Leich - Covertible Desk / Wall Phone

Covertible integrated set from Leich. Can be used as a desk or wall phone.

History

The unique design of the Leich Convertible allows it to be used as either a desk or wall phone. It was available as a comtempory of the Western/Northern Electric 302 and the Stromberg Carlson 1243. It contains the ringer and induction coil within the phone thereby eliminating the need for a separate subscriber set or bell box that was common in earlier models. The history of Leich is as convoluted as it is interesting. It was formed as the Eureka Electric Company which moved to Chicago in 1898.

In 1902 Eureka merged with the Advance Electric Company and subsequently moved to Genoa. In 1907 the company was sold and renamed The Cracraft-Leich Electric Co. The name was changed to Leich Electric in 1917, and in 1950s Leich was purchased GTE and became the first manufacturing subsidiary of that company. GTE and Automatic Electric merged in 1955 and Leich was maintained as an operating subsidiary of GTE until the early 1960s when operations were fully merged with the parent company. In 1989 GTE and AT&T finalized a joint ownership agreement and the name of the company was changed to AG Communications Systems. AT&T transferred it's majority ownership in AG Communications to Lucent Technologies (formerly Western Electric) in 1996 and as of 2003 Lucent is the sole owner AG Communications.

Thus, long-ago competitors Western Electric, Automatic Electric and Leich are now effectively one company.

The Restoration Process

Dial – The dial has been fully disassembled, cleaned, lubed and timed to ensure years of trouble free service. The outer edge of the dial has been stripped and repainted with a gloss black enamel. Unless the dial is removed, this is something you will rarely ever even see, but this is how it would have come from the factory. The number plate has been cleaned and a perfectly matching overlay has been applied. The finger wheel has been sandblasted and powder coated with a semi-gloss black finish. A brand new die cut dial card and acetate cover have been added as well

Cords – The phone has been outfitted with brand new black cloth covered cords that are made in house on the same type of equipment originally used by the phone companies. They look amazing. The line cord has a modular connection to facilitate a modern connection to your wall jack.

Shell – The shell has been painstakingly put through a multi-step restoration process which includes sanding with 400, 800, 1000, 2000 grit. This ensures that there are no scratches, dents or dings. The shell is them carefully buffed on our two step buffing wheels. This takes out the fine abrasions left by sanding and leaves the plastic with a smooth factory fresh finish. Finally we apply a three step restoration compound. This leaves the Bakelite with a beautiful high gloss finish.

Handset – Handset has been ultrasonically cleaned to get all embedded debris. It is then sanded with the same process as the shell and buffed back to its beautiful original shine.

Base – The base is completely stripped of all its components and painted with a high gloss black. The components are then cleaned, tested and reinstalled.

The phone goes extensive testing before to ensure it is in perfect working condition prior to shipping.