Model 202 telephone

Western Electric 202

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. 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.

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 time the D1 mounting 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 dome-shaped transmitter known as a "bullet transmitter" which was mounted inside a hollow enclosure known colloquially as a "spit cup" which would focus sound more effectively to the transmitter. This feature was eliminated about halfway through the handset's production run, when the transmitter element was changed to a more sensitive model, which was covered by a simple plastic screen.

The vast majority of the original 1930–38 production run of Model 202 phones were produced in a single color — black — but for an extra fee, telephones and subsets could be ordered in numerous other colors, both metallic and flat. Barbara Stanwyck talked on an ivory Model 202 phone in the 1948 motion picture Sorry, Wrong Number.

In 1954 Western Electric reissued the 202 in an effort to use up existing parts, and to keep up with demand for color phones. The "Continental" line was made up of the D1 base with the newer F1 handset, and was available painted in ivory, moss green, gray, red, brown, beige, yellow and blue. The "Silver Continental" was made up of a D1 base plated in silvery rhodium and coupled with an ivory painted or solid ivory plastic handset. The "Imperial" was made up of a rhodium-plated base sprayed with transparent gold lacquer, which was also coupled with an ivory painted or solid ivory plastic handset. Conspicuously absent from the reissue color lineup was black.

External links

• Western Electric Telephone Models — A look at the evolution of Western Electric's dial telephones

References

1. ^ ^{a b} Meyer, Ralph O. (2005). Old Time Telephones! Design, History, and Restoration. Schiffer Publishing. p. 65. ISBN 0-7643-2822-6.