Pictures of Automatic Electric Telephones

The following are representative pictures of Automatic Electric Telephones.

The Strowger company was formed in 1891, founded by Almon Strowger (inventor of the dial telephone and the Strowger Step by Step telephone switching system). In 1901 the name was changed to Automatic Electric. In 1957, General Telephone (later becoming GTE) purchased Automatic Electric but kept the name. In 1989, AT&T and Automatic Electric merged to form AGES. What was left of Automatic Electric is now part of Lucent Technologies. 

More complete versions of this list can be found at Collectorville.com, Vince's Cavalcade of Phones, Ericofon.com and Phoneco, Inc.

Webmaster's Note: We do NOT own any of these phones. We do NOT sell any of these phones. We find pictures on the Internet and show you what we find. Please do NOT ask us where to purchase these phones (hint: try eBay!).

Automatic Electric Model Number	Years Made & Notes
1 or 11	1925
1A or 11A	1925 to 1938 1A - Uses an inductor 11A - Uses a unique receiver and does not have an inductor coil, requires external subset
2 or 12	1925 to 1933 2 - Uses an inductor 12 - Uses a inductive coil receiver unit and does not have an inductor coil
3 or 13	1926 to 1934 Same wiring and setup as the 2 & 12
4, 14 or 17	1929 to 1930s. 4 - Common battery with inductor 14 - Common battery with inductive coil type receiver & no inductor 17 - Magneto operation
7 or 19	1930's 7  - Common battery 19 - Magneto operation - the inductors are different
8	1928
21	1920's - 1930's
34	1934-1938
35	1935-1937
40	1938-1956
43	1938-1950s
44	1938
47	1938 Three-Line phone
50	1938-1956
80	1954-1975 Very common deskphone, made to compete with Western Electric model 500 phones. Known colors: Black, White, Seafoam, Blue, Red, Green, Pink, Yellow, Beige, Ivory, Gray
80E	1975-1986 Successor to the AE 80 series. Both rotary and Touch Tone models were made.
83	1950's
88	Late 1950s Speakerphone version of AE 80 series.
90	1956-1973 Very common wall phone companion to AE 80 series. Known colors: Black, Yellow, Seafoam, Red, Beige, Ivory, Blue, Gray
182	1960 - ? "Starlite" desk series to compete with Western Electric "Princess" model Made in both rotary and Touch Tone models. Known colors: Seafoam, Blue, Pink, White, Beige, Black, Green, Blue, Aqua
183	1958-1983 "Spacemaker" series. Successor to AE 83 series.
192	Late 1970s, early 1980s. "Starlite" wall mount series, replaced the AE 90 series. Both rotary and Touch Tone models were made.
880	Late 1970s? Speakerphone, replaced 88T series. Both rotary and Touch Tone models were made. Known colors: Black, Beige, Green, Black, Ivory
980	Late 1970s to early 1980s? "Styleline" series to compete with Western Electric's "Trimline" series. Both rotary and Touch Tone models were made.