For a long time, Stromberg-Carlson was a company proud of its record of innovation. They came up with a true network circuit in their model 1243, a full two years before Western Electric's 1949 introduction of their first network circuit in their model 500.
Stromberg-Carlson thus decided that they could make an effective competitor to the 500 with a minimum of investment, by doing little more than a facelift and some minor circuit tweaks on the 1243. The result was their model 1543, which was externally very similar in appearance and functionality to the Western Electric 500, but on the inside, it was little more than a repackaged 1243.
Still, the 1543 shared many similarities with the 500, and it even used Western Electric's T1 transmitter and U1 receiver element designs. Later, they would even copy the Western Electric 425B network circuit in their "new and improved" 1543WA models.
However, as time went on, Stromberg Carlson found that their longtime archrival, ITT/Kellogg, was successfully stealing market share from them with their copy-cat K-500. Finally, in 1966, Stromberg-Carlson threw in the towel, and decided to follow ITT/Kellogg's lead, signing a licensing agreement with Western Electric to produce copy-cat 500's, too.
With this development, almost ALL of the telephone manufacturers were now making nearly identical 500's, with the exception of Automatic Electric, who would remain the last hold-out.
After the introduction of the S-C 500 series, Stromberg-Carlson also introduced "New Image" conversion kits, consisting of new housings and handsets designed to fit the old 15xx series and make them look even more like the 500 on the outside. On the inside, however, these retrofitted S-C 1500-series phones retained all the old components, and because of that, demand for newer, superior S-C 500's continued to outpace the demand for 1500 New Image conversions.
As with the ITT/Kellogg K-500, the parts in the S-C 500 were virtually indistinguishable from the Western Electric 500, except for the brand and markings on them. They used metal-framed ringers (C4A and frequency) made by United States Instrument Company (USI), whom they had acquired in the late 1950's. Initially, Stromberg-Carlson used #7-type dials sourced from Northern Electric in their S-C 500's, but by 1968, they began producing their own #9-type dials. At around this same time, Northern Electric shifted from #7-type dials to their own model QSD1A dials. OUT OF CURIOSITY, IS THE QSD1A DIAL LIKE THE #9 DIAL?
As with ITT/Kellogg, production changes in the S-C 500 sets tended to mirror those of Western Electric. After 1970, however, they introduced a few production changes of their own, including a different color palette, shifting from potted networks to printed circuit networks, using plastic ringer frames instead of metal ones, and self-tapping screws instead of metal screws and inserts to hold the housing onto the bases.
In 1982, General Dynamics, who had owned Stromberg-Carlson since the 1950's, sold the telephone manufacturing operations of Stromberg-Carlson, including their factory in Charlottesville, Virginia, to Comdial Corporation. Comdial continued to make the 500 set until 1991, when they sold their "single line" phone product line to ITT/Cortelco, who destroyed it all. IS THIS CORRECT????
Comdial gradually sold off the storied Charlottesville facility, and went bankrupt in May 2005. In September of that same year, the remaining assets of the company were bought by Vertical. IS THIS CORRECT? WHEN EXACTLY DID THEY SELL THE CHARLOTTESVILLE FACILITY????
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