Sumter transmitter on a Holtzer-Cabot rope shaft and base

Holtzer-Cabot manufactured telephone parts for a lot of different telephone producers. One of Holtzer-Cabot's very first uprights was a giant rope shaft. The Sumter Telephone Manufacturing Company acquired that very same rope shaft to use for their early "Imperial" transmitter. This is the result and it is a magnificent, completely original and very rare telephone. It even uses the Holtzer-Cabot outside terminal receiver sitting on a Holtzer-Cabot switch hook. The Sumter transmitter is unusual and one of its earliest.