"Real" Telephones

It remains the most intimate technological device known to mankind. I speak here -the word "speak" being the key- of the telephone. Bad news, good news, death, divorce, romance, the telephone allows otherwise mute and disparate humans to express in real time the complete range of language and emotion.

But ever since the dawn of wireless, the phone itself has morphed into a disturbingly portable and convienient entity, so much so that any trivial thought or picayune piece of information is now worthy of being communicated at any time and at anyplace. Ironically, now even formerly priviledged and personal information -"I'm having a really heavy period this month"- is blathered in public as if the latter does not exist.

This is why I still embrace the venerable land line and the Western Electric telephones of Ma Bell. There is no more beautiful marriage of sculptural form and technological perfection than the Henry Dreyfuss-designed telephone (1938-1963). I have several old but ever-dependable Western Electric telephones. They are are beautiful to look at and to hold. Because they were leased rather than sold, each had to be built to withstand decades of use. That utilitarian imperative led to a "form follows function" beauty not seen since the Bauhaus.

My personal favorite is the Trimline, an often-copied but never duplicated work of techno-art. The Trimline was Dreyfuss' last design before he and his wife killed themselves with carbon monoxide in 1972 (his wife was dying of Cancer and preferred to go quietly with her). The telephone would never be the same.


Trimline. A sublime object of art and technology, both its dial-in-handset and Touch Tone models.

When my siblings and I were children, visiting our relatives in the country, we found an old-timey telephone in the ruins of an old dilapidated house, falling down out in the middle of the pasture. I don't know who really found it first, but a dispute developed between the two oldest and strongest-willed cousins about who would get to keep it.

My uncle settled this dispute thusly: first he confiscated the telephone, then he loaded us into the back of his pickup and drove us out into the middle of a field, where he proceeded to blow up the telephone with half a stick of dynamite. No phone, no dispute. (Although I learned recently that they did continue fighting - over the bell.)

A phone so cool it had its own give-away keychains:

And then there was...




They had one installed at the Franklin Institute, sometimes linked to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago.

"A bush baby."
(That's Viviian Kubrick playing Heywood Floyd's daughter. She also got bit parts in "Full Metal Jacket and "The Shining")

My personal favorite is the Trimline, an often-copied but never duplicated work of techno-art.

I never found the trimline comfortable to hold for very long.
Also, I like the feedback of listening while I'm dialing, so the dial or buttons in the handset bother me.
I'd prefer the push button Princess phone, does that cast aspersions on my sexual orientation? :confused:

Some people I work with were bitching during the last power outage, they had switched to internet phones from comcast and they were out.

When I see people walking down the road, babbling away on their cell phone, I wonder who in hell is listening and don't they have something better to do?

The thing that really pisses me off is the clerk waiting on me at a store, usually the Quickie Mart, is babbling on the phone. :mad:

xoxoxoBruce wrote:

Some people I work with were bitching during the last power outage, they had switched to internet phones from comcast and they were out.

We just put the DSL modem and the wireless rounter here on 1400 VA UPS power. Our CO is far enough away that it's unlikely (but not impossible, of course) that power would be out both here and there as well. I don't know if the DSLAM there is on UPS. Of course the DSL line carries analog POTS also.

My amateur station is on that UPS as well...in an emergency I could place a 911 call via radio directly through the Montgomery County Emergency Operations Center, or alternatively any local call though our radio club's repeater.

I never found the trimline comfortable to hold for very long.
Also, I like the feedback of listening while I'm dialing, so the dial or buttons in the handset bother me.

I don't know, Bruce, I like the heft of the Trimline combo handset; that said, one's cheek can hit one of buttons on the TouchTone model while they are talking. Dreyfuss Associates and Western Electric came up with a cool solution for being able to dial all ten numbers with that smaller finger wheel. If you dial a Trimline telephone, you'll notice that the finger stop (that little metal hook at the end of the dial stroke) actually moves about a half-inch at the end of each stroke. That way they could use the standard dial mechanism with a smaller finger wheel.

The first TouchTones had only 10 numbers; there were no # and * keys. Those were added to allow computers to recognize the end of strings of numbers when banks started using telephones for electronic transfers and such. Kinda like a dash or a space in the form of a tone.

Mag:
PicturePhone never really caught on, due mostly to its high cost and the sheer volume of data that was needed to send both voice and picture. But a more human reason was the fact that people actually prefer the physical anonymity of just the voice. You may recall the PicturePhone used by Jane Jetson. Mrs. Jetson would often use a mask of herself looking her best rather than reveal her real, curlers-in-your-hair-shame-on-you visage to the caller. I think the Jetson's # was Venus 1-2-3-4.



I used to work in the archives of one of the post-Ma Bell "baby" bells and we absorbed an entire telephone museum. I learned so much about telephony at that job. And my boss gave me a gift when I left for greener pastures:



The above is a Design Line telephone called Sculptura. The Design Line marked the beginning of the end of AT&T's leasing program. You could buy Design Line phones outright. The build quality was for shit.:neutral:

This is my favorite telephone:

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Ah yes, Mr. Douglas with a lineman's test telephone. Always liked that show; good (if a bit overwraught) characters. I still do a good Mr. Haney immitation.:rolleyes:

The telephone I grew up with, and therefore my idea of a classic. Heavy and had a real "ring".

That's a nice telephone, Sundae. Looks a lot like AT&Ts 500 series. Did England have one big phone monopoly like us? Did the Government regulate the phone companies?

I too like the 500. I really like some of the retro phones that Pottery Barn is putting out. I am getting one for my study when I can afford it.



We have one of their retro pay phones in our kitchen, we did it up in the 50/60's with red, white, silver and the boomerang counter-tops.

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Hey rkzen!

I know you can find a nice Western Electric 300 or 500 instead of going for the PB repros. Really, there's nothing like the real thing. I've got about 3 or 500 series desksets that I've found at thrift stores and yard sales. They all work and were wicked cheap too.


They made over a million of these babies. A dealer would sell you one for less than the PB repro.

That "Boomerang" pattern of Formica was called "Skylark." But most people call it boomerang for obvious reasons.:) I love Formica.

There is an old hamburger shop in a neighboring town that has been there forever (not sure of the date but you could once get a bag of burgers at a nickel apiece.) Anyway, my mom took me there when I was young and I was fascinated by the boomerang table tops. I had no idea you could find it anywhere else but there!

Thanks, I LOVE the pics I see in here from time to time of people's retro decor. Very cool!

You can get a tie:

http://shop.brooklynmuseum.org/bofotie.html

I still have and use a Western Electric desk phone. First generation touch tone, whatever series that was. I've had it since 1975. Works perfectly, despite having been dragged to the floor from table/desk height countless times. Faceplate is busted and I disabled the bell because it was too damn loud, but otherwise...flawless function.

I picked up the below a few weeks ago to add to my retro kitchen. It's not much different then a blender, but it looks so cool. And it says "Bar Mixer" on it! And it works like a charm. $5.00 at a thrift store.

Hmmm. I think were drifting away from telephones...but that's ok.:)

Elspode wrote:

I still have and use a Western Electric desk phone. First generation touch tone, whatever series that was.

That would be the 1500:



Unless it was new enough to have an asterisk and an octothorpe, in which case it is a 2500:



http://www.bellsystemmemorial.com/telephones-2500.html

Pangloss62 wrote:

Hey rkzen!

I know you can find a nice Western Electric 300 or 500 instead of going for the PB repros. Really, there's nothing like the real thing. I've got about 3 or 500 series desksets that I've found at thrift stores and yard sales. They all work and were wicked cheap too.


They made over a million of these babies. A dealer would sell you one for less than the PB repro.

That "Boomerang" pattern of Formica was called "Skylark." But most people call it boomerang for obvious reasons.:) I love Formica.

I know you can get them (lovin' the eBay), but the dial is painful for me, unfortunately, plus it is a pain with all the automated crap we do (I refill a ton of prescriptions).
So the repos are the way for me, sucks though.

I picked up one of those 300 series phones at a stoop sale in Brooklyn for about $5. It was great. Heavy as a seal club. It made phoning someone seem important.

I picked up an unusual WE 5302 at a telephone show up in Wisconsin. It's got the "guts" of a 302, but a shell of a 500. You find these with either the F or G handset.


This one has the F handset found on most 302s.



This one has the G handset like the one I have. Note how the 500 shell is cut off at the back because the 302 guts take up less space.

Pangloss62 wrote:

Did England have one big phone monopoly like us? Did the Government regulate the phone companies?

Yes, we had what was known as the GPO - General Post Office, which was responsible for telephones as well as post.

The GPO stopped being a Government Department in 1969 and telecommunications separated from post, although the Post Office Corporation retained its monopoly.

British Telecom was created in 1980 and from 1981 onwards other companies were licensed. The company was privatised in 1984.

I had forgotten that the telephones were leased from the Post Office and were therefore built to last until reading this thread! I also remember the day we had ours fitted - until then, we'd had a pile of 2p pieces in the kitchen in case of emergency, for the phone box on the corner (999 calls are free, but obviously other people need to be contacted).

British Telecom. I knew that but forgot. BT had some nice phones as I recall. Michael Caine in Get Carter used a cool phone. AT&T (Ma Bell) introduced color to their phones in 1956. A few experimental, two-tone phones were produced. There's a yellow and black one I could die for, but then I would be dead and not be able to enjoy it.:neutral: