Talk:Model 500 telephone

Promises

In a day or two I will photograph my metal-dial 500 set and upload the picture. Jeff Anonymous 05:45, 7 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Obviously you are a liar. _{this comment added by JeffTL at 05:45 on 7 April 2005}

Too many pictures.

This article has too many pictures, as I said before, Wikipedia is NOT a telephone collector's article library, it is an encyclopedia. [|Retro00064 | (talk/contribs) |] 03:14, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

How many pictures are too many? Are there guidelines on this? It's not like they are taking up space as they would in a paper encyclopedia. -mcheath —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.133.196.14 (talk) 22:55, 14 March 2009 (UTC)

Here's one guideline: Wikipedia:Layout#Images. [|Retro00064|☎talk|✍contribs|] 04:10, 15 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't think the number of pictures here violates any reasonable idea of how many. It's more a matter of what pix. The first three or four are extremely similar; the article might be improved by omitting one, for example the second or third. Jim.henderson (talk) 19:39, 26 March 2009 (UTC)

Even better idea: Take any images that are unneccesary and remove them, then place some of the images into a gallery to reduce clutter on the article (that's what galleries are for), but please respect the image use policy when using galleries. [|Retro00064|☎talk|✍contribs|] 03:47, 27 March 2009 (UTC)

Conclusion: Why not just create a category (i.e. gallery) at Wikimedia Commons (maybe call it "Category:Western Electric telephones" or something else?), modify the pictures on the article from Commons to be placed in the new category, and link to it from this article. It's a widely used way on Wikipedia of linking to more pictures on an article without actually displaying them in the article. We could then have an even bigger variety of pictures of these phones. If wanted, there could even be sub-categories for different models. [|Retro00064|☎talk|✍contribs|] 09:17, 29 September 2009 (UTC)

Jim.henderson (talk) 03:35, 1 October 2009 (UTC)

Merging Western Electric model 1500/2500 telephone articles.

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

The result was merge into Model 500 telephone. -- Retro00064 (talk) 08:49, 29 September 2009 (UTC)

---

It seems recently that some telephone geek(s) created the Western Electric model 1500 telephone and Western Electric model 2500 telephone articles. Listen guys, the Model 1500 and the Model 2500 telephones are technically members of the Model 500 series, the only difference being they have touch-tone dials. I want these articles merged, to reduce unneccesary clutter on Wikipedia: Wikipedia is NOT a telephone collector article library, it is a generic encyclopedia. Thus, merging the articles would be better in the end, as it would be one article with information on all the major members of the Model 500 series. --[|Retro00064 | (talk/contribs) |] 09:34, 21 February 2009 (UTC)

i am inclined to disagree. theyre distinct enough to have their own articles, or perhaps merge them all into one article [[Western Electric telephones]] or something but the navbox keeps them linked together, so im of the mind that theres no reason to merge them. badmachine (talk) 05:38, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

Yeah, but if there was no merge, the 1500/2500 articles would need a lot of cleanup, and then there would be lots of overlap (if there isn't already overlap), see WP:MERGE#Merging. [|Retro00064 | (talk/contribs) |] 06:26, 22 February 2009 (UTC)

im unconvinced. the 500 is rotary, the 2500 is dtmf. unless they all get bundled into one big article (i.e.: [[Western Electric telephones]]), i think they need to be separate articles. badmachine (talk) 08:36, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

Back in early-mid 2008, I almost thought of creating a "Model 2500 Telephone" article myself, but then I realized, this is Wikipedia! There could be only so much you could say about the 1500/2500 telephones besides saying they're Touch tone that could not be covered by the Model 500 telephone article!! So I didn't. Instead, I simply edited the Model 500 telephone article to embolden the 1500/2500 telephone names in the introduction, then I added a pic of my 2500 to the page. Plain and simple. If info on the 1500/2500 telephones are desired, they can be discussed in better detail in the Model 500 article. Remember what PaulF's website's WE 500 type page used to look like? It covered 500, 1500, 2500, and all their variations! The Model 500 telephone is not just a single telephone, it's a whole family of diferrent phones! If you want 1500/2500 telephone articles, then please also create a Model 554 telephone article, a Model 501 telephone article, a Model 511 telephone article, and all the articles in the world about all the other variations, keysets, light-up dial, no holes in mouth-piece, etc. etc.! [|Retro00064 | (talk/contribs) |] 05:14, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

i wont object if you merge the 3 articles. i still believe the notability lies in the durability and omnipresence of western electric phones in general. i believe that merger of all three articles into a new article Western Electric telephones is a better option. badmachine (talk) 06:38, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

• I would support merging 500, 1500, and 2500 - they are all the same chassis, and the 1500/2500 is just a Touch-Tone version of the 500; while the separate articles are fine at the moment, there are several other members of this family, too (e.g., multi-line), and a single article on the 500 series would make more sense. Don't merge the other articles (except, perhaps, for the 102 and 202, which are essentially similar); each model is a separate design, noteworthy in its own right, produced by the millions. ProhibitOnions ^(T) 08:38, 4 March 2009 (UTC)

I am planning on merging the 500, 1500, and 2500 pages only. The 102 and 202 are very different telephones from the 500 and should have their own articles. [|Retro00064 | (talk/contribs) |] 06:47, 9 March 2009 (UTC)

I'm not convinced by these arguments that the model 1500 and model 2500 are the same series as the WE 500s. The company's literature referenced them as separate models, see the old charts of the evolution of the phone that they published and are on the Bell System Memorial site for example. While the chassis is similar, the different case, method of operation and dial make them very different phones. The argument that we would then need pages for for model 501s and 511s and so on is not the point, those are mere variations on a theme as they share the same series model number. Moving to push button operation and the redesign of the 500 into the 1500 is not the same thing as a light up dial 500 vs. a regular 500. The basic Western Electric phones, 102, 202, 302, 354, 500, 554, 1500, 2500, 2554, Princess, and Trimline are recognizably different enough to warrant separate attention. However, the idea of a single article on all Western Electric phones, with separate sections for each of these main models, may have merit in reducing clutter and making the info quickly accessible. -mcheath

i, too, am not convinced that the 500 and the 1500/2500 are in the same series. i see the point of merging the 1500 into the 2500 article, or bundling them all into Western Electric telephones. I may be wrong about the manual of style but i think lists are generally discouraged. badmachine (talk) 14:43, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

A single article, maybe call it List of Western Electric telephones, would be nice, it would give information and history on all the telephones in one place, just make sure we follow policy if we create it. [|Retro00064|☎talk|✍contribs|] 22:43, 22 March 2009 (UTC

• I feel that the 2500 should have its own page, however the 1500 should be merged in with the 2500. The 2500 set somewhat different than the 500, but not much different from the 1500. Kb3pxr (talk) 01:46, 29 March 2009 (UTC)
  • While the 2500 was considered a seperate model from the 500 by Western Electric, the 2500 is too similar to the 500 to deserve it's own article, as the only difference is the 2500 has a touch-tone dial and has a slightly redesigned case to accomidate it, otherwise the 500 and 2500 are one and the same. The 2500 can be covered waaay too easily in this article, all you need is a picture and some text to say it's got a touch-tone dial and accomidating new case and there you go. If this was just a wiki only about WE telephones, then seperate articles would be fine, but this is Wikipedia, there is millions of articles on here about just about everything that exists! With all those articles out there, article fragmentation on this wiki only makes things worse when the difference between two subjects is as minor as in this case. I am sure that it may be a little hard to understand for some of you dedecated telephone geeks out there, but fragmentation of articles is a big issue here. However, a single article about all the WE telephones out there, call it List of Western Electric telephones, would be acceptable, as it eliminates the issue of fragmentation for these things completely, and provides a single page to read about them all. [|Retro00064|☎talk|✍contribs|] 02:17, 31 March 2009 (UTC)

ok, its two months later. the options are:

1. merge em all into the 500 article <-- i STRONGLY OPPOSE this
2. merge em all INCLUDING the 102 and 202 arrticles into Western Electric telephones <-- i would SUPPORT this
3. merge em all into List of Western Electric telephones <-- i would OPPOSE this one per WP:MOS
4. merge the 1500 article into the 2500 article only <-- i would SUPPORT this
5. leave em all as-is. <-- i STRONGLY SUPPORT this.

where are we at on this? i want to take the tags off. badmachine (talk) 14:26, 6 June 2009 (UTC)

ok its been almost three weeks. im taking the merge tags off. badmachine (talk) 22:22, 24 June 2009 (UTC)

My final verdict

Alright, I haven't even looked at this page for months, but my final opinion would be:

Merge all articles as Western Electric telephones

We have to consider the notability of these articles: if the article's subject is not major in notability to the public and therefore will have a smaller audiance (telephone collectors, telephone geeks, Bell System geeks, and the like), there is no need to have a lot of fragmented articles about objects that are related enough to be discussed in one article. Take Polaroid cameras for example. Although most of the camera models are very different, there is no single article talking about one camera model, instead they are discussed in two articles: List of Polaroid instant cameras (which only provides a list and doesn't really provide descriptions) and Land camera (provides descriptions on such types of Polaroid camera).

So there. The new article will contain what the original seperate articles contained, with some cleanup to remove redundant information. It will be easier to look at and read too.

--[|Retro00064|☎talk|✍contribs|] 05:48, 7 July 2009 (UTC)

Closing comment

OK, it appears as though it has been already decided to merge the 1500/2500 pages into the 500 page (fine with me, at least it is a decision made). Therefore I am marking this disscusion closed. [|Retro00064|☎talk|✍contribs|] 08:49, 29 September 2009 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Silencing the ringer

The article states: "Because there was no switch to turn it off, preventing the phone from ringing required disconnecting the line wire or taking the phone off the hook."

This requires some amplification (no pun). The disk on the bottom of the phone actually DID have a position which silenced the ringer. But, when the phone was manufactured there was a strip of metal that prevented turning the disk to this position. A telco installer (or a knowledgeable subscriber) could open the phone up and gently bend this strip out of the way. The disk could then be turned to the additional position and the ringer could be turned on and off without the drastic action of disconnecting the phone or keeping the handset off-hook.

A.A. Friedrich 24.40.140.13 (talk) 04:09, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

One additional possibility, one employed at the Binksternet household, is to cut a hole in the plastic housing (in this case a 2500 model) and mount a 10A 125vac SPST miniature rocker switch wired between the ringer's electromagnet and the incoming line. Just as unlikely for a layperson to be able to do this. ;^) Binksternet (talk) 04:19, 11 December 2009 (UTC)

Copies

http://www.phonetique.com/phonetique.com_model_500.htm —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.212.105.216 (talk) 18:13, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

Sorry I don't have more information about this. I offered a pink one to girlfriend. Nice, but poor construction. It came out order, I had to open it to fix the dialer. Poor construction but interesting design thats works with masking LED. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.212.105.216 (talk) 18:15, 5 May 2010 (UTC)

Why don't you just buy the real thing? The replicas are cheap, use modern cheap circuit boards, and are made overseas (probably China). They're worthless from a quality standpoint (like every single other modern telephone), and pointless. Many landline telephone services in the U.S. are still compatible with rotary dial telephones, so just go get an original, vintage, quality American-made Western Electric 500 on eBay (they are very common, so you should be able to get a good one for a cheap price, just search on eBay for "western electric 500*" (without the quotes but with the asterisk)). And, of course, these things do pop-up at thrift stores, yard sales, flea markets, antique stores, etc. [|Retro00064|☎talk|✍contribs|] 01:45, 14 September 2010 (UTC)

Not everyone wants to take the time to buy an original telephone, because they would have to go to a thrift store or something, which they may not have time to do. They may also be concerned about the germs which may be present on the handset and not be willing to clean it. That being said, I do agree that the modern telephones are absolute garbage. I own one, and it does technically work but is made of cheap plastic and the ringer is overly aggressive. An original was built to last and therefore will be high quality and serviceable. 68.111.69.160 (talk) 04:45, 10 September 2024 (UTC)

Technical Details

How many amps were used by these phone during ringing? (at 75V (US) or 60V (Germany))

How many amps and what voltage was used while speaking?

Seemingly obvious questions to wonder about these devices which I haven't seen readily documented. 207.172.210.101 (talk) 07:25, 14 March 2017 (UTC)

Modern reproductions of the telephone

Under 'Other Manufacturers', there is a part about modern replicas of the 500, which claims they are based on optical technology. I have seen this in the GPO 746 replica, which is not a Western Electric model 500 replica. I actually own a Sangyn model 500 replica from Amazon and it has a mechanical dial mechanism, and they seem to be one of the most accessible manufacturers. It is not wrong that they produce DTMF tones, but they definitely are not all optical and I have seen that in very few phones. Not exactly sure what to do here. 68.111.69.160 (talk) 04:41, 10 September 2024 (UTC)