Wood wall, candlestick, rotary — those are just some of the old school telephones that will be on display at the Amherstview Community Hall on Saturday, Sept. 16 for the 2017 Canadian Antique Telephone show.
Close to 25 vendors from across Ontario, Quebec and even Syracuse, New York will be on hand showcasing and selling the vintage pieces. Some date as far back as the early 1900s.
Kingston company Old Phone Works is hosting the show, which returns after a five-year break. Located on Binnington Court, the team restores vintage phones to their former glory.
“It’s neat to try to think of who talked on these phones, where they’ve been around the world, just the overall design and how well built they were. And some of the phones are 100 years old or older and they’re still in perfect working condition,” said general manager, Matt Jennings.
Technicians like Jamie Emerton say they can spend anywhere from a few hours to an entire day getting the old phones to ring again.
“We build it with all the original components so it does function. It has an induction coil and a condenser that gives it power and it draws power from the original phone lines, so we also have a device that we put into it that modifies the pulses and tones so it will work on any system,” Emerton said.
Even the phone cords are restored so they are era-appropriate. Cloth covered cords were used from the 1890s to the 1950s.
“They are very durable because they’re not rubber or plastic they don’t tend to dry out so they don’t crack over time. I still have cords from the early 1900s that work to this day,” operations manager Jeff Martin said.
The restoration work isn’t going unnoticed. Not only do they supply antiques to customers, they’re also getting calls from both television and movie studios. The company has worked with major productions like Stranger Things and Fargo to provide them with era-specific phones.
The Canadian Antique Telephone Show runs from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday.
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