One Collectable Western Electric 500 series Retro Rotary Dial Red Phone - USA phone - in rare Red colour

This phone is in excellent condition and has been refurbished. It has a RJ12 cable (see photo)

This is the phone you see in the old american movies, with the ring you hear in the american movies. These are very robust phones and have a fantastic ring.

rj12 cord

the phone comes with an RJ12 cord

The Series 500 phone was the standard dial phone in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s in the USA. The Western Electric Model 500 telephone was the standard desk-style telephone set used by AT&T (the Bell System) in North America from the late 1949 through the divestiture of AT&T in 1984. Many millions of Model 500 phones were produced and were a familiar sight in almost every home in North America. Numbers of Western Electric 500 phones are still in use today thanks to their durability. The basic phone's modular construction not only made manufacture and repair simple. The original Western Electric Model 500 was designed by the firm of industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss, the product of several years of research and testing, and introduced in 1949. The 500 replaced the Dreyfuss-influenced Western Electric Model 302, introduced in 1937, and improved upon several areas of design that were problematic in the earlier models. For example, the Model 302 utilized a porcelain-coated dial plate, with the numbers printed inside the finger holes. After years of use, the printed numbers and the even the dial plate's porcelain coating would wear off. The design of the 500 corrected this by molding them into the plastic instead of printing them on the surface. The numbers were moved outside of the dial to enable the user to see the numbers while the dial was spinning back to its resting position, to position his finger to dial the next digit (later this became redundant with clear plastic dials). This arrangement also had the benefit of reducing mis-dialed calls. Originally, the 500 was available only in black and had a rotary dial with a black-painted metal fingerwheel (black remained the most popular color throughout the model's production, and the Model 500 has been affectionately nicknamed by some as "the black brick"). Within a few years the Model 500 began to be made in a variety of colors, and the metal finger wheel was replaced with a clear plastic rotary dial. The 500 was also the first phone to use the G type handset, which remains the standard handset on public payphones.

Because phones in the Bell System were owned by the telephone company, which was responsible for keeping them in good repair, the Model 500 was designed to avoid repairs. As a result, it was extremely rugged and reliable, and intended to last for decades. The 1940s-era technology of the 500 makes extensive use of solid metal components and point-to-point wiring, and most components are simple to remove and replace. Originally the line cord and headset cord were secured by screw down terminals at both ends, with a strain relief anchor. Tubular rubber covers at the ends resisted tangling and wear. The line cord (the cord that connected a desk phone to the wall) was originally the same color as the phone. In approximately 1973, the line cords were changed to a neutral gray color and from round to flat. In the late 1960s a need arose for a plug and jack system. At first a proprietary four prong plug was used only for the wall end of the line cord. A few years later much smaller "modular" plugs were introduced at both ends of both cords. These were less rugged and more convenient. A new standard RJ-11 jack was molded with lips to grip firmly the edges of the hole in the Model 500 housing.

As with all telephones of the time in the US, the 500 phones were owned by the local Bell Operating Company, most of which were owned by AT&T, which also owned Western Electric itself--and leased on a monthly basis by customers. This monopoly made millions of dollars for AT&T, which had the secondary effect of limiting phone choices and styles.

. It works perfectly and can be used anywhere in the world where you can obtain decadic service (nearly all of Australia and most of the world information on where they will work here

One Collectable Western Electric 500 series Retro Rotary Dial Red Phone - USA phone - in rare Red colour

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