A

Western Electric D1 telephone

​

Type: Desk Phone

​

Manufacture :   BTL (Bell Telephone Laboratories)

​

Production Date :  Manufactured in 1930

​

  

​

​

​

​

Western Electric D1 telephone, often identified as the model 202.

 

The model 202, sometimes called the D1, was the Bell System's mainstay telephone from 1930 to 1936. The D1 designation referred specifically to the phone's streamlined, oval-shaped base, which featured the company’s first recessed dial, called the 4-type.

 

The 202 series telephones were the first widely distributed phones which adopted the use of a single handset rather than a separate transmitter and receiver.

 

Western Electric was not immune to the downturn, laying off around 80 percent of its employees. Thus, the original 202s were available only in black, known as a “rubber finish japan” for its shiny, lacquer-like appearance. Eventually, the company added ivory, grey, bronze, gold, and oxidized silver to the phone’s palette. By 1936, the new model 302 telephone was introduced to replace the 202.

 

 

Source:

Collectors weekly

Old phone works

​

​