufacturer, supplier, and purchasing agent for all telephone equipment for the Bell System from 1881 until 1984. The Bell system was a system of telecommunication companies, led by the Bell Telephone Company and later by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, known as today a AT&T, which Western Electric was a subsidiary for most of its lifespan.

Founded by Elisha Gray and Enos N. Barton in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1869 as an electric-equipment shop under the name of Gray & Barton. By 1872, when it was incorporated as the Western Electric Manufacturing Company, it was beginning its successful career of manufacturing a number of new inventions, including the world’s first commercial typewriters and incandescent lamps. In 1878–79, when Western Union and Bell Telephone were battling in and out of court for control of the burgeoning telephone industry. But in 1881, Bell Telephone bought a controlling interest in Western Electric. In the following year the company was reincorporated as Western Electric Company and became a part of the Bell company. The company was dissolved as a separate subsidiary in 1983 with the breakup of AT&T, though the Western Electric brand name continued to be used by AT&T Technologies. Western Electric disappeared as a distinct brand when AT&T Technologies was restructured in 1996 as Lucent Technologies.