Model 202 telephone

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The Model 202 telephone(D1 mount/set) was produced by Western Electric from 1930 through 1936. It is sometimes referred to informally as a "Depression phone" since the years of its manufacture coincide with the core period of the Great Depression. Most people know the Western Electric cradle telephone mounts by number designations rather than their proper letter/number designation. 102 refers to side tone circuitry, 202 refers to anti-side tone circuitry. The first W.E. cradle/handset mount telephone was the model "A" mount, then the "B" mount(known as the 102), then the "D" mount(known as the 202), last the "H" mount(known as the 302) and so on.

The 202 was a modified version of the earlier 102 phone which, introduced in 1928, was the first commonly available Bell System telephone to include the transmitter and receiver in a single handset. The 102 had a round base, while the 202 was slightly larger and had an oval base.

The vast majority of Model 202 phones were produced in a single color — black — but examples of the phone in many other colors (ivory being most common among them) can also be found. Barbara Stanwyck talked on an ivory Model 202 phone in the 1948 motion picture Sorry, Wrong Number.

The first Model 202 phones featured a handset which included a recessed area, known colloquially as a "spit cup," on the transmitter; this was eliminated about halfway through the phone's production run.

In 1951 Western Electric salvaged parts from used Model 202 phones, plated the housing in brass and painted the handset ivory, and released the set as the "Imperial" model — the company's first-ever marketing of a "retro" phone.

Western Electric telephone models
Basic models: Magneto \| Candlestick \| 102 \| 202 \| 302 \| 500 Special models: 5302 \| Trimline \| Princess \| Design Line
See also: Bell System \| GTE \| Stromberg Carlson \| ITT \| Henry Dreyfuss