Dear Fellow "Ex-phonies",

Y'all be talking about the famous 500 sets reputedly designed by
DeLoewy of Studebaker Avanti fame back in '51.

Let's get back to basics. Vanagon plastics and rubbers and anything in
between.

Cheers,

BenT
Sent from my mobile device

On Dec 19, 2009, at 7:13 AM, george jannini <georgejoann@GMAIL.COM>
wrote:

> Scott said<
>
>>> ... if anyone remembers old land line dial phones.....ever notice
>>> how indestructible that plastic was ?  You could slam one of those
>>> to the floor as hard as you want , or use the handset to hammer in
>>> nails ...................they used completely indestructible ( or
>>> nearly ) plastic on those old phones.  <<
>
>
>  You've got a bit of an apples and oranges comparison going on
> there, Scott.
>
>
>  I expect that the main reason phones were so well built was that the
> local phone companies owned the sets and leased them to their
> customers.
>
>  Maintenance was taken care of by the company, and servicing the
> equipment was the job of the company and provided without extra
> charge, so the service provider had a stake in keeping costs down.
>
>  I might also add that the phone companies designed and built nearly
> all of their own equipment.  Western Electric was a wholly owned
> subsidiary of AT&T, and other manufacturers of built to WECO
> standards- wasn't military spec, but damn close! <G>
>
>  I worked with old fashioned dial equipment that had been in place
> nearly 50 years before being replaced in 1978 with switch that was
> already obsolete. It's was with a digital switch after maybe 30 years
> online, tops.
>
> Not many automobile companies out there that offer a product that has
> a 20+ year design life.
>
> George Bellhead/ATL, ex- phonie