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How to Make an Antique Phone Work
If you have found an antique phone from an estate sale, auction or in the attic, you may be wondering if you can use it in your house and whether it will work. The good news is that residential phone service still recognizes pulse dialing phones, so the answer is yes. If it was made after 1920, it shouldn't need any conversion, but prior to that, it can be converted to work on pulse dial. The type of phone you have can also determine what steps are necessary to make it work. Phones have common main components, such as a cord, dialer, speaker and microphone (known as the receiver) and switch, besides the cabling necessary to plug into the jack to pick up the signal. Antique phones may also have a battery that is held behind screws, since they were meant to be changed once a year, and a bell to indicate incoming calls.
Original Condition
Whenever possible, it is best to keep an antique phone in original condition versus updating it with new components. Some phone restorers put a touch-tone dial pad on the back side of the phone to keep the front appearance intact. It depends on what condition your antique phone is in as to the extent of the conversion necessary. It is worth much more if you can keep it in original condition. If your phone has a four prong cord, it is possible it may work without any alterations on today's phone system.
A Professional
Sometimes, antique phone restoration is best left to the experts, and there are antique telephone repair services that can get an antique phone as close as possible to its original condition. If you are interested in preserving its antique value, this may be worth the investment.
Collectors
The things that antique phone collectors look for in phones are completeness, condition, authenticity, scarcity, uniqueness and attractiveness. The higher your antique phone scores in these categories, the more it is worth. You should keep this in mind during any attempts to make your phone work as a normal phone. If it is high in these categories but would need alterations to use it as a regular phone, then it may not be worth the decrease in value and should be considered as an antique investment instead.
