CITESA? “Gondola” trimline style phone ringer issues

[G-Man]

As I had previously stated, CITESA was an ITT company and was part of their Standard Electric group. However, other than the outward cosmetic styling, the Gondola was not a WECo or ITT (U.S.) clone of their respective Trimline^® or Trendline^® instruments as has been inferred in this thread's subject line.

As far as the ringing is concerned, I suspect that it may have been possible that it is resonate with the 50 Hz ringing frequency that was still being used by some European operating companies when it was first introduced for sale, but perhaps not or they had already started to transition to 25 Hz and other lower frequencies by then, so I will leave it up to the European collectors to comment.
Also, the instrument shown in the subsequent photos is equipped with a dial that seems to be for use in the North American market.

The 1.9K Ohm marking on the ringer coil indicates that it is still lower in resistance than comparable U.S. ringers that were manufactured in the same time period, hence the need for an external resistor to alleviate the loading characteristics as may be found on longer rural lines in the U.S. As far as the 12K marking, I am not aware as to what it signifies.

Also, I will attempt to include a screen-shot of a similar ringer that was used in a CITESA deskset. Note that it has two gongs and the hammer was positioned between the two and struck them alternately. Are the gongs on the Gondola properly adjusted?

ISTR that the Gondola was first introduce by ITT's Italian subsidiary in the 1960s. At the time ITT (U.S.) tried to flog them off on North American telephone companies but most took one look at their internal construction and returned them to the salesman the next time he made a sales call.

UPDATE: here are a few excerpts from comments made by noted telecom historian Herbert Schwarz-

"I stumbled across what at first appeared to be a cheap copy of the W.E. Trimline^®, namely a phone named "Gondola^®" from Spain.
Further research into the matter revealed that the Gondola^® was an IT&T style
Tr[end]line^®, manufactured by the Spanish IT&T associate company "CITESA" (La
Compañía Internacional de Telecomunicación y Electrónica, SA), located in the city of Malaga.

"CITESA was founded in 1961, and a factory built in Malaga, Spain, which appears to have taken up production on 2 December 1964 with the goal of an annual output of 750,000 phones. The firm started with 20 directors, 162 technicians and 499 regular employees, of which 383 were direct employees of CITESA. Most of the telephones to be manufactured were intended for export. In the 1970's, CITESA had over 2,000 employees.

Although CITESA built phones primarily for export, the Gondola^® was extensively used by the Spanish national telephone company "CTNE" (Compañía Telefónica Nacional de España), which is simply known as "Telefónica" today."

Earlier AC Ringing Voltage Frequencies:
50 Hz +/- 2 Hz (France)
20 Hz (North America
50 Hz (UK)

[TelePlay]

Also, the instrument shown in the subsequent photos is equipped with a dial that seems to be for use in the North American market.

The red phone with a dial shown later

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=26816.msg259379#msg259379

is not the topic's subject phone. The subject phone appears to be white but no images of the phone handset, base or bottom were posted.

[G-Man]

Though it is difficult to tell from the poor quality photograph of the wiring diagram, the resistor appears to be 5.6K Ohms, which seems to be rather high considering that a standard C4 ringer has an entire total resistance of 3.6K Ohms. If this set is being used with an ATA, either the elimination or reduction of its value may be in order. And as previously mentioned, adjustment of the gongs may also be in order.

[FABphones]

Though it is difficult to tell from the poor quality photograph of the wiring diagram...

The wiring diagram (reply 7) looks ok to me. Click on the image to expand.

[TelePlay]

Though it is difficult to tell from the poor quality photograph of the wiring diagram . . .

Did you click on the thumbnail image in Reply #7 to expand it to its full jpeg size?

I find that image quite clear and detailed right down to a few fly specs.

[bdoss2006]

So is this ringer for sure a different frequency and probably not going to work on American phone lines? If so I guess I should just let it not ring. I don't know if I'd ever find a ringer that would work would I?

[markosjal]

So is this ringer for sure a different frequency and probably not going to work on American phone lines? If so I guess I should just let it not ring. I don't know if I'd ever find a ringer that would work would I?

What are you ringing it with? Many ATAs allow the adjustment of ring frequency. You might want to test it at High Ring power (if available) and 25 Hz Ringing.

[markosjal]

BTW If someone wants one, I have one here that is accepting offers.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/265401303406

If you are interested you should call my Antique phone line to get a "better than eBay" price
+1 360 553 0134 This rings on My super special antique line so I will have some idea what it is about. Your call will be answered on any one of my many antique phones. I still have not figured out how to get a dang text on one of these old phone so please no texts.

[countryman]

It is definitely not a "frequency ringer" with a sharp resonance. It should work on a wide range of frequencies.

[markosjal]

More info on these "Góndola" phones here
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=26816.0
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=24789.0
http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=26257.0

Although the following document is about Siemens Trimlines (made by Western Electric) it talks extensively about the Citesa Góndola
https://www.telephonecollectors.info/index.php/browse/historian-s-corner/tales-from-vienna/13757-a-different-kind-of-manhatten-project/file