| Name | KS-16797 Universal Booth |
| Date | c. 1955 |
| Manufacturer | Aluminum Company of America—commonly known as Alcoa—produced the booth at their facility in New Kensington, Pennsylvania |
| Usage | US Phone Booth |
| Further notes |
| The KS-16797 is a universal indoor-outdoor phone booth, designed primarily for stand-up usage, although it can also accommodate seating via the optional KS-19425 List 11 seat assembly .When installed alongside other booths, they’re typically fastened together using screws, nuts, washers, allowing for multi-booth configuration. Sign blanks and frames are installed similarly to other models like the KS-14611 The Aluminum Company of America—commonly known as Alcoa—produced the booth at their facility in New Kensington, Pennsylvania. This booth was distributed under the Bell System / Western Electric branding as part of AT&T’s standard hardware lineup. The KS-16797 Universal Four-Panel Booth was introduced by the Bell System / Western Electric in the mid-1950s as their standard “universal” booth design. 📖 Bell System Practices (BSPs) covering its installation and maintenance first appeared in the 1956–1957 period, which lines up with production beginning then. It was manufactured by Alcoa (Aluminum Company of America, New Kensington, PA) during that time, under contract to Western Electric. The design remained in use through the 1960s and into the 1970s, gradually being supplemented (and later replaced) by newer outdoor enclosures and simpler pedestal-style housings. 👉 So, the KS-16797 was a 1950s innovation—a standardized, aluminum, four-panel booth—serving as the Bell System’s workhorse booth type for about two decades. |
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