Original Yellow Plastics on 1956 – 1972 Automatic Electric 3-Slot Payphone

Description

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Original Yellow Plastics on 1956 – 1972 Automatic Electric 3-Slot Payphone - Has 1999 top housing.  Some would call the color gold.
Call me, I'll enjoy sharing what I know about Automatic Electric ( 1912, 1920s – 1972) 3-Slot payphones. Parts interchange between 1912 and 1972 (over 60 years of extreme interchangeability). A.E. (Automatic Electric) and N.E. (Northern Electric 1954-1972) both ceased manufacturing of the 3-slotter in 1972. There isn't anything particularly remarkable about this payphone, it is rather ordinary, in use in booths in non-urban (not large metro) areas such as Peoria, Lacrosse and the likes and rural cities and villages. Most of A.E.'s manufacturing was Chicago but they ventured into suburbia such as Northlake, ILL shortly after 1955 labeling some of the payphones as made in Northlake. There's more to the history I'd gladly share. This payphone has not had a line cord hooked up so that you can plug it in (even with a cell phone) to operate. We can do this if you want. The vault (money) “door” is a 2020 aluminum cover and I can accommodate a lock-key door if you want for additional $. The name brands stamped into payphone through the years were Gray, Western Electric, Automatic Electric and Northern Electric. Automatic Electric bought Gray out in 1948. There after until the end (1972) A.E.'s name appeared on the front of their payphones. A large population lived in large cities where Bell used Western Electric telephones. These folks therefore think that payphones were Western Electric or Bell. But if you could count all the payphones that came out of booths when the Single Slot replaced them, you would probably find that over half were A.E. and the other half W.E. This phone does not have a plug-in cord so it is not capable of immediately working to dial out, talk-listen. I can have this accomplished for an additional and with a adapter will work on a cell phone line or telco line. The vault cover is a manufactured piece of aluminum. For additional, you can get an old door held in by a spring. For you can have a door with a modified lock and key, and for an original lock and key in the old door. Automatic Electric bought Gray out in 1948 and there after until the end 1972, A.E.'s name appeared on the front of their payphones.
Colored Plastic - During our eventful experiences in/of accumulating old phone parts, somewhere (I'm not sure) came the colored trim parts made for the various payphone colors. Rare colors were gray, dark blue and pink. Born in 1935, I doubt that I'll ever paint these colors but rather put the colored accessories on the fewer payphones that I still have as I have time.
Doors for Payphones
: Recognizing in April 2021 the need for a conservative approach for doors, locks and a key, I began thoughts on what to do.
About old doors
: If you are discriminating about them let us know. If you want to lock the vault for any reason, we need to know, and to discuss your options. Click on our profile for information. To have an old door with original lock would be to have a Northern Electric – Western Electric style (I call N.E. “Canadian Western Electric “ since they are so much the same) and were began with the help of Western Electric or/and Bell engineers) and would cost additionally. One of the challenges we face is that seldom, the Automatic Electric and Western doors don't always fit in good, interchangeably wise; there's a little snag in each one fitting the other well. I don't know much more than that about any of this.
Old doors without locks or with locks absent keys
: We can put a spring on the back side and hook it inside the vault. additionally.
Repro Doors
: Thick flat aluminum doors, I may need to get more of these made. But I can't make old doors; and I don't know where to buy them; and at 85, not terribly concerned (in April 2021). The thick flat aluminum doors we can “glue” a wood block on to the inside of it and hook the spring inside the vault. We'll probably keep using these in chrome payphones unless you say something.
I will continue to list payphones on eBay until I die or until they are all gone. If someone buys them all before either of those things happens, so be it. If payphones are left after I'm gone, there may be someone come along to see them pass off somewhere. As I visit this subject, it is though they sit around in a warehouse situation, but this is not real. They are apart. I am referring to two main situations: one where by these are the remains of hundreds that were taken apart 30 or so years ago, refinished and not yet ever re-assembled. A well known payphone collector and wheeler dealer Paul died earlier this decade. Paul would have been 86 in January 22, a month younger then myself. The manager of his estate sold to me 200 tops, 200 bottoms and 200 backboards. About 100 are left. Each piece went through an ordeal. The beige or black pieces were repainted. The chrome pieces were polished. Almost all of the old painted bottoms have been sold; gone. We are now left with chrome bottoms both Western Electric style and Automatic Electric. Both 1948 style A.E.'s and 1955 – 1972 A.E.'s. There are still about 15 1948 style bottoms (chrome) and 15 1930s – 1954 tops remaining. There are enough pre 1956 backboards to accommodate these phones, a few 1956 – 1972 chrome bottom housings.
All this stuff lately gets put together. We used to wire them all up to work. Since several years ago, we've now simply assembled them with what we have and not made them work except by request. In around 1997 or 1998, I engaged a manufacturer to make replica tops (replica of 1920 – 1926 tops and 1932 – 1939 Western Electric bottoms). I demanded fairly exact replication to imitate the era they were to represent. If any of these parts are used, I will label. You will be informed of their use. Assembling these old payphone units is not a simple quick task. There is much involved which I'd gladly share if you would call me afternoons – evenings. It is a time involved time consuming project; and making them work correctly is another involved project. In the early 2000s, while we had Levi with us (from 1991 until 2018) we did up some genuine Western Electrics that well represented 1940 – 1956. These had original numbers 181, 183, 191, 193, 197, 200, 203 and 223. A few yet remain. That's it! I will not pursue the acquisition or investment into old payphones again in my life.