What Is the Dial on this 302 type Phone?

[SUnset2]

I've never seen anything like this.  Does anyone know what it is?  It looks like it is marked 410AA3 on the bottom.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/UNUSUAL-ANTIQUE-TELEPHONE-PHONE/264640979618?hash=item3d9dd4e2a2:g:mqIAAOSw9IJeTdoD
( dead link 06-02-21 )

[countryman]

It resembles the WE pulldown prototype on Paul-F.com, but the numbers are arranged in a different way. It looks original and very unusual, maybe a different prototype?



EDIT to add link:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/UNUSUAL-ANTIQUE-TELEPHONE-PHONE/264640979618

[tubaman]

Very cool - If it were in the UK I'd be bidding on it!

[HarrySmith]

First guess would be an intercom but looking closer I am not sure. I don't see how that dial would work.

[countryman]

Intercom is a good hint. While I can see how the prototype on paul-f.com adapts a regular dial, this is impossible here. It would require that the 0 is in the top position with maximum travel of the pulldown drum.
But very well contacts of an intercom could be switched by the shown mechanism. So I guess Harry is right, an intercom.

[LarryInMichigan]

I think that this another prototype.  The seller is in New Jersey in the Bell Labs area.  There would be no need for letters on an intercom dial.  This phone will likely sell for plenty.

Larry

[tubaman]

Intercom is a good hint. While I can see how the prototype on paul-f.com adapts a regular dial, this is impossible here. It would require that the 0 is in the top position with maximum travel of the pulldown drum.
But very well contacts of an intercom could be switched by the shown mechanism. So I guess Harry is right, an intercom.

Good point about the number positions. My initial thoughts were that this would work like a Siemens Trommelwahler, which essentially has a normal dial mounted on its side, but it can't with the numbers as they are. LarryInMichigan has correctly pointed out that an intercom dial wouldn't need the letters, so this is a bit of a mystery.
A prototype in form rather than function perhaps?

Whichever way I expect it'll sell for a good amount.

[phonium]

I vote prototype. It has very high resemblance to the "pull down" prototype on paul-f.com. And even if it was an intercom - how would it work then?

[countryman]

When the drum is pulled down it reaches different positions according to each number, closing different switches  ---> connection made as an intercom. Next question would be how a call is made, intercoms usually have a button to actually call the selected station.

Next wild guess, it might be a toy! I mentioned a toy version of the Siemens&Halske Trommelwähler some time ago. This one is inoperable, but there also were many versions of operable toy phones made. Obviously some of them also copied designs of "less common" models.
The toy Trommelwähler was made by (German) Geobra Brandstätter, still in the toy business ("Playmobil").

[Doug Rose]

I asked seller for pics of the inside.  Not sure if the dial, for lack of a better choice of words, is broken. Plungers are stuck, really looks like it was just tossed after whatever was done. ...Doug

[HarrySmith]

I do not see any way that "dial" could function at all. The fingerwheel appears to be bent & stuck in there. Pictures of the inside would reveal a lot. I was going to ask for them but now I don't have to.

[Key2871]

That's a German phone, you pull the numbers to dial. Quite valuable.

[HarrySmith]

That's a German phone, you pull the numbers to dial. Quite valuable.

Countryman's photo is a toy of the German phone. I was referring to the 302 type thing under discussion.

[Key2871]

Oh that's a toy?? Oh that's cool, I saw the jagged edge on the upper part of the dial. But that would be cool to have to go along with the toy princess and trimline phone..

[countryman]

It's still on ebay (not mine!). 157 € is not a bargain...
https://www.ebay.de/itm/113914987771