Vintage U.S. Army Telephone EE-3-B

[skeeter4206]

I recently ran across (2) old U.S. Army field, crank style telephone. I have been online trying to find out more information on these phones. But very little information on this version "EE-3-B". I can find plenty on the EE-8-B phone that was used during WWII.

From what I have ran across with this version is that it dates back closer to WWI. They have the wooden casing around the main parts on the inside, unlike the EE-8-B which has a leather style casing from what I can see.

The cranks on them both spin perfectly. I pulled one of them out of the casing and cleaned it up a little and added a little 3:1 oil on the crank bearings which made it spin very smoothly.

I just wanted to share the photos and see if anyone on the forum can give me any more information on these phones.

I live in Augusta, GA, where Fort Gordon is located. This fort has a big signal corp that is part of the base. The person that I ran across that had these did have no desire to have anything to do with them. They were his grandfathers who passed away recently. His grandfather was a Lt. Col. in the army and initially enlisted in 1950. I also got a stack of old paperwork that appeared to be from his training back in the 50's. In the paper work was a bunch of maps that looked like re-prints from WWII in Germany and France which I thought were pretty interesting as well.

Who love to see what else he had that was his grandfathers and wanted to part with, before it just gets lost, sold or ends up in a pawn shop. Which is sad to say. I got a steal on the phones and paper work. Ebay has (2) of these kind of phones for $325. But they did have the phone receiver which I do not have.

So any information on the phones that anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated.

[mrerick]

Those are WW-I vintage! Here's a photo of a complete one:

http://radionerds.com/index.php/EE-3



Also, photos and links at:

http://www.myinsulators.com/commokid...taryphones.htm

Article:

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/foru...-field-phones/

Use care... those Kellogg magnetos can really bite!

[skeeter4206]

[skeeter4206]

Use care... those Kellogg magnetos can really bite

I'm curious, what are the magnetos? Are they the (3) horseshoe shaped, I'm guessing magnets on the inside? Would they only be energized if the batteries are in?

[mrerick]

The magneto in these phones is basically an AC generator. You crank a mechanism, it spins a coil within permanent magnets and generates voltage at a moderately high current. You don't want your body in contact with what these generate.

These were actually used as torture devices by some parties during the war.

The magneto only creates power when cranked.

[skeeter4206]

I put a voltage meter on the L1 and L2 terminals and yes it does have some DC voltage when cranked. Curious about the batteries. When cranking, do the batteries store the voltage so you don't have to keep on cranking to talk on the phone? I'm just trying to grasp the whole concept of how this thing actually works.

The (3) terminal poles with Green, yellow and Red labeled beneath them is where the actual hand held phone receiver connects. But what actually connects to the L1 and L2 terminals when in operation? They have wing nuts on them for easy connection and disconnection. So is there something that I'm missing that makes the whole thing work the way its meant to work?

Another dumb question, when I was a kid a remember my pops talking about fishing with old crank style phones where the fish would get shocked and you just scoop them up. Is this the type of contraption that would be used to do that? Not that I would do that by all means. Just old memories of my pops from way back. [I] never really knew what the hell he was talking about. bake then I was thinking how does our kitchen phone be used to catch fish. bake then I thought my dad was just pulling my leg. Now seeing that it can produce a current... That's just wrong in fishing that way and I would guess highly illegal.

[DonVoigt]

The batteries are for talking; the crank is for ringing.

[Ron Wood]

That is a neat phone. Early in my Army career I guess I got in on the end of the use of its successor, the EE-8...and that would be well after the end of WWII. Fond memories of cranking up a call.

[tomaustin]

yes, the old type ring phones used throughout the early telephone system can produce quite a current....we did use it with electric wire attached to lengths of trace chain and pitch them out in the river about 100 feet apart...my job was to turn the crank....about 1-2 minutes of cranking, the fish would float to the surface stunned by the current....dad and others in the wooden john boat would scoop out the medium sized fish....we actually got a 40+ pound blue catfish which my uncle dived into the water and wrestled to the bank...that fish kicked his ass really good but he got him.....hadn't thought about those days in a while....AND, yes it is illegal.......too many started hooking up generators and that spoiled it for everybody else....all this occurred in Mississippi in the late 40's on the Big Black river..........tom

[skeeter4206]

Definitely seems to be a good item to add to my collection of old things. Also glad I got (2) of them. Would love to somehow rig them up together and make them work. Wonder if they make any aftermarket batteries that could work with these. I wonder where I could be some receivers or the hand held part of the phone you talk into

[mrerick]

You can probably find details of hookup at the sites I referenced earlier.

Any battery of the correct voltage and current rating would work. You need to check the specifications of the battery in use. If it's a 1.5v battery or multiple you could use "D" cells. Battery holders are available on Ebay or at electronics goods retailers (used to be Radio Shack).

The handset was probably a carbon microphone and a dynamic earpiece. This will be a bit trickier to obtain.

[skeeter4206]

Any battery of the correct voltage and current rating would work. You need to check the specifications of the battery in use. If it's a 1.5v battery or multiple you could use "D" cells. Battery holders are available on Ebay or at electronics goods retailers (used to be Radio Shack).

The batteries are the BA-1 dry 3 volt tungsten. the spots for the batteries are about the same diameter as D size. So using 2 1.5 v batteries in line does this give you the 3v?

[DonVoigt]

Originally Posted by skeeter4206

The batteries are the BA-1 dry 3 volt tungsten. the spots for the batteries are about the same diameter as D size. So using 2 1.5 v batteries in line does this give you the 3v?

Yes, 2x 1.5 v in series = 3v

[John Sabato]

When I was on active duty in 1974, ringer voltage was 90 volts... And the earlier comment about not touching the terminals during ringing is very sage advice.

Once on a rifle range at Fort Gordon Georgia, the Major in charge of the range operations sent me down range with a team to pull targets with the instructions to take the phone and attach the wires and wait for his "ring"...

Well we went down range, and set up the phone and prepared all the targets and waited and waited and the phone never rang... So I cranked it to find out what was the delay since it was the only communications we had, and it wouldn't be safe to head back up range to the firing points without notifying the range officer. There was no answer to my ring. I waited 5 more minutes and then cranked it again. Still no answer. I waited ten more minutes and cranked it a good one. After about two minutes my phone finally rang.

The Major was on the other end and told me we were to raise targets... and then he said, "the next time I tell you to wait for my ring, you WILL wait for my ring."

I replied "yes SIR."

Later than afternoon, one of the other NCO's came down range during a break and had a hard time telling me what had happened without laughing. An NCO asked the Major if he wanted his phone wired in, and the Major said no, he was capable of doing it himself. Then the Major got involved talking and not only delayed training but forgot to wire up his phone. When he reached for the WD-1 field wire (one wire in each hand) is when I cranked the phone the first time. The jolt had knocked him down cursing. Five minutes later he got the nerve to try it again, and of course, that was my second attempt to ring his phone. The voltage bit him again!. So now just to show how smart he was, he waited 10 minutes to try and wire the phone again. You guessed it. That was when I really cranked the phone to find out why we were delayed. This time the voltage cause his fingers to pinch the wires and he couldn't let go... my cranking made him drop to his knees. He finally asked the other NCO to wire the phone, and of course nothing happened until he finally called me. I bet I laughed for several hours after that. The Major was not one of my favorite people... he was frequently intoxicated, but of course still in charge of the Marksmanship Unit. He was found drunk on duty and relieved about two weeks later...

I hope that true story made some of you ex-grunts, especially the signal corps types laugh out loud!

[skeeter4206]

That's too funny! I'm curious about measuring my voltage out put. and where to put my leads. I see the L1 and L2 terminals on top. Put my meter in DC mode and check between these 2 terminals just to see what is being sent?

[mrerick]

Here's detail of the ringing systems used for telephony:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tip_and_ring

In the USA today it's about 50 volts. Field phones used up to 130V AC at about 20 hertz.

That is quite a handful!

[skeeter4206]

I never even pondered the fact that this thing would generate AC current through cranking it. The post mentioning that they have had phones producing as high as 130v AC, made me wonder about the ones I have. And I will be amazed that I got one of them up to almost 80v AC. Now I see why members mentioned that this would bite a little if you touch the wrong areas while cranking. I'm glad I didn't learn the hard way. I will be a little bit more careful on what I touch while playing with these old phones.

Thanks for the most needed input provided in this thread.