Book Review - Old time telephones.

Reviewed by Andrew Emmerson

Our hobby just doesn't seem to attract many writers, so it's not every day that a new book appears for telephone collectors. For this reason any book on our subject would be something to be pleased about but the enlarged second edition of Ralph Meyer's book Old-Time Telephones! is particularly welcome news.

The first edition was pretty good and soon sold out. Now released under a new publisher's imprint, the book has been revised and expanded to cover nearly everything a telephone collector would want. The first edition was good but this new version is even better. Don't just take my word for it; the book carries the endorsement of the THG's U.S. counterparts, the Antique Telephone Collectors' Association and Telephone Collectors International. Even better, it's on sale at an absolute bargain price.

So what do you get for your money and why would you want to buy it? The book makes a solid read, measuring 11 x 8.5 inches and three quarters of an inch thick. It's printed on good quality paper, with clear type and sharp-focussed illustrations. This is no cheapskate, home-made production! The book traces, from an American viewpoint, the history of the telephone from earliest times down to the 1980s, along with technical descriptions, circuits and explanatories, restoration and repair techniques and a price guide for collectors. All in all you get 22 chapters and 264 pages of authoritative, sound information. The only part that will become out of date is the price guide but even this will continue to indicate which phones are relatively common and which are the more collectable items.

There are photos or diagrams on almost every page, so even newcomers can form a rapid impression of what's what in the world of classic telephones. Probably the only complaints you might make are that the photos are not in colour (this would double or triple the cost of the book), that there's more information than you can digest in one read (in that case just skim the text for now) or that there's more technology than you can absorb (again, skip the bits you don't understand at this stage).

The text is straightforward, well written and extremely comprehensive. It's true that all the telephones are U.S. models but many British phones were based on (or imitations of) American originals, so the book nevertheless has considerable value for British readers. The technical explanations, troubleshooting hints and test & repair techniques apply to British and European phones without any exceptions. On the other hand, the bibliography, though very detailed, relates only to American phones and omits several worthy British books that we might expect to see mentioned.

 

Get this now from www.amazon.co.uk