News:

"The phone is a remarkably complex, simple device,
and very rarely ever needs repairs, once you fix them." - Dan/Panther

Main Menu

dressed or undressed?

Started by gpo706, March 06, 2011, 05:11:18 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

gpo706

Nice Euro looking set, it has an elaborate cover with what looks like a PTT design incorporated with a bugle/horn woven in, so - up to you - nicer dressed or naked?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Grey-plastic-rotary-dial-telephone-decorative-cover-/370488960110?pt=UK_Collectables_RadioTelevision_Telephony_SM&hash=item5642dce46e ( dead link 03-23-21 )



"now this should take five minutes, where's me screwdriver went now..?"

RDP

I like it both ways. I wonder what a Western Electric 302 would look like with cloths on? A tuxedo maybe  appropriate.
Now you've given me ideas!

GG



That's the Spanish (Telefonica) version of the standard German set, probably made by Spanish Standard Electric, which was an ITT subsidiary.  The way to tell is by looking at the dial: the spacing on the solid side of the fingerwheel matches Western Electric, rather than having the larger amount of space as found on the German version; and the fingerstop in brass is very clearly Telefonica from the 1960s.  If I'm not mistaken, the dial mechanism is similar to a WE#9 or equivalent as used on the Princess phone.

Go to images.google.com  and keyword search "telefonica telefono" without the quotation marks, and it will be the first picture that comes up.  However in the one pictured, the fingerstop is plain metal and the dial label is a generic Telefonica label. 

There are some pics of a very cool Telefonica payphone here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nite_owl/with/408670214/

That thing isn't much larger than a conventional US wallphone.  It takes phone tokens rather than regular coins, so it probably didn't need to be heavily armored.  The swoopy looking chrome strip in the front is the coin channel.  The way that worked was, you inserted as many phone tokens as you liked, and you'd see them in a queue in the coin channel.  As your conversation continued, "metering pulses" from the CO would activate a solenoid that ate one coin (or token as the case may be) at a time (faster for long distance calls, slower for local calls).  Thus if you saw you only had one or two tokens left in the channel, you could stuff more into the slot to get more time.  When the last one was eaten, you'd hear some kind of tone signal as a last reminder before the call was cut off.  Or if you had put in a bunch of tokens but didn't talk for very long, then when you hung up the receiver, the ones that remained in the channel would be returned.   Very clever system, was used in many parts of Europe and by their trading partners in other parts of the world. 

bingster

I hate to admit it, but I like it with the covering on it.
= DARRIN =



Dan

"Imagine how weird telephones would look if our ears weren't so close to our mouths." - Steven Wright

DavePEI

The Telephone Museum of Prince Edward Island:
http://www.islandregister.com/phones/museum.html
Free Admission - Call (902) 651-2762 to arrange a visit!
C*NET 1-651-0001

GG



Judging from the dial center, that example came out of a PBX installation probably in the UK.  That or it's a truly weird fake dial center. 

The covering does have a certain charm, and even looks vaguely psychedelic.  Now if we really wanted to "go there," we'd be looking for a paisley covering for the Swiss phone that would have been in use in 1942.  Hmm, I have a Swiss phone here; it's just a couple of decades too late for that era.  Hmm.... : - )