French hanging phone

[Jack Ryan]

The 1992 book I'm referring to is titled "Téléphones d'hier et d'aujourd'hui" published by Editions de l'Est.

I think I have seen one or perhaps two phones that might have been made with the receiver on the right. However, I have only seen these in books that were printed up to 100 years after the phone existed. The phones had been refurbished.

With some of these phones, there is no definite "front" so it is difficult to say which way round they went. A catalogue or some other contemporary image might give a definitive result. In the mean time I'll just say that phones with the receiver on the right are extremely rare.

I am aware that the correct term for the extra earpiece is écouteur but I chose to use the common English term, though I realize it is technically incorrect.    (Je dois ajouter que je suis francophone.)

This mother-in-law stuff is hard to shake. Here is what the extra receiver was called in several languages (from catalogues):

Language   Name
English      Extra or Auxiliary Receiver
French      Récepteur auxiliaire ou 2ème récepteur
German      Zusatzhörer
Swedish      Extra hörtelefon

Even so, the term mother-in-law (suitably translated) found its way into quite a few languages.

Getting back to the phone, I took off the bottom this morning to see about turning the main shaft to put the receiver on the left. After seeing the maze of wires, and no obvious way to remove all of that to access whatever secures the shaft to the base, I decided to leave well enough alone.

Good move

Regards
Jack