The Model 5302 telephone was created in 1954 by Western Electric

Western Electric

Western Electric Company was an American electrical engineering company, the manufacturing arm of AT&T from 1881 to 1995. It was the scene of a number of technological innovations and also some seminal developments in industrial management...

 (the telephone

Telephone

The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...

-manufacturing arm of American Telephone & Telegraph

American Telephone & Telegraph

AT&T Corp., originally American Telephone and Telegraph Company, is an American telecommunications company that provides voice, video, data, and Internet telecommunications and professional services to businesses, consumers, and government agencies. AT&T is the oldest telecommunications company...

) to provide customers a "modern looking" telephone

Telephone

The telephone , colloquially referred to as a phone, is a telecommunications device that transmits and receives sounds, usually the human voice. Telephones are a point-to-point communication system whose most basic function is to allow two people separated by large distances to talk to each other...

 while permitting the Bell System

Bell System

The Bell System was the American Bell Telephone Company and then, subsequently, AT&T led system which provided telephone services to much of the United States and Canada from 1877 to 1984, at various times as a monopoly. In 1984, the company was broken up into separate companies, by a U.S...

 to recycle and reuse components from the older 300 series to use up existing supplies of 302 parts, as well as to meet increased post-World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 demand for new telephone service and for extension phones.

Western Electric created a new Model 500

Model 500 telephone

The Western Electric model 500 telephone series was the standard desk-style domestic telephone set issued by the Bell System in North America from late 1949 through the 1984 Bell System divestiture. Millions of model 500-series phones were produced and were present in almost every home in North...

-styled case to cover a narrower model 302 telephone

Model 302 telephone

The Model 302 telephone subscriber set was manufactured by Western Electric from 1937; manufacture of entirely new units was ceased after the introduction of the Model 500, but Model 302 units were continually remanufactured as such at least until 1958, and as the Model 5302 telephone which was...

 baseplate ringer and network. While the dial displays its numbers and letters on the outside of the finger dial like the 500, the dial itself is actually the smaller 5H or 6H dial of the model 302. The cradle features a narrower portion which accommodates the earlier F1 handset. Later production of this model utilized the GF handset which looked like the G1 handset used on the 500 model telephone, but contained the same HA1 and F1 transmit and receive elements used in the F1 handset. Some 5302 sets were also issued with a standard G1 handset containing U1 and T1 elements.

This model was produced starting about 5 years after the introduction of the Model 500 in 1949 to use up existing supplies of 302 parts, as well as to relieve some of the demand for the new 500 sets. The 5302 sets were not manufactured on the normal production line, but were assembled in the refurbishment shops in the distribution centers. Fewer of these sets exist than either the 302 or the 500. The time they were produced was much shorter than either the 302 or 500 designs -- from about the mid-1950s to mid-1960s.

Several variations were produced including single line (5302), party line

(5304 and 5306) and 2-line (5410) models.).

External links

• http://www.arctos.com/dial/
• http://www.paul-f.com/we300typ.htm#5300 - Photos and additional information