Model 202 telephone
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The Model 202 telephone(D1 mount/set) was a desktop telephone produced by Western Electric from 1930 through 1936. It was a modified version of the Model 102, and contained newly created anti-sidetone circuitry to prevent audio from the earpiece from being picked up by the mouthpiece, which would result in an acoustic feedback loop, and a squealing noise from the receiver.
The first Model 202s were produced simply by installing the anti-sidetone circuitry into existing Model 102s. Shortly afterwards, however, a new elliptical base was developed for the 202, referred to as the D1 mount. This base was designed to resolve issues with the 102's circular B1 base, such as stability when dialing. The new D1 base would remain the mounting paired with the same E1 handset from the 102 for the remainder of the 202's production run.[1]
At around the same time as the D1 mount was introduced, Western Electric began assigning production codes to their subscriber sets. Until then, phones were only referred to by the parts used to make them: The 202 was the "D1 Mount/E1", the 102 was the "B1 Mount/E1", and so on. At first, the assembly codes specifically referred to the electrical capabilities of the set, as well as giving it a more handy designation. The "202" designation referred to the inclusion of anti-sidetone circuitry, while the 102 was retroactively applied to refer to the desktop set without such circuitry. [1]
The E1 handset was originally manufactured with a recessed area around the transmitter mouthpiece, known colloquially as a "spit cup". This feature was eliminated about halfway through the handset's production run.
The 202 is sometimes referred to informally as a "Depression phone", especially among collectors, since the years of its manufacture coincide with the core period of the Great Depression.
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.
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.
Like its predecessors and competitors, the Model 202 contained no ringer or induction coils. These were contained in an external subset (ringer box) that connected between the phone and the wall.
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[edit] External links
- Western Electric Telephone Models — A look at the evolution of the Dial Telephone
[edit] References
- ^ a b Meyer, Ralph O. (2005). Old Time Telephones! Design, History, and Restoration. Schiffer Publishing, 65. ISBN 0-7643-2822-6.
