PART I EBay offers a wonderful array of collectible telephones. The Western Electric 302 (WE302), is one of the most enduring items in collectible phones. HISTORY OF THE WE302 In the mid-1930's, Automatic Electric and Stromberg Carlson, Western Electric's competitors, began producing telephones that contained all of the components in one unit. Automatic Electric called their phones Monophones and Stromberg Carlson didn't use any terminology, but simply began numbering them 1212 and up. Northern Electric, a sister company within the Bell System, had in 1935, begun producing the No. 1 and eventually No. 2 Uniphones, and the success of those designs prompted Western Electric to try and come up with a neat, simple design. In order to come up with something that was aesthetically pleasing and durable, they turned to industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss. Dreyfuss undoubtedly looked to designs going back a decade before settling on what he believed to be a pleasing and practical design for a modern desk phone. Likely the WE302 was born after Dreyfuss comparing the European and German designed phones of the late 1920's, the Automatic Electric Mod. 34, and several other models circulating at the time, and arrived at the rectangular base with the slightly angled dial and unique short, 4 pronged cradle. Western Electric eventually fitted the inside of the phone with one of the most durable networks it had developed so far for its compact subscriber ringer boxes, the 101A induction coil and the B1A 2 gong ringer. Western Electric also placed its latest condensor inside this compact package, adding a #4 dial, previously used on the Western Electric 202's with enduring success. The result was a package so well built, it lasted two continuous decades, and many of these phones were later reborn under the 5302 transition design. THE FIRST WE302 The first WE302's were made of zinc alloy metal and painted with black enamel paint. This was essentially the same formula applied to the 202 models during the previous 9 years. The design called for 4 short prong ears to form the cradle, and 2 1/4th inch plungers. Underneath the carry handle, and far in the back, several ventilation holes were tapped to allow circulation of air and sound from the ringer to travel through. Many of the new WE302's had the Western Electric E-1 handset; a hold-over from the 202's. Within a year, Western Electric made a couple of changes. The first was they redesigned the metal base of the phone by getting rid of the tiny plungers and replacing them with larger, 3/8th inch plungers, getting rid of the tiny vent holes under the carry handle, and moved them to larger vent holes in the base. They also made the 4 prongs holding up the cradle bigger and thicker. The other advance was the design of the F-1 handset. The F-1 took advantage of the transmitter element inside the redesigned E-1 handset, and the new HA1 receiver capsule, but moved them inside a more compact and simpler handset package. PRODUCTION THROUGH 1941 The WE302 continued in production as a metal zinc alloy based phone until December 7, 1941. Pearl Harbor Day. With the entry of the United States into World War II, metal would become an important commodity, and so Western Electric had to turn to another durable material for a telephone base. Thermoplastic. World War II also plunged production numbers of the 302 altogether. You still needed metals to make wire, bases, dials, and handsets. You also needed petroleum products to manufacture plastics and bakelite. PRODUCTION THROUGH 1945 The war effort hampered the production of most commercial consumer goods. 202's were recycled with F-1 handsets and aluminum fingerhweels replaced the heavy brass wheels originally used with the Western Electric line. A great deal of production went to the military and the government. Steel subscriber sets (ringer boxes) were replaced with bakelite and plastic covered boxes. During this period though, there were some WE302's produced for civilian, commercial use. And those phones contained the new thermoplastic shells. Unlike bakelite, thermoplastic was lighter, softer and more durable. It was selected as a suitable substitute for the old, heavy clunky zinc alloy bases Western Electric had relied on for the 202 and then early 302's. And it was less brittle than bakelite. This choice of materials would later emerge as colored telephones after the war. POST-WAR PRODUCTION By September of 1945, the Japanese had surrendered and World War II was officially over. Throughout the 1930's and 1940's, the Bell System had quietly upgraded its systems and circuits, expanding its reach across the nation. By the end of the 1940's the Bell System was filling orders for new subscribers and delivering a great deal of new, shiny WE302's. This trend continued into the mid-1950's when, as stealthily as Western Electric had edged everyone into the 302, they had begun slipping in the Western Electric 500 and transition design, 5302 telephones (using recycled 302 base assemblies). Though the first 5302's began leaking out in late 1948, it was not until the first part of the mid-50's that Western Electric had developed the G-1 handset for commercial use and attached it first to the 5302's and eventually to the new thermoplastic 500 model which was also designed by Dreyfuss. Returning to the WE302, beginning in 1949, people started asking for colored phones. Automatic Electric had been making colored phones, and so did Stromberg Carlson. Western Electric turned to 2 options. One was to paint metal 302's and black bakelite handsets in custom factory colors, and the other second option was to manufacture 302's in colored thermoplastic. Western Electric had released a very limited run of white colored and see-through phones for the 1939 World's Fair, and so it was no inconceivable to them to produce the 302's in color. A pallet of colors was conceived, and later applied in some variation to the new 500 sets coming into vogue. COMMON WE302 VARIANTS Western Electric designed a variant of its 302 called the 352 which was a wall phone. Also, some 302s are really 304's and some 352's are 354's. The 4 designates it as a party line phone using a special ringer and double ganged hookswitch. METAL 302's Be wary! Many metal 302's have been cheaply repainted. Look at the phone for orange peel or other signs of cheap paint jobs. If it has an original finish with little wear, its a highly prized collectible. PLASTIC 302's Be wary! Some people foolishly painted the black plastic in hopes of making it look shiny, rather than simply shine it up. Look for cracks, chips, hairlines, deep scratches and mars. Look all around the base. They usually crack right where the feet are. BOTH METAL AND PLASTIC 302's A. MATCHING DATES ON THE PARTS Do the dates on the parts match? Western Electric has always been a notorious parts swapper. They didn't make phones for collectors. They date stamped parts to determine how long they would last over time. They assembled phones from parts made within a date range. However, because phones were rented to subscribers, the old sets would get picked up, disassembled, the parts refurbished and then reassembled into a new phone. A phone with dates within roughly the same range or year stamped on its parts means it has been kept in one piece and in continuous service. These phones are highly prized by collectors! A phone with matching dates is a serious collectible. If the parts don't match, don't toss it out! Its still worth money, just not as much. B. DIALS The date ranges for dials are roughly #4 dials 1928 through 1939. #5 dials 1939 through 1948. #6 dials from 1950 or so on. Some are different series, some are converted from a #2 to a #4 and then to a #5. The #4 dial is worth more than a #5, but both make the familiar clickity clack sound collectors love to hear. The #4 is more desireable for a 302, particularly when the date matches the range of parts in the rest of the phone. The #6 is one of the more recent dials, but by no means the last. This dial has a dust cover on, and has more flywheels in it. Its well made. C. HANDSETS The first 302's made in 1937 had the E-1 handset placed on them. The F-1 came in later, but if you get a 1937 302 that doesn't mean someone took the E-1 handset and swapped it out with an F-1. It could've been replaced or put on the phone in a later year by the phone company. D. CORDS The earliest 302's had brown cloth cords. The texture is diamond like and rough to the touch, not silky like modern replicas. They are also a little thicker and rigid than modern copies. The brown cloth cords gave way to rubber and later vinyl cords during World War II.