IDENTIFICATION & HISTORY
Original Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company common-battery wall telephone featuring the unusual French/European-style Grabaphone handset with its integral metal hanging eye.
The handset’s receiver is marked “Kellogg S. & S. Co., Chicago, U.S.A.” and “50-A.” Kellogg’s 1921 Telephone Bulletin No. 25 identifies this as the No. 50-A receiver “with eye for hanging on hook.” It was used in the company’s No. 12/F12-C Grabaphone handset.
Unlike conventional American telephones of the period, the transmitter and receiver were incorporated into a single handheld unit. This European-influenced configuration originated with Ericsson-style “microtelephones” and was marketed in America by Kellogg as the Grabaphone. The distinctive metal eye allowed the complete handset to hang vertically from the telephone’s switchhook.
Kellogg introduced its first commercial handset telephone around 1905, years before handset telephones became standard in the United States. The Grabaphone gave Kellogg an important early technical advantage over Western Electric and is considerably less common than ordinary Kellogg candlestick and wooden wall telephones.
CONFIGURATION
The oak enclosure contains its original-style induction coil, terminal strip, switchhook mechanism and period cloth-covered wiring. Its circuitry and hanging-handset arrangement correspond closely with Kellogg’s No. 722/F722 common-battery Grabaphone extension telephone.
The standard No. 722 was normally illustrated with a compact enameled-steel enclosure. This telephone instead has a Kellogg-labeled quarter-sawn-oak cabinet. I have not located this exact oak-cabinet configuration in the surviving Kellogg catalogs. It may represent a special-order installation or a professionally assembled Kellogg telephone-company configuration.
This is a common-battery extension telephone designed for connection to a central office, PBX, hotel or private switchboard system. It was not intended to contain its own hand-crank generator or internal ringing bells.
The cabinet retains an original Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Co., Chicago, U.S.A. label. Inside the door is a Kellogg Kansas City, Missouri Service Department inspection label dated September 20, 1930. This is a service or inspection date rather than necessarily the manufacturing date. The telephone itself most likely dates from the late 1910s through the 1920s.
FEATURES
CONDITION
Untested and sold as an antique collectible for restoration or display.
The telephone shows age-related wear, scratches, finish loss, and oxidation. The upper-right area of the oak cabinet has a couple visible cuts, these would easily be repaired, but I have intentionally left the cabinet unrepaired and unrefinished so the next owner can determine the appropriate conservation or restoration method.
Some internal cloth-covered wires are disconnected or cut. No attempt has been made to connect the telephone to a line or switchboard. The switchhook mechanism, induction coil and terminal assembly remain present. The handset appears substantially complete and retains both Kellogg-marked end components and its original hanging eye.
Please examine all photographs carefully for the exact cosmetic condition, cabinet damage, wiring and included components. No claim is made that the telephone is currently operational.
A historically significant and uncommon Kellogg Grabaphone installation whose hanging-eye handset closely reflects the early European/Ericsson telephone designs that inspired Kellogg’s first American handset telephones.