I guess this means that I'm old too...

[Ed D]

The true test for old age...

[Russ Kirk]

Geeze!  Thanks for making me feel like a Geezer!  Where did I leave my cane?  I gotta whack someone! <grin>

[Owain]

Hah. That's a (approximation of a) 1959 No. 7 Kiosk.

The 1936 Sir Giles Gilbert Scott No. 6 Kiosk is where it's at.

I wonder if they'll ever make a VoIP phone with the authentic kiosk smell of stale wee ...

[GG]

The design looks more US to me than UK, particularly because the roof is flat and the windows use larger panes. 

I swear to God, if I ever manage to end up running a rural telco, I'll bring back the darn telephone booths, and proper postpay phones to go in 'em.  Even if I have to equip them with cameras to catch possible vandals and so on. 

Phone booths were part of the "public commons" provided by a civilized culture.  Nowadays it's all the Ayn Randian fantasy of "every man an island" and "you're on your own, bub" and "I've got mine, Jack," that makes for a cold, cruel, nasty, and gratuitously mean culture.  For example instead of providing a social safety net to prevent homelessness, we pay a comparable sum to retrofit bus stop benches so it's impossible to lie down on them (to sleep).  The edges and ledges of public buildings are routinely equipped with spike strips that make it impossible to even sit.  Public water fountains have disappeared, and in some places, parking meters work on a "bid" system where the rate goes up when more parking spaces are filled (the meters use a mesh network to figure it out).  Next will go the public libraries and don't even get me started about the attacks on public schools and teachers.  The loss of the phone booths was emblematic of this entire attitude. 

And I even remember when the 3-slot phones were in common use, and a phone call cost 10-cents. 

[AE_Collector]

The design looks more US to me than UK, particularly because the roof is flat and the windows use larger panes.

BN 400 .....

This one is parked on my back patio in BC Telephone (GTE) colors.

Below it is the "All Glass" version more like the cartoon one above.

More pictures here:

http://s21.photobucket.com/albums/b273/AE_Collector/Pay%20Phone%20Booths%20and%20Enclosures/

Terry

[GG]

Terry:  Oh yes, the ones with the writing shelves so you could take notes while on the phone. 

Seems to me there is an inherent contradiction in the design of phone booths: they need to be usable from both a standing position and from a wheelchair.  So the answer to that is to provide a seat that would pull out for most users, but automatically self-stow so it's not in the way when someone rolls up in a wheelchair.  (Disability access: it's not just the law, it's a tradition in the industry!)  Some indoor booths were thusly equipped, most outdoor booths weren't. 

Then there's the problem of vandalism, including the particular species of sociopath who used phone booths as public urinals.  This could be solved for small telcos by placing three hidden cameras in each booth, strategically located, the top two to get the offender's face and the lowest one to get the pictures that would hopefully bring guilty pleas to avoid the embarrassment of having them shown in open court.  In any case the booths have to be made of material that resists corrosion, and can be washed out with a high-pressure hose.

So it occurs to me, phone booths should be teamed up with enhanced porta-potties and street litter/recycling containers, all of which could be built into a unified design somewhat large in size but welcome for its comprehensive facilities, with visible cameras outside and hidden ones in the phone booth, offering no excuse for litter-louts to trash up the street or for other types of idiots to "mark their turf."  To this add a wireless internet hot spot, and install it where there's enough space for a covered picnic bench, and what you have is an instant micro rest stop: an exercise in treating the public with kindness and respect (though the cameras imply, per Ronald Reagan, "trust but verify"!).  In areas where power was an issue, an extra telco cable pair could provide DC with which to run basic LED lighting, and a small photovoltaic panel on the roof and battery concealed in the litter bin assembly, could provide enough juice for additional lighting when people were present. 

"Somewhere, over the rainbow, blue birds fly...."

[Ed D]

And the sad saga continues...

[AE_Collector]

In areas where power was an issue, an extra telco cable pair could provide DC with which to run basic LED lighting, and a small photovoltaic panel on the roof and battery concealed in the litter bin assembly, could provide enough juice for additional lighting when people were present.  

We had battery packs in some booths that were to supply power to coin phones that needed local power to make them work such as Nortel Milennium's. The battery packs (a UPS really) was used in booths that didn't have 24 hour AC feeding them such as booths powered off of parking lot lights that were on timers or daylight sensors etc. The backup power was just for the phone, not the lights.

We primarily used these battery packs in Jaro 800 booths (picture below) as it had a space up in the "attic". There was a plastic light diffuser that formed a complete ceiling in the booth with lights, protector, AC circuit breaker, signage and sometimes battery packs all up above the diffuser. While these booths weren't real nostalgic looking I think they were a very well built, appealing looking and well designed booth. They were made in Canada so I'm assuming they didn't see too much action in the USA but you still see quantities of them throughout Canada.

The lower colored panels could be ordered in any color to match the operating company's colors or they could be ordered with clear panels on the bottom like the upper main panels. One thing fairly unique as compared to other manufacturers booths was the extra large header signs on all four sides at the top that was very well illuminated by the booth lights.

Terry

[GG]

Very nice.  Do they still make those?

Only thing I'd do differently would be to use transparent panels at the bottom also.  Opaque panels only provide cover for people using the booths as urinals, whereas transparent panels would discourage that.

I bet you find it difficult to believe that people could be so barbaric as to pee in phone booths.  On the other hand your health care system up there works, whereas ours is dying of flea anemia (look it up). 

The only reason I was thinking about photovoltaics and batteries is to enable siting the "micro rest stop" fixtures in places where grid power isn't available.  Otherwise, with LED lighting, basic lights for a sign (red LEDs) and for seeing the phone itself (white) could be powered by the central office over a second pair: more reliable than a battery and would enable a kind of "dead-man circuit" or alarm loop that would alert if there was a cable cut.