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ATEA telephone, does anybody encountered this?

Started by mienaichizu, March 13, 2011, 11:07:07 AM

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mienaichizu

hey guys its been months since my last post and I think that was last year, hahaha!!!! ;D

by the way, yesterday I bought another phone that interests me. its an ATEA telephone. It seems to be a multi line phone/intercom. Does anybody encountered this brand of phones? it laso uses AE conponents on the handset.

GG



Nice find!  ATEA is Belgian Automatic Electric.  The components are similar but not exactly the same.  In the examples of ATEA I have, the dial does not have the pawl lifter so it makes a ratchety sound when wound up, and the receiver & transmitter components are different.

What you have there appears to be a 2-line phone with ten station intercom.  Notice the two small white buttons next to the lines marked A and B.  Those I'm quite sure are "hold release" buttons: when you switch back & forth between lines A and B, the line you are using is automatically put on hold using a mechanical linkage.  If you want to release the line or let someone else pick it up, you press the little round button. 

The fact that line C doesn't have a little round button tells me it's the intercom line, and of course the ten numbered buttons are for calling intercom stations. 

I'd be interested in seeing a picture of the interior of that one, having only seen outside pictures but not interior pictures. 

Go here and you'll see a Norwegian Ericsson (Elektrisk Bureau) that's equipped for four lines and 10 - 12 intercom stations.  I have one of these around somewhere.  Here's the URL in two parts, you have to copy and paste both parts into the same browser window to see this one. 

http://phonecoinc.com/topic.asp?

map=1&hhrl=home&gorl=group&group=barg&category=Bargain&topic=01045

Just above the dial are four red lights.  Above those are four Outside Line buttons, each with a Hold Release button next to it: rectangular line buttons, smaller round Hold Release buttons.  What you don't see in the photo is that each of the rectangular line buttons has a little round rod that slides up and down in a little round hole in it.  When the rod is down and the button is up, the line is held.  When you press a hold release button, the rod slides up so it is flush with the rest of the button.  This provides a clever mechanical means of visually indicating when a line is on hold. 

Behind those line buttons are intercom call buttons which if I recall correctly (it's been a while since I've looked at this one) are momentary-contact switches that simply operate buzzers.  Since all four of the line buttons can access outside lines, my guess is that the intercom channel is available to a station user when all of the line buttons are in the up position as shown. 

The dial on that one is numbered normally, and the handset is an Ericsson "Dialog" or 6-DLG handset.  I have not yet tried to trace out the wiring connections as the whole thing is rather complex internally. 

Anyway, the point is, the little round buttons as "Hold release" buttons were also used in Norway, which is what makes me think a similar mechanism is used on your phone there.  Except that I'd bet your line buttons were lit up when lines were ringing, on hold, or in use, and the ones on the Norwegian set only lit when the line was ringing.

One of these days we'll all hook up our odd key system phones and discover for certain how they work : - )

paul-f

Searching for ATEA in the TCI Library gets a few hits, including one of my personal favorite attention-getting phones, the ATEA Systeme 600.

Here are a few photos.
Visit: paul-f.com         WE  500  Design_Line

.

GG



I've never seen a gray one before (the "attention-getting" ATEA set). 

That would be 2 x 5:  the two CO line keys in red, with "cat's eye" indicators above them to show line in use status, and five intercom keys along the bottom. 

Those were made largely of cast metal and are quite heavy. 

mienaichizu

wow thanks for the info GG, I'll post the innards of this phone when I open it again

by the way, your new to the forum right? I'm Ramil from the Philippines

GG



Hi Ramil-  Yes, relatively new to the forums, but in the telephone systems industry (PBX) for > 25 years.  -G.

janverhelst

ATEA was a Belgian Telephone Manufacturing Company, founded in Antwerp, Belgium in 1892.
I wrote a 325 page book about it, but unfortunately for you in Dutch.
An English summary on the company's history can be found here:

http://home.scarlet.be/jan.verhelst/atea/atea_english.htm

The phone shown above is a phone from the 800 series , 2 million phones like this were built between 1964 and 1979 at the ATEA facilities. Later a production facility has been set up by GTE in Brazil who was manufactured this phone for the South American market.

The 800 series of phones were especially built for doctors, lawyers and small businesses, who needed an intercom facility, but also communication with the outside world. Several types were made i.e the simplest version was a 812, having 1 outside line and 2 internal lines (this type of phone was often also used as in a boss/secretary configuration in a PABX environment). Other variations did exist such as for example a 816, a 829 etc. When an incoming call was received one button was flashing and the one pushing that button, got the outside line. All the other phones could see that line was busy.
The phone is a marvellous example of a electromechanical design, existing of mechanical piece parts,  springs, buttons, contacts etc. The intelligence of the system was in the wiring. A lot of wires were running between the phones in the building. This phone has been sold worldwide. Typical customers were PTT's who were offering this equipment to their customers.
Predecessor of this system was the 600 (built from 1949 until 1965) and the successor was the 8000 (1970s and early 1980s), which was built with electronic components and custom designed IC's, soon followed by the 8800 (AKA as Rhapsody in the UK) which was a software controlled system.
Atea was part of Automatic Electric since 1926, and became also member of the GTE group. A major breaktrough happened in the 1970s and 1980s when they could cover most of the international market of telephony for GTE.
In 1986 GTE decided to sell ATEA to Siemens, a German Company. In 1999 ATEA was fully integrated in Siemens Telecom. Siemens Telecom on its term started to set up joint ventures with other parties, outsourced a lot of activities to third parties, so basically there is in 2011 not much left over from the "native" Siemens Telecom.

Jan Verhelst



janverhelst

I forgot to mention, the type on the picture is a 829.

dsk

#8
I do not believe this ATEA telephones are interesting for many ou our members, but I just found this page
http://www.kulentuur.be/ateamuseum/atea_op_internet/telefoons_jan/1955_system600_cat.jpg


when I was looking for more info about a Norwegian add.  2 such telephones + some intercom for NOK 500 or about $64  if someone is interested:
https://www.finn.no/bap/forsale/ad.html?finnkode=112638739


dsk