Siemens cobra?

[dsk]

this just popped up on another forum:

with  a question about price.

Never seen this before.

dsk

[teka-bb]

I can't afford it....

[dsk]

  But I want it.

dsk

[teka-bb]

But I want it.

dsk

Get in line and bring plenty of cash.....

[Wallphone]

I have only seen one of these on eBay. My pictures are dated 4-5-09.
It went for $3605 and it had a damaged area where the receiver cap screwed on.
Dougpav

[Jim Stettler]

I have only seen one of these on eBay. My pictures are dated 4-5-09.
It went for $3605 and it had a damaged area where the receiver cap screwed on.
Dougpav

The one I saw on Ebay  went for something like $2200. It did not have the subset. I think it was probably in 2008.
Jim

[McHeath]

I have only seen these in pictures online, but they certainly have a unique look and seem to go for high prices. 

[GG]

Siemens made only a few hundred of those; they were a trial model in the same manner as the first batch of 1949 WE 500s.  However Siemens decided against producing them because:

When you are in a Strowger exchange or similar (German "rotary" exchanges, about which I know almost nothing), you won't hear the reorder tone if you reach a busy selector, so you'll try to keep on dialing which at minimum wastes your time and may cause the switch to malfunction. 

When you need to put the phone down on the table in the midst of a conversation for whatever reason, you'll be tempted to put it down in its normal resting position, thereby disconnecting your call.

If the phone isn't placed on a flat surface, for example halfway on a stack of papers, the hookswitch could operate and go off hook.

If the phone is inadvertently knocked over, it will also go off hook and you may not notice it (for example after dark).

And any time you pick it up to move it, you'll go off hook.

All those spurious off-hook events will of course operate linefinders and possibly tie up first selectors, which would be a no-no particularly in the more spartan designs of European switching systems that were designed for lighter traffic loads than US switches. 

So for all those reasons, Siemens decided against making those after the initial trial had concluded.  They are about as rare as anything you are ever likely to see, and the price reflects that. 

Meanwhile, Ericsson, either unknowing of Siemens' experience, or acting regardless of it due to changes in the times between the 30s and late 50s, went ahead with the Ericofon, and the rest as they say is history.   (Personally I don't like the nickname "cobra" because those darn snakes are poisonous as h---.  I always said Ericofons looked kinda' like periscopes.  Now a periscope is usually attached to something pretty deadly too, namely a submarine, but if it's one of *our* submarines it's a good thing and it isn't likely to bite you.)