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Polish Fingerwheel

Started by markosjal, August 19, 2019, 05:50:20 PM

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markosjal

ok look at that fingerwheel.

Doing all I can to avoid a Pollack joke here.

It is a Polish phone.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/1980s-Retro-Vintage-Polish-Telkom-RWT-Bratek-Rotary-Dial-Telephone-Phone-Green/362692303889 ( dead link 06-05-21 )

Phat Phantom's phreaking phone phettish

RB

just hold on, the jokes will come...

Jack Ryan

It might have been made in Poland under license but it is an ITT (Standard Electric) dial.

They made other ITT dials as well - many were used in variants of the Assistant.

The first Strowger dial of 1895 also had open "finger slots".

Jack

countryman

I also see those interesting RWT phones offered from Bulgaria or Ukraine on ebay, at high prices and even higher shipping costs.
Often garnished with words like "soviet spy phone" or the like. Don't think they were that...
But I like some of the designs! At least something different. Nice when someone cares to collect them.
There will be some good polish jokes for sure, but jokes about nationalities... no thanks. The pun sure is on the nice side :-)

Jack Ryan

Quote from: countryman on August 20, 2019, 02:34:48 AM
But I like some of the designs! At least something different. Nice when someone cares to collect them.

I think they are fantastic! The technology is often Western but the artistic expression in the case designs and colours is original and better than many Western designs.

Jack

Dan/Panther

The only thing I don't care for,  the design of the finger stop. It's used a lot, or something similar, mainly on Non North American phones.

D/P

The More People I meet, The More I Love, and MISS My Dog.  Dan Robinson

HarrySmith

I seem to recall a thread a while back about these fingerwheels. There was talk about how your fingers could slide out. I think it may have been from Fab?
Harry Smith
ATCA 4434
TCI

"There is no try,
there is only
do or do not"

tubaman

I have a GEC 1200 with a spoked dial that I picked up some years ago. It's pretty much a GPO 706 copy bar the dial.
The dial has a deep shroud to stop your fingers from slipping out.
I've never seen another in the flesh although the 1100 and 1200 type are on Bob Freshwaters's site but only with brochure pictures - https://www.britishtelephones.com/gec/tel61k.htm
:)

FABphones

Quote from: HarrySmith on August 20, 2019, 01:25:52 PM
I seem to recall a thread a while back about these fingerwheels. There was talk about how your fingers could slide out. I think it may have been from Fab?

Western Electric Spoked Fingerwheels are mentioned on paul-f's site:
http://www.paul-f.com/weproto.html#OpenFW

And here on this CRPF thread
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=10609
A red version of the Polish - Bratek - phone. Like the GEC, it appears to have a nice deep recess:
A collector of  'Monochrome Phones with Sepia Tones'   ...and a Duck!
***********
Vintage Phones - 10% man made, 90% Tribble
*************

HarrySmith

Thanks Fab. I knew I read something about fingers slipping out of that type fingerwheel!
Harry Smith
ATCA 4434
TCI

"There is no try,
there is only
do or do not"

countryman

#10
I found this polish collector's site on the Bratek and other polish phones:
http://telesfor99.org/telefony-modele/bratek/

Chrome translates it fairly well, except that the word "camera" means "telephone set"... (happens when translating both to german and english)

Jack Ryan

Quote from: countryman on September 03, 2019, 03:07:11 PM
I found this polish collector's site on the Bratek and other polish phones:
http://telesfor99.org/telefony-modele/bratek/

Chrome translates it fairly well, except that the word "camera" means "telephone set"... (happens when translating both to german and english)

Unfortunately when I click the link I get lots of balloons and excitement because of something I didn't read before reversing out at a great rate of knots.

Does that happen to others as well or am I the only special visitor?

Thanks
Jack

Jack Ryan

Interesting that I had already recorded the root URL (home page) and that gave me no problems. Selecting "bratek" from the home page caused no problems either. I went back to the original link and there was no problem this time.

I assume there is a random redirection in place but I have never seen it from the home page or after following any of the links.

Weird.

Jack

countryman

I had the same thing happen from time to time clicking links to random (legit) websites. As far as I understand it's a fraud called "ad cloaking"? Someone manages to redirect random queries to his own fraudulent site. It should be harmless as long as you do not follow further links.
The linked site seems legit to me.

KaiserFrazer67

#14
Thanks, markosjal, for sharing information on this very cool Polish phone.
I've seen for sale on the 'Net some very beautiful 1930's phones from Poland which survived WW2.  They look like former government phones, and Ericsson clones at that.  (Ericsson did have a factory in Warszawa (Warsaw) before the war.)  Would such phones, including the newer one you have posted, work properly on U.S. POTS landlines?  Being of Polish descent myself, I've thought about investing in a couple of these phones as ethnic heritage items, but I'd really like them to function properly.  I would think the pre-war phones would be the same as most pre-war Ericssons.  Not sure about post-war phones, either.  I do see quite a few Communist-era phones from Poland (and other former Soviet-bloc countries) up for sale on eBay, but I'm always leery of purchasing one.

[EDIT:  I've included a few photos of some of the pre-war Polish telephones I'd mentioned, just to illustrate:]
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