#35

This is basically a Siemens 309 (same as a GPO 162) on Siemens’ proprietary open bell-set.

This phone is made from D material and has a 162 style cradle.  Some of these seem to have 232 cradles and I think both cradle styles are authentic to the phone.

#36

#37

#38

This phone’s twin was allegedly spotted some years ago at the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney.  Please contact me if you have any further information on the twin!

This phone and its base spent many years apart and were recently reunited with the help of top Australian collector Tim Murphy.  We don’t know how long these items have been separated, but perhaps 40 years or more.

The base of this phone was acquired in early 2014 from a mature ex AWA employee.  This gentleman recalled that the phone was for many years on display at the AWA PMG workshop in Melbourne, together with some other interesting coloured phones (but could not recall the details).

The rest of the phone was acquired in the early 2000s from another top Australian collector, who had just acquired it from a deceased collector’s estate.  Prior to this, the phone may have been exhibited at an Australian phone collectors’ event.   I bought this phone together with an AWA red 162 (which also came from the same deceased estate) and it would seem consistent that the red 162 was also one of the display phones from the AWA factory in Melbourne.

The phone has a Siemens mottled brown cradle, plunger and handset. AWA did not produce these components in patchwork mottled brown and the ex AWA employee has confirmed this. Further, an injection molding specialist who examined the base agreed that the manufacturing process needed to produce the patchwork mottling effect would have required a pressed mould, which could not have been used to create components with complex surfaces such as a cradle, plunger and handset.

The red AWA 162 came together with an absolutely perfectly matching red Siemens 25 bell-set – it is possible that in the mid-1930s, AWA used Siemens to supply the no 25 bell-set for its red 162 and likewise used standard Siemens mottled brown parts to complete its patchwork mottled brown 162.

An interesting feature of the Siemens handset is that it has a blank centre oval – previously, I have only seen blank ovals on post war handsets, but it makes sense that AWA would not want the centre piece of its display to bear another manufacturer’s logo.

#71

All parts of the phone are marked AWA and it is believed that AWA used Siemens to source the bell-set.  The bell-set and phone are an absoluetely perfect colour match, even today.

Both phone and bell-set are manufactured from D material, which was used in the mid to late 1930s.

#70

Phone is the same as the prototype featured in an article titled “A New C.B. Microtelephone” in the 3 October 1929 edition of the Institute of Post Office Electrical Engineers Journal (I.P.O.E.E.J.) – see gallery.

The article clearly shows a metal phone with the early handset with 4 screws attaching the mouthpiece, and simply a “b” in the handset oval – exactly the same as this phone. The only difference is that the phone in the article has a dial blank and this has a 1929 Siemens small centre dial.

The cast metal base has no inscriptions or circuit diagram pasted on top.  The other 1929 bases that I have seen are marked GPO S-1929 and have either a Siemens 82 circuit diagram or a GPO 162 circuit diagram.

When this phone went into production, the body was made in Bakelite. Only the prototypes featured metal bodies.

#F10

#F5