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PEEL-CONNER TELEPHONESIn common with other companies of the period, Peel-Conner bought in many parts from other manufacturers. Some telephones were bought complete, and some were finished with P-C modified parts. Many of their component ranges came from L M Ericsson, and other parts came from Western Electric or were manufactured under licence. The most distinctive P-C parts are the pedestal top, which is a grooved drum shape, and the modified Ericsson handset which contains a stepped transmitter housing to hold the inset transmitter capsule. The transmitter range comprised WE's Solid Back transmitter (still under patent to WE at this time) on either a knuckle joint or a long arm, the Hunningscone-Deckert and Manchester Shot carbon granule transmitters, and the early "capsule" or "inset" WE transmitter for handsets. These could signal from the main phone to the extension, although the K7735 had both-way signaling.
"Little Geeko" range. The model at right included bothway signalling. Direct Working telephones were internal point-to-point intercoms. The "Little Geeko" range used a handset with the capsule transmitter, suspended from a bell-push mounting. The K7765 was similar, but used an Ericsson handset.
Left: "Bothcall" range
The "Both-Call" range had two-way signaling as standard, and consisted of two wooden wall phones, a suspended handset, and a desk handset phone.
"Reply and Call" phones. Note the modified head and pillar on the cradle of the desk phone. This and the Western Electric capsule transmitter were the main modifications carried out on Ericsson phones. This was common practice among many manufacturers. They would buy parts from Ericssons, then assemble phones using those parts and whatever other parts their company was capable of producing. In spite of this, they also appear to have bought full telephones from Ericssons and rebadged them. The "Reply and Call" range were what we would now call extension telephones, designed to be controlled by a master switchboard. Left to right: K7950 "Auto Reset" wall phone K7960 : Handset equivalent K7965 "Auto Reset" desk phone.
"Battery Call" phones were longer-distance intercoms (up to half a mile) with an induction coil built in to boost the signal. There were three wooden wall phones and a sloping-front desk phone. Strangely, almost none of these were fitted with a handset, using watchcase receivers instead. Two larger models, the K7842 and K7843, had bell receivers instead of watchcase receivers, and the K7845 wall phone and K7850 had handsets.
"Battery Calling" range. Left: K7805 "Byng" wall phone woth capsule transmitter Centre: K7820 with Hunningscone Deckert transmitter K7815 This small desk phone used a Manchester Shot transmitter. Its wall phone equivalent was K7800.
More Battery Calling phones Left to right: K7845 K7842 with Solid Back transmitter K7843 without bell K7850 Handset desk phone.
Large Intercoms
Left to right: K7868. Model K7865 had a Manchester Shot transmitera and watchcase receiver. They used the older rotary switch K7905 K7910 desk equivalent. The last two used Conner's self-restoring switches.
Magneto exchange phones Magneto exchange phones were either the now-conventional small wooden wall box with Hunningscone-Deckert transmitters, or the older Western Electric-style twin box wall phones fitted with Solid Back transmitters and Bell receivers. Handsets versions were also available in either style.
Left to Right: K8005, magneto wall phone or top box of a twin-box phone, fitted with a Hunningscone transmitter; K8015, the handset equivalent of the K8005; K8025 with Solid Back transmitter.
Left to right: K8041, a typical twin-box wall phone using the K8025 as the top box; K8035, the handset equivalent od the small wall phones shown above; K8045, the handset equivalent of the K8041.
Left to Right: K8052, a typical small box magneto phone, also used as the top box in twin-box wallphones, This one had a four-magnet generator instead of the usual three magnets; K8055 was an Ericsson desk set fitted with a P-C cradle and modified handset; K8085 was a customised Ericsson Skeletal phone variant; K8060 and 8065 were large round-top Ericsson wall phones with cradle or side handsets respectively
The K8080 "Strong-Phone" was a fairly standard WE Model 85 magneto wall phone.
CB telephones were a fairly new field, and the PC range was smaller than their other ranges. "….under all conditions… both transmitting and receiving are fully equal in every respect to the best Instruments of a more complicated and expensive design, and vastly superior to the majority of them". All the models shown here are based on Western Electric designs.
Left to right: K8140 was the BPO's Tele No. 1 version of Western Electric's updated Model 285. Early versions had a two-arm transmitter mount, but this was later changed to the single-arm version. K8146 was a small wooden wall phone described as a "residence wall set". K8160 was an attractive little wooden wall phone with a cradle handset, probably based on the WE Model 185/285. K8165 was P-C's first candlestick desk phone, again a BPO Western Electric-based model.
Special Purpose Phones
These were mostly bought in by GEC from other manufacturers, but this waterproof telephone, clearly branded, is known from a catalogue illustration
There appear to have been no automatic phones in the P-C range. Although the earliest British automatic switch dates back to 1898, it and the ones that followed it were primitive and limited, needing a lot more work to become practical. It was not until 1908 that Automatic Electric's newest Strowger-based system was demonstrated in Britain. The rights to the system were bought by the British Insulated and Helsby company. It was some years before they could start manufacture in Britain, and some years further before the British Post Office adopted automatic telephony as the way of the future. The First World War intervened, and by the time the BPO started contracting out manufacturing of automatic phones, Peel-Conner had been reabsorbed into GEC. GEC produced automatic telephones and switchgear at the Coventry factory.
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