Welcome to the TCI Library
TCI welcomes new members of all ages with an interest in telephony - Vintage Phones, Switching, History, etc.
Not a member?
The TCI Library is maintained by Telephone Collectors International, a non-profit organization, as a public service. It supports our goal of helping to preserve the history of telephony -- particularly fragile paper documents that may otherwise be lost to posterity. It is supported by members through dues and by the generous donation of funds and files from other sponsors and site visitors. All work is done by members, who unselfishly volunteer their time.
Don't expect to find every document you might want here. Even though we have a lot of documents (over 23,000), there are many, many more that we need to find and add.
The Library has grown quickly over the last few years. Many documents were added with few keywords. Searching for info is not always as simple as we might like. Note that we have three different search options on the Search menu. Each has its strengths and weaknesses. Try them all.
Our limited volunteer staff adds keywords largely based on specific user feedback. Let us know if you are having problems finding something, and we’ll see if we can help locate it in the Library.
Please help make the Library better.
- Send any suggestions on keywords to be added to specific entries,
- Contribute scans of documents in your collection and
- Volunteer time to help add keywords and improve document descriptions.
If the Library has helped in your research, we hope you'll support our effort as a TCI member, Library volunteer or by making a donation of documents or cash (tax deductible in the US).
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Check out the TCI YouTube channel .
See the video of the 1994 TCI show in St. Louis -- provided by Steve Schack.
Don't forget to subscribe to our TCI PhoneVideos YouTube Channel!
Use "Contact Us" to report anything that doesn't work or is confusing. Tell us what you like, what you don’t like, and make any suggestions for future additions (to be added to our already long wish list). Constructive comments are always welcome.
Thanks,
The TCI Library Administrators
- Paul Wills, Remco Enthoven and Paul Fassbender
Major TCI Library Sections
- Bell System Practices
- Index Documents
- Handbooks
- Early AT&T Specifications
- BSPs: Letter-coded
- BSPs: Numeric Division Numbers
- Canadian Practices
- Bruce Crawford Switching Library
- WEco Switching Documents
- SDs and CDs
- Manufacturer Catalogs and Data Sheets
- Wiring Diagrams
- Catalogs, Manuals and Educational Documents
- Employee Publications
- Marketing Brochures
- Training Manuals
To browse the Library by category, start with Browse the Library in the Black Menu Bar above and select Document Repository.
When searching, watch for these formats and abbreviations in document titles:
BSPs - e.g. C38.904NY_iA_Oct58_Keysets_Receiver_Amp
- NY - New York (Operating Company)
- i1 - issue A
- Oct58 - Publication Date (October 1958)
- Following words are search keywords based on the document name
Catalogs and booklets - e.g. 1923 WE Catalog 5 - Telephone Apparatus and Supplies T-667-A
- 1923 - Date
- WE Catalog 5 - Catalog Number
- Following words are search Keywords based on the document name
Articles in documents - e.g. 65jun_BLR_p214_No1_ESS
- 65jun - Date
- BLR - Publication Name (Bell Labs Record)
- p214 - Start page
- No1 ESS - Article Title (abbreviated)
TCI Members Only Documents (MOD)
In addition to documents in the Library, TCI Members can access documents that were contributed to TCI with the restriction that they are made available to TCI Members only, and are not to be posted on any publicly available web site.
Most are large manufacturer catalogs, restricted distribution documents or files that have had extensive processing by TCI volunteers, such as page straightening, clean-up and OCR.
The MOD area is accessed from the Members Area menu entry on the TCI site or the Members Only Docs link under TCI Sites in the menu above on this page.
Not a member?
BSTJ Archive
Check our our comprehensive index with hotlinks to articles in the Bell System Technical Journals published from 1922-1983, provided by Sam Etler. Follow the BSTJ Archive link under "Browse the Library" in the black menu bar above.
You can do an on-page search by keyword (usually initiated in a browser using Control-F), then click to pull up the complete issue.
Go to the BSTJ Archive
Telezonia and Teletrainers
Check out the 1964 Teacher's Guide and Student's Guide for Telezonia -- the Bell System's program to educate elementary school students in how to use the telephone. The program started in 1950 and used several generations of Teletrainer hardware. Paul Fassbender and John Novack have collected BSPs for many of them. Find them with a simple search for "teletrainer" Also check out articles in the October 2018 Singing Wires and on
Call-a-matic Automatic Dialers
First there was the 1671, then the 2671. Find out the differences in the BSPs and read about the history in a Bell Labs Record article. Simply search for "Call-a-matic"
Reference pages for Kellogg, Stromberg Carlson and Select-O-Phone
The TCI Library hosts the web sites created by Mike Neale. Check them out for downloads of technical and marketing literature. Pages open in a new window.
Site links can also be found under TCI Sites in the black menu bar on each TCI Library page.
Note that the documents on these sites are currently NOT found using the TCI Library's search feature. We hope to add them to the Library as volunteer time and priorities permit.
BSRS - Bell System Repair Specifications
Incredibly hard to find documents. Formerly D-series BSPs. Scope and plan: "These documents are primarily intended for use in Western Electric Company Service Centers in the repair of apparatus and equipment removed from Telephone Company plant." As documents are scanned and added to the Library, they will be filed here: BSRS Thanks for the scans to Astrid Smith - Connections Museum, Seattle (THG). OCR by TCI.
Each document uses a novel issue control process, updating each page individually. An index page has an issue number and date, with the current revision level of each page in the document!
Categories for Automatic Electric Catalogs and Brochurres
Browse the Library > Document Repository > Catalogs, Manuals... > Automatic Electric > AE Catalogs
Browse the Library > Document Repository > Catalogs, Manuals... > Automatic Electric > AE Circulars/Brochures
Shortcuts: AE Catalogs, AE Circulars/Brochures
SWITCHERS! Find switching documents faster.
Use these Menu Bar entries:
Browse the Library > BC Switching Library > Western Electric > WE Switching Docs
Browse the Library > BC Switching Library > Automatic Electric > AE Switching Docs
Updates Wanted for “Dials and Pushbuttons”
by Stanley Swihart
The TCI Library provides a page to collect comments and new original research related to areas covered in this monumental 584-page dial reference.
Go to "Dials and Pushbuttons"
Thanks to Terry Michaels for contributing 29 issues of "AT&T Radio Notes," spanning 1959 - 1966. More issues and more periodicals are welcome.
Go to "AT&T Radio Notes"
Western Electric Card Catalog, ca. 1989
Thanks to Astrid Smith, Connections Museum, Seattle (THG), a database of over 18,000 cards in over 500 categories, and dating from 2/28/1913 to 9/30/1989 is available on their site here:
Also available here: (OCRed pdf's) Thanks to Sam Etler.
Filenames in the index indicate Category, Part Number, Card No for part, Card Date. e.g.
ringers, , 1, 1964-04-30.jpg
ringers, , 2, 1985-11-29.jpg
ringers, C4A C4B C4C, 1, 1983-04-29.jpg
Where:
ringers, - card catalog section heading
C4A C4B C4C, - list of coded part numbers that apply (i left out color codes)
1, - card number, in the sequence for that part number
1983-04-29 - date of issue of the particular card
Where the part numbers field is blank, that's supposed to be the
front-matter for that section.
Use a Control-F search in the index to help find a keyword, category or model number of interest.
Also see the related TCI Library pages: WE Card Catalog and Northern Electric Catalog Cards. Links are under "Browse the Library" in the black Menu Bar.
Bell Laboratories Record Cumulative Index
Chuck Hensley has compiled a complete index covering material in all BLR issues! (September 1925 - December 1978)
This monumental 422 page work was completed by scanning individual index documents, appending them into a single file and sorting them by keyword. It is fully searchable by keyword, making research a lot more effective. Thanks Chuck!
Find it by searching for Complete Index BLR
Go to the Complete BLR Index
Bell Laboratories Record articles
There are a lot of scans from Chuck Hensley's collection of BLR magazines in the Library.
You can easily navigate to the BLR folder by starting at "Browse the Library" in the menu bar and selecting Document Repository / Catalogs, Manuals... / Western Electric / Bell Labs Record.
HINT: A neat way to see articles on a topic in chronological order is to go to Search / Basic Search and enter a BLR subject query using a keyword or keywords describing a topic of interest. This is great for researching the evolution of products or services. For example:
- BLR Dialer
- BLR Picturephone
- BLR PBX
- BLR Payphone
- BLR Speakerphone
Experiment with other subject keywords.
(If you enter these queries in the search box in the upper right corner of the window, the results will be sorted with Newest additions first. You can change ordering to alphabetical to sort the results in chronological order.)
Ericsson Historical Documents
Product Catalogs from 1886-1976, LME Review issues from 1924-2003, annual reports, and other publications can be downloaded directly from the Ericsson site:
New User?
Read the articles under "Introduction" in the black menu bar above.
Recent Contributors
Thanks for new documents from Jim Hurtle, Ed Palazzo, Paul Fassbender, Bruce Patterson, Remco Enthoven, Jon Kolger, Paul Ivester, Len Hicken, Fred Haynes, Kurt Rudolph, Wade ("Kellogg KITT"), the Connections Museum, Rick Walsh, Jeff Lamb, Jeremy Walters, Alan David, Dennis Hock, and Tim Griffin.
Please send a file to add your name to this list!
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Hints for using the TCI Library
Three search options.
When browsing, to change the category listing view from normal to compact, click on Browse the Library in the black menu bar.
Telephone Collectors International was incorporated under the laws of the state of Kansas on May 13, 1986. The goal of the organization is "to educate the public, as well as the members of the Corporation, regarding the history of telephony, the value of old telephones and related items, their collectability and preservation; to research telephone history and publish and provide literature thereon; to promote the public exhibition of old telephones and related items; and to promote common courtesies and guidelines for use by the public." Telephone Collectors International is recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a 501(c)(3) organization, to which U.S. tax deductible contributions can be made.