Model 302 telephone

New concepts of design and economic efficiency emerged in Europe, as well as in the independent market in the US, in the 1920s, which combined all components of the telephone in one desk-top unit.

The base was supported by four felt- or leather-covered triangular feet attached under each corner to prevent scratching furniture surfaces.

The housing sat atop the base, secured with screws, and contained the rotary dial and a handset cradle.

The housing was originally cast from a zinc alloy until production sets were increasingly made from a thermoplastic material, Tenite, by 1941.

[5] Requests for custom colors could also be fulfilled, including the traditional dark gold, statuary bronze, old brass, and oxidized silver hues.

Beginning in August 1955 and extending into the 1960s, the Bell System remanufactured the 302 as the type 5302 in its distribution center work shops, with a newly designed housing and eventually with the G-type handset of the 500-type telephone, which gave the set a similar appearance to the 500.

Conversion kits using a 302-style housing and F1 handset to replace older manual candlestick telephones with an external subset were available.

Western Electric 302 telephone with a thermoplastic case
The Ericsson model DBH 1001 of 1931 may have been an influence on the later Model 302 design.
1948 Western Electric 302 telephone set that was refurbished amidst post-war equipment shortages with an older style handset (E1) and installed on a line of the Newark, NJ, exchange "BIgelow", the last existing Panel office when it was dismantled in 1983.
A 1945 Federal Telephone & Radio Type 803, a clone of the 302 using Automatic Electric components for military applications