Hi All,

A few months ago in the dead of the cold weather, I went on an "urban prospecting" expedition inside an old building that was about to be demolished, and found a few old telephones. Nothing special, no neat key or PBX gear, just some old key phones and a nifty 500 in bright but dusty yellow. I am now in the process of cleaning and bringing the 500 back to life, (it works electronically and mechanically), and the place where I liberated it from was damp. Thankfully the base was not a rust bucket, but the cord near the wall end is stained with what I believe is mold. I scrubbed the cord in the dish washer and by hand, but cannot get the stains out of the vinyl covering. I hate to replace it as it is an original "fat" three wire with both ends intact and has the little closed eyelet on the telephone end to keep it from pulling out.

Any suggestions would be most appreciated.

Thank you much,

Joe H

Real comms took 200lb teletypes, hand keys, sounders, operators and cranked phones!