The Home of the Last Crank (Magneto) Telephone

The Home of the Last Crank (Magneto) Telephone

Bryant Pond (Woodstock), Maine

Date of Visit: February 19, 2013

Bryant Pond, Maine was the last town in the U.S. to use hand cranked telephones. Bryant Pond used them until 1983 and its people liked them. Between the town’s Historical Society museum and the Post Office sits a 14-foot-tall, jet black candlestick phone with a big crank. The lifelike phone weighs 3,000 pounds and was built by local sculptor Gil Whitman. There is also a museum (very small) of the telephone company located near the elementary school on Rumford Avenue.

       

            I have a very special connection to Bryant Pond and the crank phones. It is where I grew up and as a child I did not realize there were any other types of phones. The single phone sat on the small desk in the corner of the living room in our house. It was an easy phone number to remember, 60-12. When telling someone your number you replaced the dash with ring, so our number was 60 ring 12. This meant it was line 60 and the operator would ring 1 long ring followed by 2 short ones. Being on a party line everyone’s phone would ring no matter who was being called on the line. There were three phones on our line, 60-4, 60-21, and 60-12.

            When making a call you first picked up the receiver and listened to make sure no one was on the line. If you cranked the ringer handle with someone one the line it usually led to a not so pleasant conversation. On our line were my grandmother and the next door neighbor who was also an older woman. You really did not want to ring in on an older, backwoods Maine woman. You don’t win in those conversations but you do get an education in being respectful and courteous.

            After making sure the line was clear, you hung up and cranked it one time. This rang in the switchboard where the operator would greet you, often by name, and ask for the number you wished to call. She would then connect you to your desired number. If you wanted to call someone on your line, you just cranked out the appropriate number of rings, no operator needed. 

  

http://www.privateline.com/

www.mainememory.net/item/11014

   Calling into Bryant Pond presented its own set of problems. In the surrounding towns it was easy as they knew how to contact the operator and make the connection, but if you were away it could be difficult. Imagine being in Texas and trying to explain to an operator there that you need to be connected to (207) 60-12. The usual response was “sorry, but I can’t dial that number, it is too short.” After multiple attempts to get them to understand, you demand they call an operator in Portland and have them connect the call.

Elden & Barbara Hathaway owned the Bryant Pond Telephone Company until 1981 when they sold it to The Oxford County Telephone Company. It took two years to convert to the dial phone. A local movement to save the old phone system was called “Don’t Yank the Crank,” I think I still have the t-shirt packed away somewhere, but the movement failed and the modern dial phones were installed. I also recall Mr. Hathaway being a guest on the “Tonight Show” which was a big deal in such a small town.