Two Phones in One Night - Kristian Kirks - Pictures Posted

[LarryInMichigan]

I couldn't resist this one:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=220538723786
despite the high shipping fee.  A few years ago, I lived about 10 miles from the seller, and I could have picked it up there.

Larry

[HobieSport]

Wow Larry, what a great phone at a great price! I'm envious. I've never seen one before. I really like the shape, and the brass handset rings and dial. The inside looks really good too. I'll look forward to seeing your pics and reports of it cleaned up and working.

[Greg G.]

Interesting how they arranged the letters.

[LarryInMichigan]

The phone really is quite interesting and somewhat different.  I like variety.  Also, I have an old friend who was born and raised in Copenhagen, so I am anxious to call her with it.  She will probably be able to translate any Danish text that is printed in the phone.  I am sure that she has seen these phones during her youth.

Larry

[dsk]

Nice.
The hook-switch looks quite complex, Could you please post a photo of the wiring diagram?

Theletters are probably equal to what we use in Norway, since our language are quite similar.

My guess is: K= Ringer, EK= External ringer, M=Microphone, T=Receiver  L1/L2= Tip/Ring etc.

dsk

[Doug Rose]

Larry...its a beauty!. The brass will shine on this. Nice find!....Doug

[ntophones]

That is a very nice phone! Congrats!

[LarryInMichigan]

nto,

Thank you.  I figure that, if you can have a phone with brass, I can too.

I can't wait to get this one.  The seller sent me a message saying that it would be shipped no later than the 20th, so it might be next week.

Larry

[bingster]

Look at Larry, with the great phone scores today!  I think that's a beaut, Larry.  I don't believe I've ever seen that KTAS base before.  Very nice.

[LarryInMichigan]

The phone arrived 1/2 hour ago, and I have just started to examine it.  Here are the first observations:

1)  The phone (and packaging) smell of cigar tobacco.
2)  The phone was made by Kristian Kirks Telefonfabriker.
3)  The wiring diagram on the base shows "F 51" and Jan 54.
4)  There is a push-to-talk button in the handset.
5)  The ringer works.
6)  The dial returns VERY quickly when released, and it pulses once too many times (eg. for '1', it pulses twice, for '9' ten times).

I hope to do some cleanup and post pictures in the next 2-3 days.  In the mean time, does anyone know why the dial would behave the way it does?  it appears to be working as designed.  Is it possible that this phone was made to work on some special system?

Larry

[LarryInMichigan]

I finally have the Danish phone working.  The dial did not work properly (it always mis-dialed), so I fiddled with it for a while, cleaning and bending pieces, and it now seems to be dialing correctly.  I thought that the push-to-talk button would be a useful feature, but I am finding it to be more trouble than it is worth, so I plan to rearrange the wiring in the handset a bit to bypass it.  The shell did not polish as well as I had hoped.  The bakelite is just not very black.  I applied shoe polish and then carnuba wax, but I am somewhat disappointed at the results.  I managed to recoil the cord by wrapping it around a hangar and letting it sit atop a hot heater for a while, then placing it outside in the freezing cold weather.

Larry

[Craig T]

Nice turnout Larry! I would like to try this out on the F1 handset I have to brighten it back up.

[Phonesrfun]

Interesting dial plate with the C over the "1", and then different lettering sequences from there.

-Bill

[LarryInMichigan]

The phone is Danish and was probably made to be used in Denmark, hence the lettering.  BTW, I should have mentioned that the brass on the finger wheel is actually a thin brass overlay which sits over a clear plastic finger wheel.  Also, the dial used to return VERY quickly, so I moved a spring on the governor, and that brought down the dial speed to normal.  Apparently, the governor was designed to be adjustable.

Larry

[dsk]

Not much info about "Telefonapparat F51" on the net, but it was delivered with both 10 and 20 pulses pr second dials.

dsk