STC TELEPHONE No. 2724, 2725, 4001, 4002 & 4004 | |||||||
| How to wire an Antwerp phone to work in the UK Click here for more on the 2724 and 2725 STC ‘Antwerp’ phone
The STC type 4001 (table model), telephone, nicknamed the Antwerp or Deco phone by collectors, is found in both desk and wall versions. Although very much a British telephone, It has a strange Continental look to British eyes, which is not surprising considering its origin. Around 1932 the Antwerp factory of the Bell Telephone Manufacturing Company (BTMC) was entrusted with the task of designing a universal wall and desk telephone that could be sold by all European subsidiaries of the International Standard Electric Corporation. STC in Britain was one of those companies and they needed a one piece set for their PAX's. The telephone was later made at the New Southgate factory of STC. For the UK market the design was modified to take a BPO No. 10 dial. All the early STC telephone had black dial finger plates until around 1936 when they changed to the stainless steel. The early telephones can be identified by the engraved lines moulded into the 'ears' of the cradle, making them look rather like cats paws, but these were dropped after the 2nd World war and later produced telephones just had plain "ears".
Early style handset cradle The handset used in Britain has an American look and is also similar to that used on the standard 1924 model of France and some UK Dictograph telephones. The same base plate is used for both the table and wall sets, which was said to make conversion easier.
The Model 2724 was the original, made by BTMC in Belgium. It was introduced in 1932 along with a wall model, the 2725.
Externally identical telephones were used in Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Italy and doubtless several other countries, the only variations being in the design of handset, pattern of dial and internal circuit details, which were tailored to the needs of each country. After the war STC supplied 332 look a likes with STC's own type numbers (also in the 300 series). Roger
Conklin adds: A 2724 subscriber telephone, has been seen, with a near-perfect Standard Villamoss'gi R. T. decal, indicating it was made in the Hungarian factory. This telephone is identical, except for the dial finger wheel, to the same model made by Bell Telephone Manufacturing in Antwerp, and other ITT factories in Europe and South America. The Hungarian finger wheel has a curved ‘window’ above the centre for the number card, rather than a round number card typical of 2724 sets made elsewhere. (There is a detailed description of the 2724 set in the July 1935 issue of ITT's journal Electrical Communication.) It is worth noting that the same telephones can be found with an engraved metal badge with the familiar Ericsson script and the words MAGY. VILL. R.T. The Austrian version of this was manufactured by Czjeia, Nissl & Co (later Standard Telephon & Telegraphen AG). The GPO took pictures of the STC 4089 which may have been taken during an assessment. Different variants were also produced. As well as a model with a recall switch the phone was also made into an intercom with 6 press buttons in place of the dial. Colours: Numerous colour ways were supplied. In Britain the standard colour was black, with a choice of black or green cords, but orders could also be accepted for jade green, Chinese lacquer red, ivory, old gold and oxidised silver. The Belgian catalogue lists 16 colours: black as standard or by special order white, cream, oak, walnut, light mahogany, dark mahogany, brown, red, dark red, maroon, light blue, dark blue, light green, green and dark green. Black and green are the only colours seen by the author; the green was achieved by spray painting (and probably so were all the other colours). There was also an imitation wood model. Users: The Antwerp telephone saw limited use on PAX systems installed by STC, whose major customers were the LNE Railway, many electricity boards and some hospital groups. A note on the circuit diagram referring to Rotary exchanges may refer either to STC's own Rotary PAX's or else may imply these telephones were supplied to Hull Corporation's public system. Locations where Antwerp phones were used for certain were Croydon Airport and on the Southern Railway at Victoria Railway Station UAX, London. The design, made by BTMC in Antwerp, was adopted for public use by the Belgian, Czech, Dutch and Hungarian state telephone administrations (and probably many others). The design was used additionally in Spain and south America, and it was also made by FACE Standard in Italy and is found labelled with the name of Ericsson in Hungary. On this basis it may rank as one of the most prolific and successful telephone designs ever made.
Model 4001
Model 4002G with Chinese dial (Picture dated 1934)
Model 4002G with Egyptian dial (Picture dated 1934)
Model 4004B
Additional
Information
The type manufactured by Czeija, Nissl & Co. of Vienna, Austria, was
built with two distinctly different types of Bakelite housing.
One type had a protruding dial, while the other variation had a sunk
dial, whereby the finger wheel was almost flush with the housing.
Protruding dial variant
Sunken dial variant I have seen variations of the CN type... it is usual to find the fixed portion of the handset cradle with different logos. Most common is simply the two letters 'CN' in a wide, flat ellipse, centred on the lower portion of the same. Some of these phones carry a 'VTT' logo instead, which refers to CN as the 'United Telephone and Telegraph Factory, Joint-stock Company' (Vereinigte Telefon und Telegraphen - Fabriks A.G., Czeija, Nissl & Co.)
CN Logo
VTT Logo
CN also manufactured the exact same style of phone, sans logo,
as well. These phones were sold to other private telephone enterprises
and in one case, to the Viennese branch of the German firm 'GEFAT' (Gesellschaft
fuer Automatische Telefonie; Company for Automatic Telephony, later
known as TN 'Telefonbau und Normalzeit').
The CN phones were used with electromechanical PABXs designed and built by the same, which were either sold outright to customers, or rented/leased to them. In this case, the handset was the one shown in the pictures. However, CN also sold such PABXs to the Austrian PTT and in this case, the handset was a different one, namely that of the Austrian PTT standard W48 model telephone (the PTT insisted upon this).
Hungarian and Foreign Company, Vienna
Manufactured by Standard Electric DOMS A SPOL in Prague, Czechoslovakia
As to colours, CN made some that were was once pure snow white. These
were NOT painted white; the Bakelite is white though
and through. This specific colour of Bakelite is pretty brittle
stuff, and very fine, dirty, stress cracks can be seen in the handset
handle on left hand telephones below. It is wholly senseless
to attempt and polish these stress cracks out as the grime simply gets more
noticeable than before. As to the colours red and green, well, I
have never seen one of these phones in anything other than black or
white, but I do know that your garden-variety Austrian PTT
model W48 telephone was offered in green and red (as well as the more
standard colours of creme and black), so that it seems likely that CN
would have offered their phone in at least these two colours as well.
Just like British 200 types some of these phones go brown due to the saw dust in the Bakelite. The phone in the next picture is a black VTT variant which has gone brown.
PBX / Plan system variant
One of the pushbuttons was used to seize the intercom line between the
extension and the master phone. If the intercom line was busy, this
would be indicated by the white lens being illuminated. Depressing the
other pushbutton would connect the extension to the outside line; if
some other station were already using the outside line, then the red
lens would be illuminated.
How to wire an Antwerp telephone for UK lines To Diagram LP 39275
To diagram 9814AG4
To diagram 9814AG4
To diagram AP209753 (Model 2725)
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Last revised: December 03, 2022FM |
