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Dumbest Phone Pic

Started by Adam, March 02, 2011, 02:28:58 AM

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Adam

Just spotted this on eBay.  Why would anyone put a sticker containing phone numbers you can dial on a phone that can't dial?
Adam Forrest
Los Angeles Telephone - A proud part of the global C*Net System
C*Net 1-383-4820

Dennis Markham

Maybe so they wouldn't have to memorize the number....assuming it was when the phone could still be used they could tell the operator what number to dial based upon what they read off the sticker.  Maybe?

Adam

Yes, if the number was your cousin Fred.  But the sticker holds the numbers for the Police and Fire Depts.  If you had a magneto phone, you also had an operator who knew those numbers, and you could just ring the phone and say, "Marge, get me Andy at the Police station!"  No?
Adam Forrest
Los Angeles Telephone - A proud part of the global C*Net System
C*Net 1-383-4820

Bill

Why would anyone post a picture of a filthy phone, without at least passing a soapy cloth over it?

Bill

GG



Good catch.  And oh yes, the seller wants about $250 for the pair, which suggests he was smoking "prescription blend" before he posted that. 

Those were very common in Canada.  Also magneto sets with dials, a rather strange combination that appears to be unique to Canada.   All of this was British Ericsson. 

The sticker:  pretty obviously it's original and IMO the point was to let you give those numbers to the Operator to put you through more quickly, particularly the numbers you typed in on the dashed lines.  I'd like to know more about the switching system those phones were connected to: I'm thinking it was some kind of auto/manual system where the for certain numbers in adjacent exchanges, the operator would connect you to a dial trunk and then dial the numbers. 

What has always struck me as weird about those phones is:  Why on Earth would Ericsson have issued a phone with a newer-style housing (similar to GEC 1000 or what I know as an Ericsson K-89) that was magneto only and *not* convertible to dial (no round blank that could be replaced with a dial)...?  Unlike their earlier magneto 332 variant that *was* convertible to dial.  And, there is not even a place on those to put a number label, unless by self-adhesive sticker in that square area where the dial blank should rightly have been mounted.  There's a wall set that has the same design oddities.  I've never figured that one out.  I think of it as a phone from a parallel universe where dials were never invented:-)

Adam

#5
Quote from: Bill on March 02, 2011, 10:13:59 AM
Why would anyone post a picture of a filthy phone, without at least passing a soapy cloth over it?

To be fair, the phone looks a little "less dirty" on eBay.  I enhanced the pic in photoshop to make the text on the label readable.  Doing so also made the dirt more visible.

It's amazing the details you can find hidden in some pics using Photoshop...
Adam Forrest
Los Angeles Telephone - A proud part of the global C*Net System
C*Net 1-383-4820

Sargeguy

#6
It's so they can call to find out if Prince Albert is in the can.
Greg Sargeant
Providence, RI
TCI /ATCA #4409

Babybearjs

let me see if I understand this. you have someone with a mag phone, which in turn rings into a CO???? and there is a sticker on the phone with some phone numbers so you can tell the "OPERATOR" who to DIAL???? Hmmm sounds pretty simple to me.....   John
John

Adam

Yes, but my point is:

The phone numbers listed on the sticker are for police and fire.  Shouldn't your local operator, the one who answers when you crank your magneto, know these numbers without you having to tell her?

After magnetos were replaced with dial systems, users were encouraged to dial the police and fire departments directly.  But even then, you could still dial "0" and ask the operator for the fire department, and she'd connect you right away.

But on a magneto system, you don't need to know those numbers, because Marge just puts you through...  So why put the numbers (that you can't dial, and can only quote to a person who already knows them) on a sticker on the phone?
Adam Forrest
Los Angeles Telephone - A proud part of the global C*Net System
C*Net 1-383-4820