NZ Made 746 Questions

[Henmond]

Hi all, I have acquired this never used red 746, still in its box with plastic wrap, tissue paper under the dial, dial blanking plate, and in plastic bags, made in 1976 by GEC New Zealand. I opened it up to see what it was like inside, and came across a white wire connecting terminal 9 to terminal 10.

What was the purpose of this wire?

I also noticed in the attached terminal box that the green and white lines were connected by a jumper, was this common practice?

Thanks in advance.

[Dave Moll]

Assuming the circuit is the same as that of the UK 746, the white wire appears to short out the dial.

The strap in the "block terminal" is usually present in the UK BT52 when there is no extension ringer connected between the green and white wires. I assume this is the same.

edit: I note that you mention dial blanking plate, so the wire link is needed if there is no dial.

[Henmond]

Thanks for that info Dave.

I guess the phone just came with it installed and someone from NZPO would remove it if the dial was kept when the phone was installed in your house. Perhaps a way to make sure it wasn't lost in transit.

I can imagine a good deal of those dial blanking plates were thrown out as I doubt many people were having non-dial phones installed.

[Pellseinydd]

When did the NZPO's last public manual exchange finish? The UK's last one was in March 1976. The BPO's Tele 746 was never provided as a CB version without a dial. Back in the 1960's, I can remember having to convert 746's to CB as the place I looked after had a 'large sleeve' control switchboard used as a PMBX with several hundred extensions. It is not possible to dial through the cord circuit if conneted to an exchange line on asleeve control board, hence the removal of the dials.

It is interesting that the GEC NZ produced phones for the NZPO were sometimes different from the UK Versions - I have both red and green push button versions of what the BPO/ British Telecoms knew as the Telephon 782 - the DTMF dialling version. BPO/BT only ever had Grey and Ivory versions according to BT 'Vocabulary of Engineering Stores'.

[Henmond]

I believe we still had a fairly large one operating in Queenstown in 1988 (see the attached photos). I think there were still some small ones operating rurally out of post offices into the 1990s, someone else here might know more about that than I do.

I have also found that many of the GEC made phones in NZ often seem to have been a little different to the British equivalents. I've also come across many "Frankenstein's monster" units with strange combinations of colours and features which I'm sure didn't come from the factory.

I have also noticed another interesting NZ feature on some clear body phones from the UK is the dial surround has molding marks from PDL, a NZ injection molding company. So perhaps the special small run colours were made here, and shipped over.

[Pellseinydd]

The cord switchboards in the UK were still in use as the boards you reached when you dialled the code for the operator, faults or other forms of assistance as well as the Emergency 999/111 code. Last one of those was Blackpool in 1990. The manual exchanges I was meaning were those where the subscribers didn't have a dial on their phone. There was also a manual 'Emergency Manual Switching System' for wartime use that existed until the end of the 'Cold War' in 1992. It then just lay idle until slowly recovered. I have a number of positions from the switchboard used in the BBC's 'The Hello Girls' 1996/98 period drama series set in Derby in 1959/61. Shown in the UK as well as Australia and NewZealand. Most episodes are on 'You Tube' but be careful to put the BBC in front of the Hello Girls otherwise you get some interesting results!

Re the cases. Most of the non-standard colours on older phone chassis' are modern reproductions and hence not originals. The GPO/PO did produce a dozen or so special cases n various colours back in the 1960/70's to see what new colours subscribers might want as a couple of exhibitions travelled around the country testing reaction. One colour I remember was 'Tangerine' a form of orange. But no new colours appeared for the 706 or later 746. There was one exception in the very early 1980's where a dark chocolate brown 8746 was produced to match the brown Senator/Ambassador style phones for use with those systems. It was called the 'Yeoman' as it had become the fashion to give phones names. So people ended up calling the 746/8746 the Yeoman but I don't remember that being done by BT.