Northern Electric No. 1 Uniphone - Black

History

This wonderful working example of 1930s design is sure to fit into your period decorating scheme. The Northern Electric No. 1 was designed and made in Canada response to Western Electric's Model 302. It's electrically similar, but the case is much wider when viewed from the front, giving it a more substantial appearance. It was manufactured from the late 30s to the late 40s.

The No. 1 is normally found with a standard F1 handset and #5 or #6 dial that were common on other Northern Electric products of the time. A large number were also produced with a British Post Office (B.P.O.) type dial with chromed fingerwheel.

The Restoration Process

Dial – The No.5 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 cloth covered cords that are made in house on the same type of equipment originally used by the phone companies. They look amazing. You can choose from either black or brown cloth cords. 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 Bakelite with a smooth factory fresh finish. Finally we apply a three step restoration compound.

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 sealed with a high gloss clear coat. The components are then cleaned, tested and reinstalled.

Feet – The feet are disassembled and sand blasted. They are then rewrapped with super soft pig skin suede leather to ensure it does not damage the table it proudly sits on.

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

We are now also offering the option to have your telephone number printed on the dial card in the center of your fingerwheel. Select this option with the drop down menu.

Do you currently have any rotary phones? If the answer is no, it is always a good idea to call your local phone company and check if they still support “pulse” dialing. If they do, you are all set to go. If they do not, your phone will not be able to place calls without a converter. We have internal converters that we install during assembly available for $79.95.

- Dials * and # from your rotary phone to access computerized services.
- Use legacy equipment on tone-only lines.
- Compatible with VOIP services.
- Provides last number redial functionality.
- Adds 7 programmable speed dial locations

As an alternative, we provide an option to use this phone as an extension of your cell phone. The XLink Bluetooth gateway is an device external to the phone that gets it’s power from a standard AC outlet. The cord from the phone will then connect to a phone jack on the gateway. When you pair the gateway to an active Bluetooth enabled cell phone, you will be able to use the vintage phone just like it was connected to a traditional landline. When someone calls your cell phone, the vintage phone will ring, and you will be able to dial out using the dial on the vintage phone. If you want to be able to call # and * using your rotary dial, you will also need to add the pulse to tone converter option.

This classic piece of Canadian history carries a full 1 year parts and labor warranty subject to our standard terms and conditions.