| Name | 155SP Payphone |
| Date | |
| Manufacturer | Western Electric |
Development of the 155SP Payphone
| Western Electric 155SP Coin Collector The Western Electric 155SP was a five-cent 50G coin collector converted in 1954 to a ten-cent 155SP configuration. It was designed as a coin collector for supervised locations and, in some installations, was paired with a custom desk arrangement rather than a standard wall-mounted payphone housing. One documented installation occurred in 1959, when the unit was installed in a college dormitory in Chicago. In that application, it functioned as a payphone in conjunction with a Western Electric 500-series telephone set, representing an uncommon and largely original Bell System configuration. The conversion from 50G to 155SP required physical modification of the housing, including removal of original studs and installation of custom brackets to accommodate a ten-cent swing-out coin chute. The unit incorporates a 1920s-era bent-magnet relay, characteristic of early Bell System coin-control apparatus. |
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