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With their slender and elegant
design, early candlestick phones,
produced from the 1890s through the
1920s, are also in great demand,
especially the earliest turn of the
century nickel-plated models which
can be difficult to find and quite
pricey. Also referred to as an
“upright,” these phones were manu-
factured in limited numbers as a
luxury item. Later models, from
1920 to 1940, were mass-produced Alexander Graham Bell's first telephone. Kept safely at
and are a more common and more the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.
photo: John Douglas Parran
affordable find.
Color was first introduced in 1954 with the original colors being ivory, dark green,
green, dark gray, red, brown-beige, yellow, and blue. Gray, blue, brown, and beige were
discontinued in 1957. In 1964, pink, light gray, and turquoise were added to the color
lineup. Pre-1955 colored phones will have a metal finger wheel; with newer models, the
wheel will be plastic. Currently, phones from this era are bringing $30 to $80.
While Western Electric is the big name for many American collectors, makers like
Automatic Electric, Kellogg Switchboard and Supply, Stromberg Carlson, and others are
also in high demand. Many telephone collectors also focus on related items such as tele-
phone signs and switchboards.
With landline phone sales in steep decline today as more consumers update their
phone service with cellphones and smartphones, these phones keep us connected to our
Timely ad: Bell Telephone ad, November 17, 1910 past, and the legacy of Alexander Graham Bell.

Alexander Graham Bell: July 7, 1908. Alexander Graham Bell (right) and his
assistants observe the flight of a circular tetrahedral kite.
Photo: amazingplanet.com

Obsessed with Flight
by Judy Gonyeau, managing editor

lexander Graham Bell may be best remembered Mabel Bell, wife and funder of
for the telephone, but his obsession with flight Bell’s flying pursuits
Abrought about out-of-this-world design elements
like an extension of Leonardo da Vinci’s early work
around a mission to get man into the air. Da Vinci
produced over 500 sketches exploring the engineering
to consider regarding human mechanical flight, showing
flying machines, the physics of air currents, and over “adapted to gliding flight when freed from its cord.”
35,000 words expounding upon the mechanics of flight. While the Wright Brothers began the age of the
As geniuses are wont to do, Bell became obsessed airplane, Bell felt the kite was the future of flight, thinking
with flight and began studying the possibility of the tetrahedral was sturdier than the plane. He and his
building a kite large and stable enough to carry a man. group of young men interested in flight established the
The first attempt involved constructing a “box kite” AEA: the Aerial Experimental Association, with the purpose
where triangular structured kites were joined together of building a practical powered airplane. AEA was financed
to make the box. The expanded surface area came by Bell’s wife, Mabel. In 1907, they built the Cygnet (“little
without the cost of a large increase in weight. Called swan” in French). With over 3,393 tetrahedral “cells,” this
the tetrahedral, 40-foot “plane” weighed just 200 pounds and flew behind a steamship
the triangular with a passenger at a height 168 feet above the surface of the water before
“box” is consid- it crashed and fell completely apart when landing.
ered one of the While Bell continued to work in the realm of kites, other members
most stable of of the AEA focused on producing conventional aircraft. One of the air-
structures. planes, named the “June Bug,” won the Scientific American Trophy in
Surprisingly 1908. It was flown 5,360 feet in just under 2 minutes, and by the end of
enough, these 1908 the AEA had over 150 flights in its flight book without a mishap.
were easy to fly. Once Mabel’s
As stated in a funding ran out, Mabel Bell (center) poses with the “Siamese Twins” kite
sign shown at a the AEA was Photo: amazingplanet.com
display of these disbanded, after
kites in 1904, Bell invented the
a kite called Aileron, a standard
“Oionos” (a component on all
vulture that aircraft to this day.
could be a In 1912, Bell
prophet) abandoned the use
1904. Bell poses with his assistants at a display of his tetrahedral explained that of a kite as a mode
kites. Notice the gentleman at the right standing on a kite. the kite had
Photo: amazingplanet.com of transportation.

20 Journal of Antiques and Collectibles