The Old Telephone Company,  Essex, England
Established in 1986
Exclusively old telephones and parts for 25 years
I have personally restored and sold over 3000 old telephones

  Ring back memories with     an old Bakelite telephone        

For Spare Parts Click Here                            For Repairs and Conversions Click Here

Contact        How to find me

All telephones are available to buy by mail order
£15 post and packing to all parts of the UK.
Smaller parts post and packing is from £3.50 to UK only
You can collect from my shop at weekends by arrangement

Up
Repairs Conversions
Virgin Line
BT line
TalkTalk Line
Sky Line
Pulse/Tone Dialling
Broadband
Bell Problems
Ebonite and Bakelite

· Bakelite (Pronounced bakerlight) is the trade name for the first commercially successful, thermo set plastic. It was patented on the 14th of June 1907 in Ghent in Belgium by Leo Baekeland and named after him. It is a polymer of phenol and formaldehyde with a filler, usually of sawdust. It was used in the manufacture of many telephone cases and internal parts. Baekeland then emigrated to America to develop his invention there. By an extraordinary co-incidence, James Swinburne, a Scottish engineer,  applied for a similar patent the following day.  Baekeland and Swinburne swiftly buried their differences, opening factories in The USA and England. Swinburne's Damard Lacquer Company was eventually renamed Bakelite Ltd in 1927 with Swinburne as its chairman. It seems a strange twist of fate, that the future of Bakelite, a substance fundamental to many telephones, should be decided by patent applications placed one day apart. It echoes the original patent applications for the telephone placed by Bell and Gray on the same day*.  

·  

· Ebonite is a vulcanised hard rubber compound predating bakelite. It was used as an insulator or an insulating covering for early telephone parts. It is most commonly seen as the covering on Bell receivers (the receiver seen on candlestick telephones). It is naturally deep black in colour and can be polished to a high standard. The surface readily degrades on contact with the atmosphere, and the action of light, to a brown semi-matt finish. *This paragraph has simplified the Bell and Gray patent application procedures.

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Click here to see the Battlesbridge Antiques Centre web site

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Credit/Debit Cards are the preferred method of payment. I no longer accept cheques.

If you wish to place an order, or have an enquiry, please read all below.

Please call me (Gavin Payne) by telephone if you wish to place an order for a telephone, spare parts, or have an enquiry.  I can usually be reached 9.00am to 5.45pm any day, including weekends. Calls in the evening are not appreciated and could make me very grumpy. The number is 01245 400601.

I am in the shop most Saturday and Sunday mornings between 10.00 and 12.00. These are the only times I am in the shop for the sale of spare parts, conversions and repairs.  Conversions and repairs can often be carried out while you wait.

If you have a telephone that you want to know more about, or have it repaired or converted, please have it right next to you when you call. Please also have a selection of small flat bladed screwdrivers to hand.
 I do not give advice for DIY repairs or conversions or valuations of any kind over the telephone or by email. Please bring the telephone to my shop for assessment, but always call me first before bringing it in.

Emails to gp@theoldtelephone.co.uk or copy and paste gp@theoldtelephone.co.uk into your email programme or app .

By post to The Old Telephone Company, The Old Granary, Battlesbridge Antiques Centre,
 Battlesbridge, Essex SS11 7RE.  

The Old Telephone Company respects your privacy, and will not divulge any information about you to a third party.
Copyright © 1996 to 2013 by The Old Telephone Company