Email: What phone is this?
Q. I found an old telephone in my grandfather's house. He was an electrical engineer in the 40's. I can't find much info on it on the Web. It has no dial, but two knobs beneath the receiver, (which seems to have a fuse or something like that missing), an electric plug and a switch board (?) plug. It has Federal Telephone and Radio Corp. Control Unit 134-A printed on it. It has a green and a red light on the base. Do you know what this is?
A. I don't know what this is but Geoff Fors (internal link) probably does. His answer:
"It's a Federal Telephone & Radio Corporation desktop remote control for a two-way radio base station of the WWII-1950 period. The base stations were large transmitters about the size of a refrigerator, painted black, and these remote controls allowed them to be placed in a storage room or closet somewhere and then controlled by the desktop telephone unit, which was similar to a desk intercom, and in fact could also be used for that purpose if there were several remotes hooked up."
"These would usually be found on a desk at a military police station or a railroad yard."
"Yours has been modified somewhat; I think the cords, lights and knobs on top were not on the original unit."
"If you want to dispose of it, you might put it on eBay under the 'Telephones, 1940-50' category (or similar.) I don't recall them bringing much money, particularly in modified condition, but one never knows."
Regards,
Geoff Fors