| Name | Western Electric type 11 phone booth |
| Date | Circa 1955–1956. The last timber indoor booth. |
| Manufacturer | Western Electric |
| Usage | US Phone Booth |
| Further notes |
| General Description Western Electric Type 11 booth – the timber, sit-down successor to the Type 6. The Type 11 was a wood, indoor, seated telephone booth, introduced in the mid-1950s as part of a redesign of the Bell System’s timber booth line. It is essentially the seated companion to the Type 10 (the standing booth). Its design modernized the older Type 5/6 booths, with updated finishes and improved lighting/ventilation options. Structure & Features Construction: Solid timber framework with veneered panels; finishes included oak, birch, walnut, and mahogany (different “letter” codes distinguished the wood type). Door: Wooden stile with a glass upper section (like the earlier Types 5 and 6). Seating: Built-in factory seat, with the shelf and backboard mounted lower than in standing models. Fittings: 18-type shelf and 167A-3 backboard (standard Bell System components). 101-series seat supplied with the booth. Lighting: Normally equipped with a 4A lighting fixture (improved from the 3-type ceiling light used in the earlier 5/6 booths). Ventilation: Provision for a KS-14125 blower in the top housing (a step up from the KS-8164 fan of the 5/6 series). Timeline Introduced: Circa 1955–1956, referenced in Bell System Practices (BSP 508-110-100, Issue 1, May 1960, lists it as the current standard). Usage: Common through the late 1950s and 1960s in indoor locations requiring a sit-down booth—libraries, offices, hotels, university campuses. Supersession: By the 1960s, aluminum KS-series booths (e.g., KS-19206, KS-19425) began to replace timber types for most new installations, but Type 11s remained in use for decades. Manufacturer Western Electric distributed the booth for the Bell System. Fabrication: The woodwork was often contracted to specialized furniture/cabinet makers (e.g., Drexel built the KS-19340 wood booth). Surviving ordering records suggest multiple subcontractors supplied the timber booths under Western Electric specification. ✅ In short: The Type 11 booth was the Bell System’s last major wood, sit-down booth, a modernization of the earlier Type 6, produced in the mid-1950s and still listed as standard in 1960. |
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