Space Age Telephone, Ericofon North Electric, Gallion, Ohio, Rotary Telephone

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Seller: horsecavetpke ✉️ (568) 98.2%, Location: Madison, Wisconsin, US, Ships to: WORLDWIDE & many other countries, Item: 145098758000 Space Age Telephone, Ericofon North Electric, Gallion, Ohio, Rotary Telephone. Space Age Telephone, Ericofon North Electric, Gallion, Ohio, Rotary Telephone This incredible Ericofon is perfect for your Space Age Design home décor. You won't see another like it! The unusual shape and bold atomic age colors for the rotary dial make it a must have piece for your collection.  Elegance for eloquence Ericofon. The Dial in the base comes to you! At last the phone designed with your comfort in mind. It's the exciting Ericofon - functional beauty in a totally new telephone modern free-form design makes it the only truly decorative phone. The Ericofon is so light - weighs no more than the handset alone on old-fashioned phones for the first time the dial "comes to you." Dialing is so much easier, from any position, even in bed! Only the Ericofon has the dial in the base - you dial from the most comfortable distance, angle and position.  The Ericofon Rotary phone does get a dial tone when plugged in, but the rotary dial does need a little "help" and does not always complete the call as dialed. The rotary telephone is marked on the bottom Ericofon North Electric Company, Galion, Ohio. The space age phone is 8" tall and has a 4.5" x 4" base.  Shipped with USPS Priority Mail Service.

**Please note all sales are final.  There are no returns, trades, or exchanges permitted. Please review photos closely as they are part of the item description.  Described to the best of my abilities. Feel free to message me for additional details.  The winning buyer is asked to please make payment within 3 days of winning this sale.  Thank you!

his is a brief history of the Ericofon, mostly involving the US market. For a more in depth look at the history of the Ericofon, go to the Reading Room.  The Ericofon, made by the L M Ericsson Company of Sweden, is perhaps one of the biggest steps forward in telephone design. World War II had produced a number of new materials. From Plastics to lightweight ferromagnetic materials, the door was opened for a new era in telephone development.  proto2.jpg (19913 bytes) In the late 1940s, Ericsson put together a design team, headed up by H G (Gosta) Thames, to come up with a new design for the telephone. The main purpose was to make the phone small, lightweight, and easy to use. After several prototypes, a design was settled upon and that one that went into production for the next 2 decades.  1954 marked the beginning of production for the Ericofon. Originally it was intended for institutional use. They found their biggest customers were hospitals. Imagine laying in a hospital bed, trying to reach over to a desk phone to dial. The one piece design of the Ericofon seemed to be "just what the doctor ordered". hospital.jpg (21359 bytes)  The Ericofon was produced for the European and Australian markets, with home use sales starting in 1956. Ericsson was unable to penetrate the American market with any success because of Bell Telephone's monopoly stranglehold on the telecommunications market. They absolutely refused to have these "foreign phones" go into use on their circuits. A lot of hype and propaganda  concerning fears of damage to the system and such were used.  After much wrangling, Ma Bell relented and allowed limited institutional use of the Ericofon, but still charging phone rent as though they had provided the phone (each phone in your home was rented from Bell during this era, you didn't own your own phone). Ma Bell felt so threatened by this one-piece phone design that they started research on their own version. This is what gave birth to the Trimline phone many years later.  18 Oringinal Colors  Initially, Ericsson offered the Ericofon in 18 colors  in the North American market, selling the phones through North Electric (a telephone builder in Ohio), in which they had part ownership. These phones featured an optional "Electronic Tone Signal" (later known as the "Ericotone") for a ringer. When home sales of the Ericofon began to explode in the American market (sales exceeding capacity by 500%), Ericsson increased their holdings in North Electric to become the principal shareholder. Then around 1961 they transferred manufacture of the Ericofon for the American market to North Electric. At this time, North Electric narrowed the offering of colors from 18 to 8, probably in an effort to eliminate unpopular colors. They also replaced the "Princess Pink" with "Petal Pink". This move was most likely made to avoid confusion with the now popular Western Electric offering "Princess phone". Shortly before the transfer of manufacturing to America, around 1960, Ericsson had made a design modification to the Ericofon to accommodate a new molding method making a one piece shell instead of a two piece shell. This caused the phone to be a bit shorter and putting more of an angle to the receiver end. These are commonly referred to as "old case" or "new case" phones. This is why the American made Ericofons have the illusion of being shorter than the Swedish Ericofons.  Sometime about 1967, Ericsson introduced the first version of the pushbutton Ericofon that used TouchTone dialing.  These models (60A) are very hard to find because there was a poorly designed plastic part in the hook-switch mechanism that broke easily when the phone is dropped on a hard surface.  In 1972, North Electric discontinued the Ericofon line and sold the remaining parts and equipment to a telephone refurbishing company named CEAC. They continued production for a short time before ceasing business.  Meanwhile, back in Sweden, Carl-Arne Breger was busy designing a new Ericofon for Ericsson to celebrate the company's 100th Anniversary in 1976. Some skeptics suggest this was also an attempt to revive the Ericofon. The now squared off, modernized unit was dubbed the "Ericofon 700". It met with limited success and never did make it to the American market.

 will start a separate thread regarding the history of ITT since our European friends may have in interest in its relationship with U.S. Western Electric.  I apologize if this is too lengthily but the following shows that ITT was not a very nice company. During WWII they collaborated with the Nazis and latter was involved in coups in South American countries, often playing both sides of the coin.     Telecommunications and electronics were the original primary businesses of International Standard Electric (ISE), the Europe-focused arm of the telecommunications giant International Telephone and Telegraph (ITT).  ISE originated as Western Electric, one of the earliest American telephone companies. Soon after Alexander Graham Bell devised the first transmission of sound over wires in 1876, American Bell Telephone licensed Western Electric to manufacture telephone equipment. Western Electric built its first European factory in Antwerp in 1882, although much of its equipment was imported to Europe from Chicago.  From 1880 to 1910, Western Electric manufactured cable and wire and telephone instruments in Antwerp and through a factory in North Woolwich, England, bought from Fowler-Waring Cables. In these years, Western Electric's engineers developed techniques to improve and lay cable and to expand telephonic infrastructure internationally, from Europe to China.  The company was incorporated in 1918 as the International Western Electric Company, a subsidiary of AT&T (formerly Bell Telephone). Each country had its own telephone company under the aegis of International Western Electric; these national companies, such as Standard Telephones and Cables (STC) in Britain, each operated independently.  Over the next few years AT&T faced pressure from American trustbusters. The anti-trust forces eventually succeeded in forcing AT&T to sell its interests in the international arm of Western Electric.  Sosthenes Behn (1884-1957), who had founded ITT in 1920, purchased International Western Electric from AT&T in 1925 for nearly $30 million. The company was renamed International Standard Electric and became a subsidiary of ITT.  The purchase of ISE made ITT into an international manufacturer of telephone equipment. The newly combined companies soon dominated the European telecommunications business.  Behn was an American colonel in the Spanish-American War and used his multilingual, cosmopolitan allure to business advantage. Behn's parents were Danish and French; he was born in the Virgin Islands (then a Danish possession, but later bought by the United States in 1917); his education took place in Corsica and Paris; his early businesses in sugar trading and telephony were based in Puerto Rico, Cuba, and Spain. Behn's command of languages and glamour gained him business contracts despite his relative inexperience.  After ITT's acquisition of ISE, Behn built an international network of telephone manufacturing companies and providers. Cartel agreements between the major world telecommunications companies—ITT, Siemens, General Electric, AT&T, and Ericsson—gave near-monopoly power to each company in its region.  ITT controlled Western Europe's telephony, with additional control of areas of South America.   Behn enthusiastically collaborated with the Nazis in the 1930s in order to position his company for further global expansion. By 1943 Behn began hedging his bets to favor the Allies, lending ITT innovations such as the High Frequency Direction Finder ("Huff-Duff," a submarine finder) to the Allies even as ITT telephones communicated Nazi orders to those submarines.  As the war concluded, Behn had somehow positioned ITT to take advantage of the Allied victory.   ISE remained the biggest company in ITT. During the succeeding Cold War, Spain and Argentina nationalized the telephone systems and the USSR expanded its influence in Eastern Europe. ITT struggled to fend off further anti-trust action, nationalizations, and shareholder discontent about Behn. Behn left ITT in 1956.  Behn's replacement as president, Harold Geneen (1910-1997), expanded ITT away from its focus on telecommunications companies like ISE.  Instead, under Geneen's management, ITT became one of the largest conglomerates in the 1960s.  Of English Catholic and Russian Jewish parentage and an immigrant to America, Geneen was known as a demanding and a tremendously dedicated boss. He required constant statistical reports and stricter controls over production by management. Geneen's fame came from his acquisition binge (usually brokered by Lazard Frères) that sought to triple American earnings and reduce ITT's dependence on international branches of the company such as ISE. He instituted large changes for ISE, bringing in American vice presidents and centralizing decision making to ITT instead of to ISE's individual national companies. ITT's focus diverted from the original telecommunications business. Unfortunately for the stockholders, ISE and the other European branches of ITT were much more successful than the expanded American businesses of the 1960s and 1970s.  In his 1973 book, The Sovereign State of ITT, Anthony Sampson described ISE as dual-natured.   His summary is worth citing at length:  "It is by far the biggest telecommunications company in Europe, with a third of the total business, twice as big as its nearest competitor, Siemens.  On the other hand it is made of a score of national companies, each with special eccentricities and local traditions, beginning with Bell Telephone in Belgium, set up in 1882, followed by Standard Telephones and Cables (STC) in Britain, founded in 1883, followed by the two French companies Le Matériel Téléphonique (1889) and Compagnie Générale des Constructions Téléphoniques (1892). Each of these companies is locked in a close but awkward embrace with its national post office... and most of them compete in some kind of 'ring' with three or four rival suppliers" (Sampson, 105-106).  In short, ISE was a holding company that controlled many national telephone companies in Europe, Latin America, and the Pacific. ISE was still closely governed by ITT, which by the 1970s had become a massive conglomerate with the eleventh-largest world sales of any company in 1972 (Sampson, 109).  During the 1960s and 1970s, ITT distanced itself from telecommunications, and ISE became a decreasingly important part of the conglomerate. ITT acquired Aetna Finance, Continental Baking, and the Sheraton hotels.  The 1970s brought several political scandals down on ITT. The Chilean ISE telephone company, Chiltelco, schemed to create financial instability in Chile in 1970 with the aid of the CIA in order to prevent the election of the leftist Salvador Allende. The project failed, and Salvador Allende responded to the plot by nationalizing Chiltelco with no payment to ITT.  ITT also was caught paying for Republican election expenses within the United States, and was swept up in the Watergate era Washington scandals. Scandals also arose from ITT's attempts to acquire the broadcaster ABC and from ITT's tax machinations. corporate troubles by distancing themselves from the American management. 

Model 50AL Candlestick This desk set was the first free-standing dial telephone and was introduced in 1919.  It began an era of rotary dial telephone sets which would span the rest of the 20th century.  51AL Candlestick Phone Model A1 In 1927, Western Electric produced its first model to use a handset, making it easy for the subscriber to use the telephone while keeping a hand free for taking notes or performing other tasks.  The A1 was built upon the base of the 51AL candlestick. The post was shortened and a cradle with modified switch hook was added.  Western Electric A1 Model 102 This round-base phone was introduced later in 1927 and was the first model designed specifically to use a handset.  More accurately, the designation "102" referred to the electrical configuration of the majority of these sets and the round-base form was called a B1.  Western Electric 102 Model 202 Introduced in 1930, the "202" is identified by its graceful oval base. The E1 handset remained virtually unchanged with its distinctive "spit cup" to focus the speaker's voice into the transmitter.  The designation "202" actually referred to the electrical configuration of the majority of these sets and the oval-base shape was called a D1.  Western Electric 202 Model 302 In 1937, Western Electric and the Bell System introduced the 302, created by the renowned industrial designer, Henry Dreyfuss. The shell of the 302 was intended to be cast out of metal. However, in 1941, the critical war-time need for metal caused Western Electric to retool to make the 302 out of molded thermoplastic.  The 302 was the first telephone containing all of its circuitry within the base and not requiring a separately mounted apparatus box for the ringer.  Western Electric 302 Model 5302 Following World War II, Henry Drefuss created a new and more rounded form for the Bell System's basic dial telephone. This was a design which would take advantage of plastic technology.  Dreyfuss' design was for the Model 500 (see below), but in response to huge post-war demand for phones, Western Electric created a replacement housing for refurbishing its existing inventory of Model 302 sets to make them look much like the new Model 500.  This transitional set, dubbed the 5302, had the smaller footprint of the Model 302 because it was really just a 302 with a new shell. Most 5302 sets retained the F1 style handset from the underlying 302.  Western Electric 5302 Model 500 First introduced in 1949, the Model 500 was to become the standard Bell System telephone for well over a generation and the most widely produced dial telephone ever.  Like the 5302, the dial markings were placed outside of the fingerwheel holes for improved legibility. The slightly larger base provided room inside the 500 for an adjustable bell ringer and enhanced electronics. The more angular G1 handset design replaced the curves of the 1930-looking F1.  Since the 1930s, Western Electric had manufactured telephone sets in colors. However, only the most affluent were willing to pay the substantial extra monthly charge for having a phone that wasn't basic black. In the early 1950s, the Bell System began to promote the new 500 sets in "designer colors" for an affordable one-time non-recurring charge at the time of installation. The basic black 302 was quickly upstaged by 500 sets in lemon yellow, harvest gold, chocolate brown, rose pink, cherry red, lime green, avocado, turquoise and more than a dozen other colors.  Western Electric 500 Models 701 and 702 The Princess Phone  Prior to the introduction of the Princess phone in 1959, most households had only one telephone set, usually located in the living room or other central location. The princess phone's small size and lighted dial were designed to make attractive as a bedside extension and the Bell System marketed it as such.  The original Model 701 of the Princess did not contain an internal ringer. Western Electric produced a small baseboard mounted ringer for use with the phone. A plug-in transformer provided low voltage to power the dial lamp. The later Model 702 of the Princess would have a self-contained ringer.  The Princess Phone Model 220 Trimline The last standard rotary-dial telephone to be manufactured by Western Electric was the Trimline, introduced in 1965.  The Trimline's dial was located in the handset itself with the ringer and electronics within the telephone's base. The base was made in two variations: one for a desk set designated as Model 220-AD, and the other for wall mounting, designated as Model 220-AC.  The Trimline  Other Models  There were a number of other common and not-so-common dial telephones made by Western Electric during this period. They included several wall-mounted phones like the 653, 354 and 554, and a number of multi-line "key sets" for business use. There were also many variants such as the Model 500-U which was a 500-set with a light for the dial. There were compact desk mounted Space Saver® 211 sets. There were specialized sets such as those made with explosion-proof housings for use in mines, grain elevators or other flammable environments. There were weatherproof phones for exterior use.  In the 1960s and 70s, the Bell System offered mobile radio-telephone service using dial sets manufactured by Motorola. Western Electric produced dial-equipped Dataphone® sets for transmitting data from computer to computer over circuit-switched telephone lines.  And, of course, there were many types of payphones.  Model 653 Wall Phone Model 653 Wall Phone Model 352 Wall Phone Model 352 Wall Phone Model 554 Wall Phone Model 554 Wall Phone Model 211 Space Saver Model 211 Space Saver® Model 520 Explosion-proof Model 520 Explosion-proof Model 564 Key Set Model 564 6-button Key Set Model 325 Weather-proof Model 325 Weather-proof Model 872 Touch-a-Matic Model 872 Touch-a-Matic® Memory Dialler Model 750 Panel Phone Model 750 Panel Phone Model 637 Call Director Model 637   Call Director® Mobile Telephone Bell System IMTS Mobile Telephone Bell System Dataphone Bell 103   Dataphone®   The End of an Era: Touch ToneTM dialing arrives  The beginning of the end for the rotary dial came in 1963. Tone dialing had been in use within the Bell System's switching network for a number of years. Now, a new standard desk set, the Model 1500, was introduced and tone dialing was made available to the general public. The 1500 had the same footprint and familiar G1 handset as the venerable 500 set, but where there had been a dial, the redesigned shell now accommodated a 10-button Touch-ToneTM key pad. (The 1500 had no # and * buttons. These special feature keys were introduced in 1968 with the Model 2500.)  Model 1500 Model 1500 10-button Model 2500 Model 2500 12-button   One Last Encore: The Design LineTM Models  In 1974, the Bell System introduced a wide range of Design LineTM telephones which were marketed through retail Phone Center Stores. Although most of these phones were made for modern Touch-ToneTM service, a number of them were also produced in rotary dial versions for subscribers whose lines were not equipped for Touch-ToneTM service.  For the first time in its history, the Bell System contracted with third-party manufacturers in addition to Western Electric to supply some of these phones.  Mediterranean Phone Mediterranean® Mickey Mouse Phone Mickey Mouse© Sculptura Phone Sculptura®   Epilogue  Today, it's unusual to see a rotary dial still in use. There is a generation growing up which has never made a phone call by turning the finger-wheel of a rotary dial telephone.

The Trimline telephone is a series of telephones produced by Western Electric, the manufacturing unit of the Bell System, and first introduced in 1965. It was designed by Henry Dreyfuss Associates under the project direction of Donald Genaro; the firm had designed all previous desktop telephone models for the American Telephone & Telegraph conglomerate.  History After the introduction of the popular Princess telephone line, in 1959 and the early 1960s, the design motivation for the Trimline series was to create an alternative design that was stylish and easier to use than a traditional telephone. This was accomplished by moving the dial from the telephone's base to the underside of the handset, between the earpiece and mouthpiece.[1] The same concept was later used for cellular telephone and cordless telephone models. To miniaturize the rotary dial sufficiently to fit in the Trimline handset, the designers invented an unusual moving fingerstop. Like in the Princess line, the dial was lit when the handset was removed from the base. The Trimline was also one of the first phones to use the predecessor of the now-ubiquitous RJ11 modular phone plug and jack.  First introduced in 1965, the Trimline included a lighted dial and was encased in a sleek, curved plastic housing that took up much less space than earlier Western Electric telephones. However, the glass-smooth and shallowly-curved plastic handset proved difficult to retain between cheek and shoulder for hands-free communication without slipping, and this problem was never corrected over the life of the model line. Cushioned clamp-on adaptors were manufactured and sold by third parties to make it easier to cradle the handset, but these add-ons were unsightly.  The first Trimline models used incandescent dial lights powered by a power transformer plugged into a standard 120VAC outlet. The bulky transformer and the need for a conveniently-placed 120-volt outlet was criticized by many consumers, but was necessary because of the power demands of the incandescent light bulb. Years later, Western Electric redesigned the Trimline to use a low-power green LED backlit dial powered by current from the phone line, eliminating the need for a separate transformer. Always eager to re-use its older stocks of turned-in rental phones, AT&T later repainted and sold early-model non-LED Trimlines as "non-lighted" models, without a transformer.[citation needed]  Variants The Trimline handset was produced in both rotary dial and Touch-Tone versions. Rotary dial Trimline production began in late 1965 and a Touch Tone keypad was added in mid-1966. The Trimline base was available in desk-top and wall-mount versions. The handsets and bases were interchangeable. The Trimline was the first US telephone to achieve some design recognition in Europe, where it was referred to as the "Manhattan" model or the "Gondola".[citation needed] Today, similarly designed telephones are sold by many companies. AT&T retained the Trimline name for the later "Trimline III", a more compact successor featuring squared corners and straight lines.  In the 21st century, Advanced American Telephones produces the Trimline models 205, 210 (based upon original design), and the 265, under license from AT&T.  Powered RJ11 jacks for illumination In the Trimline version designed for connection to an RJ11 telephone jack, pins 2 and 5 (black and yellow) may carry very low voltage AC or DC power. While the phone line itself (tip and ring) supplies enough power for most telephones, older telephone instruments with incandescent dial lights in them (such as the classic Western Electric Princess and Trimline models) needed different voltages and more current than the phone line could supply. Typically, the power on pins 2 and 5 came from a transformer plugged into a power outlet near one telephone jack, wired to supply power to just that telephone (or to all of the jacks in the house, depending on local telephone company practices). It is now usually recommended that only the one local jack used by such older telephones be wired for power, to avoid any potential interference with other types of service that might be using pins 2 and 5 (black and yellow pair) in jacks in other parts of the house. The early Trimline and Princess phone dial light incandescent lamps were rated at 6.3 volts, 0.25 amp and the transformer output is approximately 6–8 volts AC. Later Trimline versions had LED light sources, powered directly from the phone line, and the last Western Electric-made Princess version had no dial light.  Timeline 1965 Original Trimline introduced in the winter of 1965. Only rotary dial versions produced that first year, and availability was limited. 1966 Touch Tone keypads become available in addition to dial models at mid-year. First touch-tone phones lack pound and star buttons and so only have ten buttons. 1968 Keypads on Touch Tone models were expanded to 12 keys, adding a pound and a star button to prepare for future functionality not yet available in 1968. early 70s The clear plastic button backplate with colored paper backing matching the color of the phone is replaced with an aluminum backplate on the round button Touch-Tone phones. Also at this time, the round handset cords using proprietary connectors are replaced with modern flat modular cords and jacks. On all Trimline phones, the screw cover above the dial changes from reading "Bell System made by Western Electric" to just "Trimline" with a bell logo to the left of the text. late 70s A green LED light fed by the phone line power replaces the incandescent lamp, additionally, the Touch-Tone version now sports slightly larger, square keys, as opposed to the earlier small round keys. Also the Touch-Tone version receives an aluminum faceplate behind the keys. 1983 AT&T begins selling phones, including the Trimline, to the public (as opposed to their previous leasing only policy) through its newly created American Bell, Inc. subsidiary. 1984 AT&T is divested of its regional operating companies and is prohibited from using the Bell name or logo, so the American Bell brand is dropped and replaced with simply AT&T. All telephone production continues as normal. Late 1984 The Touch-tone Trimline phone is heavily modified with the following new features: Electronic chirp ringer in the handset, replacing the previous real bell ringer Keys are now made of a soft rubber material Line switch (switchhook) eliminated from base, moved to top of phone just below the receiver Handset screws' cover no longer says "Trimline"; made smaller in the middle to conform to new switchhook location Only one handset-to-jack cord is required for the telephone connection; cord can be tightly secured onto the bottom of the base, which now only exists with no purpose other than as a rest for the handset 1985 The rotary Trimline is discontinued, and further modifications are made to the touch-tone model: Desk or wall convertible, eliminating separate desk and wall models Touch-Tone/dial pulse switch, eliminating separate Touch-Tone and rotary models Redial and Mute functions One cord to connect telephone is eliminated, base-to-handset and base-to-jack cords reinstated 1986 With the closing of the Western Electric Indianapolis Works, Trimline production is moved overseas to Singapore and China. Minor modifications included: Earpiece Volume Control Chirp Ringer/ringer loudness switch moved to base of the phone Bottom of the base is now made of plastic, with a lead weight inside the base Only 1 screw is used to hold the handset together; location of screw and screw cover is moved to below the dialpad 2220 Trimline is dropped as a model number, replaced by the 210, 220, and 230. 1993 The Trimline phone is again updated with the following features: The soft rubber keys are again replaced with hard plastic keys, similar to the late 70s and early 80s models, but the keys are even larger and rectangular rather than square The faceplate behind the keys, aluminum since the late 70s LED conversion is now a dark gray plastic with a matte surface Production is moved to Mexico Caller ID models, the 250 & 260, are introduced under the Trimline brand. The design shares nothing in common with the 210 model. 1996 Lucent Technologies is spun off from AT&T, and minor modifications are added: Phones are marked "Lucent Technologies", though this turned out to be temporary, and the boxes and marketing materials were always co-branded with AT&T "Trimline" again marked above the dialpad on the matte surface Ringer loudness switch is moved back to dialpad; ringer remains inside the base 1997 Lucent enters a joint venture with Philips, creating Philips Consumer Communications. Shortly after, more changes are made: Handset screws are eliminated completely. Handset is only held together by "snap" ends at both ends of the phone, above the receiver and below the microphone. Telephones are again branded AT&T; Lucent Technologies branding ends. Ringer moved into handset. 2000 Lucent dissolved the joint venture with Philips in 1998, and sells its consumer division to Hong Kong company VTech, where it becomes Advanced American Telephones. VTech moved all production to the People's Republic of China. See also Bell System Practices Contempra, a similar form factor handset designed by Northern Electric and deployed by Bell Canada. References  "We invented this telephone in 1974". The Day. (New London, Connecticut). (advertisement). March 6, 1967. p. 3. External links Western Electric Telephone Models Western Electric Trimline Phone 

Model 500 telephone From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Jump to navigationJump to search  This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Model 500 telephone" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)  A Western Electric model 500 telephone made in the 1950s The Western Electric model 500 telephone series was the standard domestic desk telephone set issued by the Bell System in North America from 1950 through the 1984 Bell System divestiture. Millions of model 500-series phones were produced and were present in most homes in North America. Many are still in use today because of their durability and ample availability. Its modular construction compared to previous types simplified manufacture and repair, and facilitated a large number of variants with added features.  Touch-tone service was introduced to residential customers in 1963 with the model 1500 telephone, which had a push-button pad for the ten digits. The model 2500 telephone, introduced in 1968, added the * and # keys, and is still produced by several manufacturers.   Contents 1 History 1.1 Ownership and AT&T divestiture 2 Design features 3 Construction 4 Development 5 Other manufacturers 6 Replicas 7 In popular culture 8 Touch-tone successors 8.1 Model 1500 8.2 Model 2500 9 See also 10 References 11 External links History The Western Electric 500-type telephone replaced the 300-type which had been produced since 1936. The model 500 line was designed by the firm of industrial designer Henry Dreyfuss, the product of several years of research and testing in collaboration with Bell Laboratories and Western Electric. Development started in 1946 with early sketches by Bell engineer and Dreyfuss-associate Robert Hose, leading to pre-production units in 1948 and field trials with 4000 telephone sets in 1949. AT&T announced the new telephone publicly in 1949, and communicated the first availability of approximately 23,000 sets in the second quarter 1950 to the Bell System operating companies on May 1, 1950.[1] Third and fourth quarter production was estimated at 49,000 and 93,000, respectively. Including 20,000 units of a special purpose set (501B), approximately 183,000 units were produced by the end of the first production year.[2]  In the following years, systematic replacement of 25 million 300-type telephones commenced because of the much improved electrical and acoustic efficiency of the new model.[3] This efficiency permitted the new model to be used on long rural loops, which previously required special sets with local batteries to power the transmitter, not just on urban short loops, because it contained a self-adjusting gain control. This also permitted the use of thinner loop wires and thus delivered cost-savings in the build-out of the network.[citation needed]  The replacement of 300-series telephones with 500-series sets created large stockpiles of 300-type components that had not reached their intended service life. The accelerating demand for new telephone service in the 1950s created pressure on the manufacturing facilities, which the Bell System alleviated by reusing these older components to refurbish used 302 telephone sets with a new modern housing that had a look-alike appearance to the 500 model, but were electrically identical to the older 302 telephone. This program commenced in 1955, and the converted set was labeled as the model 5302 telephone. It was produced until the mid-1960s in the refurbishing shops of each Bell Operating Company, not on the assembly lines of Western Electric factories.[citation needed]  From the 1949 field trials until 1953, only black sets of the 500-type telephone were manufactured. The introduction of telephones in color occurred in several stages from 1954 until 1957, as manufacturing capability was refined and material selection processes were completed.[citation needed]  In the 1960s, after the introduction of touch-tone service in November 1963 in various locations of the telephone network, the basic 500-type chassis was retrofitted with a push-button keypad, along with a new housing and faceplate, creating the model 1500 for the 10-button version and in 1968 the model 2500, having 12 keys.[citation needed]  The 1970s brought the conversion to modular connector technology, replacing the hard-wired cords with cords terminated on both ends with 4P4C connectors for the handset cord, and 6P4C plugs for the line cord.[citation needed]  Ownership and AT&T divestiture As with most telephones of the time in the United States, the 500-series telephones were owned by the local Bell Operating Company and leased on a monthly basis to customers. Choices for telephone styles and colors were limited. AT&T, the principal owner of the operating companies and Western Electric, strictly enforced policies against buying and using telephone sets by other manufacturers on their network, to ensure the technical integrity of their network and avoid competition. Most phones made by Western Electric, starting in about 1968, carried this disclaimer molded into their housing: "BELL SYSTEM PROPERTY--NOT FOR SALE." Telephones were also sometimes labeled with a sticker or ink stamp marking the name of the operating company that owned the telephone. After consumers started buying telephones from other manufacturers,[citation needed] in the wake of legal developments not favoring AT&T's ban against third-party equipment, AT&T changed its policy for the Design Line telephone series by selling customers the telephone housing but retaining ownership of the electrical components, so customers were still required to pay AT&T a monthly leasing fee.  In 1983, after the court ordered the Bell System divestiture, AT&T started selling telephone sets outright to the public through its newly created American Bell division. Many customers were offered the option to buy the leased telephones they had in service. AT&T closed its USA consumer telephone manufacturing plants in 1986, and moved production offshore to Singapore, China, and Thailand, and in the 1990s to Mexico; this let them produce telephones at lower cost.[citation needed]  Design features  By 1975, the model 500 design was essentially unchanged, but it used a revised dial, modular cords, and was available in a variety of new colors. The Western Electric model 500 improved upon several design features over the earlier telephones. While the 302 had the dial and hook switch mounted directly on the metal or plastic housing, all operational parts of the 500 telephone were mounted on the base plate, and the housing only contained two plungers to activate the hook switch when the handset was lifted from the cradle. Thus, the phone could be tested and serviced easily without the housing. This design improved manufacturing and servicing efficiency. The earlier 302 had been equipped with an enamel-coated dial plate that displayed the numerals and letters through the holes of the rotary finger-wheel. Years of use caused the lettering and numbering, and even the porcelain coating, to wear off. The design of the 500 improved this by molding the characters into the plastic, through a double-injection molding process. This design was carried over to the 1500 and 2500-series telephones and was used in the touch-tone keys to eliminate wear. The numbers and letters on the 500 were moved to the circumference of the dial plate to make them clearly visible from a wide range of viewing angles even while the dial was spinning back to its resting position, and dots were placed in the center of the finger holes as targets to help position the finger quicker for dialing of the next digit while the wheel was still spinning back. After extensive testing, this arrangement had the benefit of reducing the rate of dialing errors, and increased the speed of dialing each digit by fractions of a second. The 500 series replaced many metal parts, especially in the dial, with much more durable Nylon components.[citation needed]  The Dreyfuss design later adapted itself well to touch-tone service, first announced in 1963. The earliest experimental touch-tone phones used the original Dreyfuss design almost unchanged; the keypad, in varying layouts, was placed in a roundel in the dial opening, with the subscriber number label in a small window below. The 1500 and 2500 models adopted a more angular design style; the curves of the original design gave way to raised borders forming a lip around the finely-ribbed faceplate, in the middle of which the keypad and number window were centered.[citation needed]  Electrically and acoustically, the 500-series telephones had better efficiency and gain characteristics than their predecessors. The transmission efficiency was 5dB higher and the receiver efficiency was 2.5dB better on long loops than the 300-series telephones. A significant improvement was the use of equalization circuitry to achieve automatic gain adjustment so that the sets could be deployed with equal performance on short or long local loops from the central office. The G-type handset was newly developed to help realize this efficiency, as the older F series handset was already operating at the peak of its acoustic and electrical design efficiency. The G handset remains the standard handset on many phones, including public payphones.[citation needed]  For the initial years, from 1950 to 1953, the 500 was available only in black with a metal finger wheel. In 1954, color telephone sets were available in ivory, green, dark gray, red, brown, beige, yellow, and blue.[4][5] Gray, blue, yellow, and red sets were initially assembled with black dials, until the colored parts became available by 1955. So called two-tone color varieties were available, which consisted of a black set having the housing substituted with a color plastic part.[4] They were offered as an attractive color combination for a reduced fee from the price of a full color telephone.[citation needed] In 1957, gray, blue, beige, and brown sets were replaced with lighter pastel hues in light gray, aqua blue, light beige, white, and pink colors. Issuance of brown sets, however, continued for multi-line business sets for several years. Turquoise sets were added in 1964, and several colors, including pink and light gray, were discontinued in the late 1960s.[citation needed]  By 1955, all color 500s were produced with clear finger wheels, while black sets retained the metal finger wheel until about 1964, when a new dial design was released.[citation needed]  Construction The 500-type telephone consists of a rotary dial, a handset cradle, switch hook, and a handset (sometimes called the receiver) wired to the base, and has a molded plastic housing covering a steel chassis. The user interface consists of only the dial and switch hook buttons. No other components, switches, or controls are necessary, with the exception of a loudness control for the ringer, which is accessible on the bottom of the phone. The handset cradle is a molded part of the housing, formed of two U-shaped chairs which cradle the handle of the handset between the receiver and the transmitter cups. Each side of the cradle has a round plastic plunger positioned above a pair of levers connected in a spring-loaded yoke that operated the hook switch; pressing the plungers down end the call and place the phone on-hook. The plastic face of the dial under and surrounding the finger wheel is a part of the dial assembly and is exposed through circular opening in the housing. On the bottom, the flat steel plate of the chassis is exposed. The handset cord exits from the left side of the housing at the base, and the line cord emerges from the rear at the base.  Internally, the phone contains circuitry composed of a small number of passive electrical, electronic, and mechanical components. The set needs no separate power supply as it is receives transmitter current from the telephone line; when it is on-hook and not ringing, it uses no power, as the ringer is isolated with a capacitor from the direct current (DC) potential of the local loop.[citation needed]  The most complex part is the rotary dial mechanism, an assembly of gears, cams, springs, and electrical contacts which mechanically generate a timed train of line loop-break pulses when the dial finger wheel is released after rotation. During the period of dial rotation, the receiver is shunted to avoid hearing the dial pulses.[citation needed]   Internal components of a 500-type telephone of 1951  View of the 425A network component of a model 500 of 1951 The electromechanical ringer consists of two bell gongs of slightly different dimensions to produce different pitches, and a striker between them that is driven by a solenoid; when the solenoid is energized by alternating (AC) ringing current, typically about 90V at 20Hz, it strikes the two gongs alternately, producing a distinctive effect of two superimposed sounds. In telephones with a ringer loudness control, one gong is mounted off-center on the loudness control wheel; turning the wheel moved the gong toward (quieter) or away (louder) from the striker. The model 500 ringer was fairly loud, and could be heard a few rooms away. The ringer could not be turned off on-the-fly, but could be disabled in the wiring. When the phone was subjected to mechanical shock the striker may hit the brass bells to sound a short ring. This effect was faithfully represented in various films and television shows.  The model 500 telephone was designed for a long service life. Telephones in the Bell System were owned by and leased from the telephone company, which was responsible for keeping them in good repair. The phones were rugged and reliable, and intended to last for decades with little maintenance. The 1940s-era technology of the 500 made extensive use of metal components and point-to-point wiring, and most components were modular and easy to remove and replace. The wiring system employed wires terminated with crimped spade lugs and slotted-screw terminals; most electrical connections in the phone could be disconnected or reconnected with a standard screwdriver.[citation needed]  Originally, the line cord and handset cord were secured by screw-down terminals at both ends, with a strain relief anchor. Both cords had matching colors, but most color sets initially were produced with neutral, dark gray cords, with exception of the ivory and brown sets. Starting in 1955, all sets, except dark blue were equipped with color-matched cords as dyes and manufacturing methods became stable. By 1973, line cords were changed to a neutral gray color and from a round to a flat cross-section. As a customer option, telephone sets could be ordered for portability with four-prong plugs, but most sets were hard-wired to wall connection boxes. In the 1970s, much smaller modular connectors were introduced for both ends of the line cord as well as the handset cord to facilitate standard connection methods for third-party equipment within the FCC registration system.[citation needed]  Development  Western Electric model 554 wall phone, derived from the model 500 desk phone. It uses the same internal components, dial and handset as a desk phone. This unit is dated 1959 Several telephone models were derived from the basic model 500, using some of the same components. The model 554 was a wall-mounted version. Other special purpose models included additional features. This included phones with dial lights (500U), party line sets (501), keysets (540 and 560 series), call directors, panel phones (750 series), industrial and outdoor phones (520 and 525), and automatic dialers (660).[6]  Starting in 1963, the Dreyfuss design adapted itself well to the newly announced Touch Tone® service. For the trial period, the dial was simply replaced with circular closure containing a keypad and a telephone number label. The 1500 and 2500 models adopted a more rectangular design style; the curves of the original design gave way to raised borders forming a lip around the finely-ribbed faceplate, in the middle of which the keypad and number window were centered.[citation needed]  Standard touch-tone telephones generate twelve DTMF signals in a grid of three columns and four rows of buttons, while some special purpose telephones are equipped with a fourth column of key for the A,B,C and D DTMF signals for service priorities in the AUTOVON system. Original sets used a transistor oscillator; newer phones use an integrated circuit. The model 1500 only had push buttons for the 10 digits, while the model 2500 used 12 keys and included the '*' and '#' DTMF signals to allow for extra signaling needed in advanced service features, such as voice response systems and call management.[citation needed]  Other manufacturers  Cortelco model 500 rotary phone made in July 2003 Beginning in the early 1950s, 500-style phones were also made under license by ITT Kellogg (now Cortelco), who continued manufacturing the original rotary design, marketed as the Cortelco ITT-500AS (desk phone) and Cortelco ITT-554AS (wall phone), until discontinuation on January 1, 2007. The design was also produced in Canada by Northern Electric, which eventually became Northern Telecom. Cortelco continues to produce a non-dial version of the model 500, known as the Model 89001047PAK, this phone is available only in bright red color. Stromberg-Carlson (now part of Siemens) also made the phones from the 1950s-1980s.[citation needed]  Replicas Some contemporary replicas of the 500 model are available. While faithful from a cosmetic point of view they are internally very different from the original, including a rotating tone dialer based on optical technology.[citation needed]  In popular culture The Model 500 series, and its distinctive ring, are near-ubiquitous in late 20th-century U.S. and Canadian film and television. Model 500s are featured as a weapon in the film True Lies.  Touch-tone successors Model 1500  Western Electric model 1500D, made in March 1968 in the color aqua blue with hardwired handset and line cords The Western Electric model 1500 telephone adapted the 500 design for touch-tone dialing with a push-button pad for the digits 0 through 9. It was produced from 1963 to 1968. In addition to the basic single-line model 1500D, the 1500-series included many related variations and special purpose models with additional features. This included sets with a headset jack, 2-line sets (1510F), key sets (1560), call directors, panel phones (1750), industrial phones (1520), and automatic dialers (1660).[7]  Model 2500  Western Electric Model 2500 telephone, manufactured in March 1980. The front is squared compared to the model 500, and it featured modular cords. By the late 1960s interactive response systems in some industries required additional signaling beyond the ten digits. In 1968, the # key and the * key were added to the push-button dial pad, and the 2500-type telephone entered production. The additional keys were located on either side of the '0' button to fill the matrix of 4-by-3 keys. These keys were initially unused by most customers, but would later be used for vertical service codes, and voice mail menu navigation. In 1974, when modular connectors were introduced, the 2500 telephone was fitted with modular connectors for the handset cord as well as the line cord, resulting in type designations suffixed with M, e.g. 2500DM. The 2500 is still commonly encountered today and it is still produced by several companies.[citation needed]  In addition to the basic single-line model, the Western Electric 2500-series included many related variations and special purpose models with additional features. This included sets with a headset jack, 2-line sets, keysets (2560), call directors, panel phones (2750), industrial phones (2520), automatic dialers (2660).[8]

Alfred Stromberg and Androv Carlson were immigrants from Sweden who worked for the Chicago Bell Telephone Company. They were aware of the deficiencies of the telephone as used by the American Bell company, and believed that they could do better. Unlike many other inventors of that period, they did not try to find an alternative to the carbon transmitters in use, but bided their time until American Bell's patents expired.  In 1894 they left Chicago Bell and formed a partnership whose goal was clearly stated - to build a better telephone.  The market at this time gave them a good business opportunity. American Bell was expanding at a rapid rate, but the capital cost of providing lines, exchanges and telephones meant that it could not afford to service rural areas that would not be economic in the short term. Many small independent companies were coming into existence to fill this market, and they needed a supply of reliable telephones. Stromberg Carlson, based in Chicago, set out to fill this need.    Rural people needed a reliable phone. The small companies could not afford a large service crew, and the repair staff could have to travel long distances between faults. American Bell was working on improving its manufacturing quality, but its phones were still better suited to shorter urban telephone lines. Because of the quality and reliability of its phones in rural areas, Stromberg Carlson became known as "the farmer's friend".   Left: Stromberg Carlson rural sales brochure   As an example, their first phone was a fat-bodied candlestick model. It used an electromagnetic transmitter rather than the more usual carbon transmitters. This gave two advantages - no problems with packing of carbon granules, and a higher voltage could be used on longer lines without burning out the transmitter.     Left: Original receiver style  Right: Enclosed receiver     The receiver was described in McMeen and Miller's "Telephony" : "The single coil is wound on an E-shaped core built up of silicon steel laminations to a thickness of ¼ inch. The laminations and non-metallic spool heads effectively prevent eddy current losses and assist in raising the receiving efficiency. The pole pieces are placed so that a maximum number of lines of force pass through the diaphragm. The windings are impregnated with high-grade armature varnish and baked to render them moisture-proof. The diaphragm is held securely in a true plane by the broad diaphragm bearing surface and by the ear cap which clamps the diaphragm evenly and at the centre of the bearing surface. " It is this attention to detail and quality of manufacture that gave SC its reputation.      Although their intention was to build a better telephone, Stromberg Carlson still had to resort to novel ways around the outstanding telephone patents. One such was the switchhook. Their early wall phones resorted to a rather clumsy but effective method consisting of a bar across the front of the phone, with a receiver fork at one end and a lever at the other. To make a call the user lifted the receiver and turned the lever 90 degrees to rotate the transmitter into position. Switches connected to the arm completed the circuit. Once the patent expired they returned to a more standard switchhook design.    In about 1899 they designed a combined coil, switchhook, transmitter and arm assembly called a Triplet. This combined most of the electronics into a single unit, and proved very popular. It was particularly popular with repair companies, who could now upgrade most of the electronics in the older twin box and three box wall phones with one unit.       Stromberg Carlson's phones generally followed the standard patterns of the time. Initially they used the big twin box wallphones. Their top box was somewhat bigger than many of their competitors', due to the large magnets used in the bigger generators for long rural lines. The generator was another example of their quality construction - big, heavy, very solid. The early versions had a cast sideplate with the company name on it. I have one of these that still puts out a very healthy voltage, even though it is close to a hundred years old.  Note the triplet unit.  The larger battery box models allowed extra batteries to be used for long lines. Such phones were generally known as "long distance phones".       Left: The triplet was also used to build this attractive little wall phone, which dates from around 1902.  Right: An early long-box CB model        Left: SC 5-magnet generator. Note the "dogleg" crank, marking this as an early model.    When Western Electric released their single box Model 317, Stromberg Carlson followed suit in 1907 with their equivalent Model 101, as did most other manufacturers. These phones were fairly similar to the WE model, with a Cathedral Top and Picture Frame Front, but tended to be a little taller to allow for the bigger generator. The enclosed receiver as shown above was also introduced on some of these models. The Australian Post Office made large purchases of these phones, SC No. 896, from 1918. Like the WE phone, the picture frame front and cathedral top were soon omitted. The carbon block lightning arrestor was moved from the top of the case to the side.             Left: Model 101 with OST receiver, external lightning arrestor, cathedral top and PF front and long arm transmitter.  Right: Model 896 with simplified case, short arm transmitter and later enclosed receiver. Photo courtesy K & S Alexander  This phone is an interesting very early version of the model. It has a dogleg crank and single-strand internal wiring. Both were quickly dropped as stock ran out in favor of a straight crank and multi-stranded wiring.   Left: Internal view of the Model 896, showing the later painted generator. Note that the wiring is no longer soldered to the case hinges. Later phones often included a condenser (above the generator) so they could be converted to CB if needed. Photo courtesy K & S Alexander.                            Above: internal layout of the Model 896   From the early days party lines (called Bridging telephones) were an important part of telephony worldwide. The capital cost of providing lines could be offset by sharing each line between a number of users, and with comparatively low telephone usage this did not cause congestion problems. Stromberg Carlson had a number of party line wiring arrangements available for its customers. Their telephones were usually fitted with a condenser so if a receiver was left off-hook, the rest of the part line would still have service. The condenser provided continuity through the phone. The following information is from a 1920 manual for the Model 896 wall phone.  Regular Bridging with Non-interfering Pushbutton: this allowed a party to ring the central office without ringing all other bells on the party line. One leg of the line was sunted to earth when the button was held in while ringing.  Divided ringing: half the bells on a party line were shunted to earth on one leg of the line, and the rest were shunted to earth on the other line. Only half the bells rang at a time, halving the number of code rings heard at a telephone.  Harmonic 4-Party ringing: Each of four parties had the ringer in their phone tuned to a particular frequency. A special "pulsating" ringer generated the appropriate frequency at the central office. By using one, two or three rings, up to 12 parties could be connected on this system.  Harmonic 8-Party ringing: a combination of the previous two methods.  Synchromonic 4-party signalling: similar to Harmonic ringing, with mechanically-generated ringer pulses at the central office.  Biased ringer 2- and 4-party signalling: bells polarized to ring on one or the other leg of the line. The central office generated the appropriate polarized ring.  There was also a group of ringer systems using the Leich ringer frequencies.  The 896 magneto wall phone could also be converted to CB as exchanges were upgraded. The battery could be left in circuit to provide transmitter current on very long lines.   In 1899 Stromberg Carlson won the contract to supply telephones and equipment to the Home Telephone Company in Rochester. The HTC was so impressed by the quality of the telephones that they bought out the company in 1904 to ensure supply. The Chicago works was moved to Rochester to a newer, larger factory. The new factory employed 1200 people. Their range included phones, switchboards and cable as well as many general electrical items.  A popular style of early desk phone was the candlestick. Stromberg Carlson experimented with some very crude types with fixed, upright transmitters, but by the late 1890s they were ready to release their first mass production models.    Left: the 1897 "Roman Column" model, a classic early model with an Ericsson transmitter  Right: the 1900 "Oilcan" candlestick.        By around 1905 a less ornate but more functional design was introduced, sometimes called the "Kansas City " model. It was somewhat similar to the equivalent Western Electric model with a straight-sided shaft, but was better finished with nickelled trim. The transmitter adjustment was still the older twin post and locknut variety (below right) , but around 1908 a new top was introduced that featured a ball-joint type adjustment (see below). The new phone was a little shorter than the Western Electric.  During World War 1 domestic production was suspended and Stromberg Carlson became a major supplier to the U.S. Army Signal Corps. During the war Stromberg Carlson also absorbed the Dean and American Electric companies.           Post-War, Stromberg Carlson resumed telephone manufacture. In 1920 - 1021 they released their No. 986 candlestick phone (above left). It had the ball-joint adjustment for the new transmitter and a raised base to accommodate a dial, It still featured some nickel trim that made it look a little better-finished than similar phones of the time. A Stromberg Carlson dial version was not initially available, but it was designed to be fitted with dials made by Automatic Electric, Kellogg, or Western Electric according to the preference of the buyer.   Left: With the increasing preference for handsets, Stromberg Carlson recycled the old triplet unit into the Model 1190.       Left: No 1177  Right: No 1178            They moved into the new bakelite handset telephones with their 1936 No. 1212, called the "fat boy" (above , left), and its predecessors , the 11x8 auto and 11x7 CB phones. Note that the model number varied according to the type of dial, bell impedance, etc. A little wooden wallset (similar to the Australian Post Office Type 37) was released as a stopgap measure until bakelite wall phones went into production. In wood and later steel, this phone was widely exported. It was used in Australia by the Australian Post Office and some of the State Railways. It proved a good telephone for areas where rough handling could be expected such as Public Telephones.   Stromberg Carlson widened its range of products in the 1920s to include new technology such as radio sets. They are as well known for these as for their telephones. In 1930 sales of radios passed sales of phones. SC opened a plant at Alexandria in Sydney in 1927, and this was given almost entirely to radio production. This period marked a change in emphasis for SC, with most growth being in new areas and telephones dropping back.               Above Left: No 1211 wall phone  Above right: Auto equivalent   In 1940 a new table set was released, the No. 1222. It used a cast metal case that was very close to WE's No 302 telephone, but the Stromberg Carlson's cutoff corners were distinctive.  During World War 2, Stromberg Carlson again turned to military production. The U.S. Navy became a major client.                In 1946 SC redeveloped the No 1222 with updated electronics into the No 1223. A wall phone version was also made available. In the revised circuit a cleverly designed coil could be tapped off at two different points to provide an anti-sidetone circuit for CB or magneto use. A magneto was housed separately as required, or could be added to the base to form a rather bulky and unattractive phone. Apart from this, most phones from the big three makers - SC, Kellogg and WE - were staring to look more and more like each other.     No 1243 auto desk phone from 1940, in ivory and black.      During the Second World War. Stromberg Carlson again switched over to military communications equipment. This is a magneto-signalling naval phone.        No 1543, an early 1950s update to the 1243 phone to give it a more modern appearance.It was designed to make the phone similar to WE's new 500 phone. It still retained the Stromberg Carlson corner cutoffs. Other companies, including WE, performed similar updates to their earlier models for the same reason. The phone could also be modified with special switchhook and plunger to convert it to wall mounting.     This was, for all practical purposes, the last SC phone. Following Govenment pressure and a court case against Western Electric and AT&T, the WE 500 design was made available for other firms to build under license. SC took up the license and gradually dropped out of telephones. The only difference between these 500-type phones is the maker's brand moulded into the case behind the switchhook.    Left: Model 1553 wall phone, basically the same as the Western Electric design       After the War they developed into the new digital switching systems, and brought out their XY system ( a version of an Ericsson flat switch) in the 1960s. This followed a merger with General Dynamics in 1955. General Dynamics was a major maker of electronic components at their factory at Charlottesville, and all SC's manufacturing was moved here also. The XY system was designed here. It was used to build electronic switching PABXs initially, and during the 1970s they built it into digital exchanges. This effectively marked the end of Stromberg Carlson as a provider to the independent phone companies. At this point Western Electric was making its own phones available for license. SC made these for a while, then eventually dropped out of telephones altogether.  In 1982 the Charlottesville factory was bought by Comdial

Moscow–Washington hotline   The Pentagon in Arlington County, Virginia, U.S. (left) and the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia (right), the two facilities linked by the hotline. The Moscow–Washington hotline (formally known in the United States as the Washington–Moscow Direct Communications Link;[1] Russian: Горячая линия Вашингтон — Москва, tr. Goryachaya liniya Vashington–Moskva) is a system that allows direct communication between the leaders of the United States and the Russian Federation (formerly the Soviet Union). This hotline was established in 1963 and links the Pentagon with the Kremlin (historically, with Soviet Communist Party leadership across the square from the Kremlin itself).[1][2] Although in popular culture it is known as the "red telephone", the hotline was never a telephone line, and no red phones were used. The first implementation used Teletype equipment, and shifted to fax machines in 1986.[3] Since 2008, the Moscow–Washington hotline has been a secure computer link over which messages are exchanged by a secure form of email.[4]  Origins Background Several people came up with the idea for a hotline. They included Harvard professor Thomas Schelling, who had worked on nuclear war policy for the Defense Department previously. Schelling credited the pop fiction novel Red Alert (the basis of the film Dr. Strangelove) with making governments more aware of the benefit of direct communication between the superpowers. In addition, Parade magazine editor Jess Gorkin personally badgered 1960 presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, and buttonholed the Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev during a U.S. visit to adopt the idea.[1] During this period Gerard C. Smith, as head of the State Department Policy Planning Staff, proposed direct communication links between Moscow and Washington. Objections from others in the State Department, the U.S. military, and the Kremlin delayed introduction.[1]  The 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis made the hotline a priority. During the standoff, official diplomatic messages typically took six hours to deliver; unofficial channels, such as via television network correspondents, had to be used too as they were quicker.[1]  During the crisis, the United States took nearly twelve hours to receive and decode Nikita Khrushchev's 3,000-word-initial settlement message – a dangerously long time. By the time Washington had drafted a reply, a tougher message from Moscow had been received, demanding that U.S. missiles be removed from Turkey. White House advisers thought faster communications could have averted the crisis, and resolved it quickly. The two countries signed the Hot Line Agreement in June 1963 – the first time they formally took action to cut the risk of starting a nuclear war unintentionally.[5]  Agreement The "hotline", as it would come to be known, was established after the signing of a "Memorandum of Understanding Regarding the Establishment of a Direct Communications Line" on June 20, 1963, in Geneva, Switzerland, by representatives of the Soviet Union and the United States.[3]  Technical details: United States At the Pentagon, the hotline system is located at the National Military Command Center. Each MOLINK (Moscow Link) team historically worked an eight-hour shift: a non-commissioned officer looked after the equipment, and a commissioned officer who was fluent in Russian and well-briefed on world affairs was translator.[1]  Messages received in Washington automatically carry the U.S. government's highest security classification, "Eyes Only - The President".[1]  The hotline was tested hourly. U.S. test messages have included excerpts of William Shakespeare, Mark Twain, encyclopedias, and a first-aid manual; Soviet tests included passages from the works of Anton Chekhov. MOLINK staffers take special care not to include innuendo or literary imagery that could be misinterpreted, such as passages from Winnie the Pooh, given that a bear is considered the national symbol of Russia. The Soviets also asked, during the Carter administration, that Washington not send routine communications through the hotline.[1]  On New Year's Eve and on August 30, the hotline's anniversary, greetings replace the test messages.[1]  Upon receipt of the message at the NMCC, the message is translated into English, and both the original Russian and the translated English texts are transmitted to the White House Situation Room. However, if the message were to indicate "an imminent disaster, such as an accidental nuclear strike", the MOLINK team would telephone the gist of the message to the Situation Room duty officer who would brief the president before a formal translation was complete.[1]  Political criticism The Republican Party criticized the hotline in its 1964 national platform; it said the Kennedy administration had "sought accommodations with Communism without adequate safeguards and compensating gains for freedom. It has alienated proven allies by opening a 'hot line' first with a sworn enemy rather than with a proven friend, and in general pursued a risky path such as it began at Munich a quarter century ago."[6]  Technology  ITT Intelex Teletype L015, as displayed in the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library and Museum.  An East German Siemens T63-SU12 teleprinter from the hotline, as displayed in the National Cryptologic Museum of the NSA. The black box behind the teleprinter is an ETCRRM II encryption machine.  In Finland there are still several signs marking the cable's location. This one is in Forssa. The text reads "Post and telegraph department". The cable was also used for the ordinary national telephone service. The Moscow–Washington hotline was intended for text only; speech might be misinterpreted. Leaders wrote in their native language and messages were translated at the receiving end.[7]  Teletype The first generation of the hotline used two full-time duplex telegraph circuits. The primary circuit was routed from Washington, D.C. via London, Copenhagen, Stockholm and Helsinki to Moscow. TAT-1, the first submarine transatlantic telephone cable carried messages from Washington to London. A secondary radio line for back-up and service messages linked Washington and Moscow via Tangier. This network was originally built by Harris Corporation.[8]  In July 1963 the United States sent four sets of teleprinters with the Latin alphabet to Moscow for the terminal there. A month later the Soviet equipment, four sets of East German teleprinters with the Cyrillic alphabet made by Siemens, arrived in Washington. The hotline started operations on August 30, 1963.[9]  Encryption A Norwegian-built device called Electronic Teleprinter Cryptographic Regenerative Repeater Mixer II (ETCRRM II) encrypted the teletype messages.[10] This used the unbreakable one-time pad cryptosystem. Each country delivered keying tapes used to encode its messages via its embassy abroad. An advantage of the one-time pad was that neither country had to reveal more sensitive encryption methods to the other.[11][12]  Satellite In September 1971, Moscow and Washington decided to upgrade the system. The countries also agreed for the first time when the line should be used. Specifically, they agreed to notify each other immediately in the event of an accidental, unauthorized or unexplained incident involving a nuclear weapon that could increase the risk of nuclear war.[13][14][15] Two new satellite communication lines supplemented the terrestrial circuits using two U.S. Intelsat satellites, and two Soviet Molniya II satellites. This arrangement lasted from 1971 to 1978; it made the radio link via Tangier redundant.  Facsimile In May 1983, President Reagan proposed to upgrade the hotline by the addition of high-speed facsimile capability. The Soviet Union and the United States agreed formally to do this on July 17, 1984.  According to the agreement, upgrades were to take place through use of Intelsat satellites and modems, facsimile machines, and computers.[16] The facsimile terminals were operational by 1986.[3] The teletype circuits were cut in 1988 after several years of testing and use proved the fax links to be reliable. The Soviets transferred the hotline link to the newer, geostationary Gorizont-class satellites of the Stationar system.[17]  Email In 2007, the Moscow–Washington hotline was upgraded; a dedicated computer network links Moscow and Washington. The new system started operations on January 1, 2008.[4] It continues to use the two satellite links but a fiber optic cable replaced the old back-up cable. Commercial software is used for both chat and email: chat to coordinate operations, and email for actual messages. Transmission is nearly instantaneous, given the speed of light and the exigent importance of the communications system.  Usage The first message transmitted over the hotline was on August 30, 1963. Washington sent Moscow the text: "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog's back 1234567890".[18]  The primary link was accidentally cut several times, for example near Copenhagen by a Danish bulldozer operator, and by a Finnish farmer who ploughed it up once. Regular testing of both the primary and backup links took place daily.[19] During the even hours, the US sent test messages to the Soviet Union. In the odd hours, the Soviet Union sent test messages to the US.[citation needed]  The first official use of the hotline by the United States was when John F. Kennedy was assassinated on 22 November 1963.[18]  The first official use by the Soviet Union was on 5 June 1967 during the outbreak of the Six-Day War.[18]  The Moscow–Washington hotline was also used during the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War; during the Yom Kippur War (1973 Arab–Israeli War), when there was a United States nuclear alert; in 1974, when Turkey invaded Cyprus; in 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, and several times during the Reagan Administration, with the Soviets querying about events in Lebanon and the United States commenting on the situation in Poland.[1]  On October 31, 2016, the Moscow–Washington hotline was used to reinforce Barack Obama's September warning that the U.S. would consider any interference on Election Day a grave matter.[20]  Other hotlines with Moscow Another hotline for record communications between Washington and Moscow is part of the American Nuclear Risk Reduction Center and the Russian National Nuclear Risk Reduction Center, which was initiated by Ronald Reagan in 1988.[21] This was done in the aftermath of the Chernobyl Disaster.  In 2012, it was announced that a proposal was being negotiated with Moscow to add cyber warfare to the topics to be discussed on the hotline.[21]  In popular culture  This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Moscow–Washington hotline" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (March 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)  A non-dial "Red Phone" which is on display in the Jimmy Carter Library and Museum. This telephone is actually a prop, erroneously representing the hotline between Washington and Moscow.[22] In numerous television series, movies, video games and other places, the hotline between Washington and Moscow is represented by a red phone, although the real hotline never was a telephone line.[citation needed]  A hotline telephone was depicted in the film Fail-Safe as the "Red 1 / Ultimate 1 Touch phone", and also in Stanley Kubrick's film Dr. Strangelove, both from 1964 and both loosely based on Peter George's Cold War thriller novel Red Alert from 1958.  A more realistic depiction of the Hotline was Tom Clancy's novel The Sum of All Fears from 1991 and its 2002 film adaptation, in which a text-based computer communications system was depicted, resembling the actual Hotline equipment from the 1980s and 1990s.  In the 1990 HBO film By Dawn's Early Light, the White House Situation Room equipment that receives the (translated) hotline message, apparently relayed by the Pentagon-NMCC MOLINK team, is depicted as a teleprinter[23] (and not as a fax machine, the technology already in use at the NMCC itself by that year[3]).  A telephone is used in the intro cinematic of the video game Command & Conquer: Red Alert 2. The call is placed by the US president to the Kremlin in the wake of a global Soviet invasion.[24]  Political advertising The "red phone" was the centerpiece of television commercials used in the 1984 Democratic primary and 1984 presidential election and the 2008 Democratic primary elections. In 1984, an advertisement made by Bob Beckel and Roy Spence on behalf of candidate Walter Mondale suggested that "The most awesome, powerful responsibility in the world lies in the hand that picks up this phone." The advertisement was intended to raise questions about candidate Gary Hart's readiness for the presidency.[25][26]  The red phone was also featured prominently in an advertisement from that year targeting President Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative. In the second ad, the ringing phone goes unanswered while the narrator says, "there will be no time to wake a president – computers will take control."[27][28][29] Roy Spence revived the "red phone" idea in 2008 in an advertisement for candidate Hillary Clinton.[30][31]

Stromberg-Carlson Telephone  Wooden wall telephone made by the Stromberg-Carlson Company, 1910  This wooden wall telephone was manufactured in 1910 by Stromberg-Carlson Company of Chicago, Illinois. Alfred Stromberg and Androv Carlson, both employees of the Chicago Bell Telephone Company, formed their own telephone equipment manufacturing company in 1894.  In that same year, some of the patents on Alexander Graham Bell’s telephone expired creating opportunities for independent companies to capture a piece of the market Bell had dominated.  Almost overnight, hundreds of smaller companies built phones and installed systems all over the country. And most of those systems were in smaller towns and rural communities-areas in which the Bell Company had no interest because of their low profitability.  These small towns and companies needed reliable equipment and by 1899, Stromberg-Carlson supplied many of them, emerging as a leader among the independent telephone suppliers.  The Stromberg-Carlson phone became known as the “farmer’s friend” because of its quality and reliability, and its use mainly in rural areas.  It helped the American farmer by connecting small towns and breaking down the isolation of rural life.  The telephone in the museum’s collection is a type of wall phone called a twin box or double box. Two boxes are affixed to a wood backboard, the entire phone measures 32 inches long and 10 inches wide.  The top box has bells on the outside, and inside are magnetos, an electrical generator that uses to supply electricity to operate the phone. These early telephones had no rotary dial or push buttons. To make a call, it was necessary to turn the s-shaped crank that is attached on the right hand side of the top box to power the magnetos which in turn produce electricity making a connection to the operator.  The caller would then speak into the mouthpiece which works like a microphone, and ask the operator to connect the call.  In between the top and bottom boxes sits the small black transmitter, on which is mounted the mouthpiece.  The receiver (the part held up to the ear) is hung on a hook on the side of the transmitter; it can be lifted off the hook and is connected to the transmitter with a cloth cord.  When the receiver is lifted off the hook, the caller can hear the operator, it works like a speaker. The popular saying, “off the hook” can be traced back to this use of early phones.  The batteries to power the phone were stored on a heavy cast iron shelf in the bottom box. The shelf needed to be strong and sturdy as the batteries in 1910 were heavy. It is hard to find an old phone today that still has the battery shelf.  A sloping writing shelf where messages were written is situated on top of the bottom box.  In the early days of telephones, it was necessary to stand at the phone, holding the earpiece to hear the message and write using the little shelf.  There was no leisurely sitting down for a phone call or the convenience of an answering machine.  This telephone shows the normal wear and tear of possibly fifty years or more of use and it possible to imagine late night calls for emergency help, the caller frantically grasping that mouthpiece.  Or perhaps the phone once was a conduit for calls to loved ones far away, the earpiece held tightly, the cloth cord connecting rural families to relatives who left home.  If this telephone could speak, imagine the stories it could tell, the secrets uttered into it, the confidences shared.  Indeed a farmer’s friend, this old Stromberg-Carlson wall telephone connected farms to the outside world.  It serves as an illustration of the early days of telecommunication when making and getting a phone call was an important and special thing.  Western Electric was a United States electrical engineering company, the manufacturing arm of AT&T from 1881 to 1995. The telephone was donated to the museum by Clarence E. “Mutt” Doran in 1977. Doran, who passed away in 2002, worked 34 years for General Telephone Company, primarily as an installer-repairman. Doran was interested in the history of the telephone and had a large collection of antique phones.  Mrs. Doran remembers Mr. Doran interest in old phones began when he as working for the phone company and was responsible for exchanging old phones for new ones. Mr. Doran accumulated phones from residents and farms, often repairing them to make them operable.  Word spread of his hobby and old phones were brought to him for restoration.

Stromberg-Carlson  Industry Telecommunications Founded 1894; 127 years ago in Chicago, Illinois Founders Alfred Stromberg Androv Carlson Defunct 1982 Fate Split up and sold off Successor Siemens Stromberg-Carlson division of Siemens Parent Home Telephone Company (from 1904) General Dynamics (1955-1982) Stromberg-Carlson was a telecommunications equipment and electronics manufacturing company in the United States. It was formed in 1894 as a partnership by Swedish immigrants Alfred Stromberg (1861 Varnhem, Sweden - 1913 Chicago) and Androv Carlson (1854 Tommared, Sweden - 1925 Chicago). It was one of five companies that controlled the national supply of telephone equipment until after World War II.[1]  History  This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Stromberg-Carlson" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)  This section possibly contains original research. Please improve it by verifying the claims made and adding inline citations. Statements consisting only of original research should be removed. (October 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) In 1894, Alexander Graham Bell's patent for the telephone expired. Stromberg and Carlson,[who?] Chicago employees of the American Bell Telephone Company (later AT&T), each invested $500 to establish a firm to manufacture equipment, primarily subscriber sets, for sale to independent telephone companies.  Stromberg-Carlson was originally located in Chicago, with Carlson managing manufacturing and Stromberg responsible for marketing. Stromberg-Carlson quickly established a reputation for reliable equipment and stable prices.  In 1901, the temporary chief executive of the Kellogg Switchboard & Supply Company, Wallace De Wolf, assisted executives of rival telephone equipment manufacturer Western Electric in an attempt to take over Stromberg-Carlson. A bitter stockholder fight ensued, and the takeover attempt failed. Stromberg-Carlson reincorporated as a New York state corporation in 1902, where state law better protected the company from takeover efforts.[1][2]   1905 Stromberg-Carlson ad In 1904, Stromberg-Carlson was purchased by Home Telephone Company, a relatively large service provider based in Rochester, New York. The new owners quickly relocated all Stromberg-Carlson operations to New York, mainly to the Rochester area. The company branched out to become a major manufacture of consumer electronics including home telephones, radio receivers, and, after World War II, television sets. The company also became involved in the broadcasting industry, acquiring WHAM, the oldest station in Rochester, and rebuilding it into a high power station; one of the first three FM broadcasting stations in the United States, and possibly the oldest still in operation, now known as WBZA, dating from 1939; and one of upstate New York's pioneer television broadcasters, now known as WROC-TV. In 1955, Stromberg-Carlson was purchased by General Dynamics. Within a year, all three of its broadcasting stations had been sold to different buyers.  In 1970, Stromberg-Carlson delivered the first CrossReed PBX to the newly constructed Disney World in Orlando Florida. Over the next 10 years more than 7,000 CrossReeds were delivered globally.  During the 1970s, Stromberg-Carlson developed what is arguably[according to whom?] the first fully digital PBX, called the DBX. The first DBX was installed at Export, Pennsylvania in 1977 and consisted of 960 ports. While this first field trial had limited success[vague][citation needed], Stromberg went on to develop the DBX-240, DBX-1200 and the DBX-5000. Also during this same period, Stromberg developed a number of leading edge technologies and products, including the first digital AUTOVON switching system and the first digital Command and Control communications system.  In 1982, General Dynamics sold off their Stromberg-Carlson operations. Stromberg key-systems was sold to ComDial, the PBX/DBX division was sold to United Technologies, and the Central Office division was sold to Plessey of the UK. Plessey sold the digital central office business unit to Siemens in 1991. The new company, Siemens Stromberg-Carlson, became the third-largest vendor of central office switches in the United States, with a combined installed base of 5 million access lines. They continued to manufacture the Siemens digital central office as well as the Siemens EWSD[clarification needed] out of the Lake Mary facility, moving production of the EWSD from New York to Florida.  In 2006 the digital central office line of Siemens Stromberg-Carlson was sold to GENBAND, a Next Generation Networking company based in Texas.[3]  Products Switching systems Stromberg-Carlson produced several unique switching systems, including:  XY, a "flat motion" switch logically similar to Strowger switching. The "XY Selector" was not invented by SC, but licensed from L.M. Ericsson of Sweden in the late 1940s and re-engineered for U.S. switching applications (Ericsson used it for PABX and a very small Rural Exchange application). XY was very popular with REA (RURAL ELECTRIFICATION ADMINISTRATION) funded independent telephone companies and out sold all other vendors in the less than 1000 line applications in the 1950s. The largest XY ever in service was installed in Anchorage, AK by RCA Corporation for the U.S. Air Force. Later purchased by Anchorage Telephone Co, it eventually grew to over 10,000 lines. CrossReed 400/800/1600, an electronically controlled, wired-logic PBX with expansion up to 2,400 ports; notable for its quick dial tone speed & first video telephone in the world. ESC, an early electronic, wired logic, reed-switch with a matrix similar to the AE EAX. The ESC, was not however Stored Program Control and had more in common with crossbar switching than other SPC electronic switching systems. It was however notable for its quick dialtone speed. (ESC-1, ESC-2, ESC-3 and ESC-4) Stromberg created the DBX-1344/5136, the first fully digital PBX. It used a LSI/PDP-11 microprocessor in the early models. The product line was sold many times and eventually was employee purchased. The new company, Digital Voice Corp, added the DBX-288 & Excalibur lines and grew up to over 32,000 ports & 128,000 directories in the Excalibur. Digital Central Office, a time-division switch similar to DMS-10. The Stromberg-Carlson digital central office was the first Class-5 digital local office switching system installed in the U.S. Stromberg-Carlson put their switch (lab-prototype)into service in July 1977 in Richmond Hill, Georgia. This switch was SC's "REA FIELD TRIAL" office, but was never accepted by the telephone company (Coastal Utilities Inc) and was replaced with a Northern Telecom DMS-10 in the early 1980s. Military, institutional and consumer electronics In addition to telephone equipment Stromberg-Carlson produced military communications gear, institutional sound systems, and high-end stereophonic equipment. Many included Stromberg Carlsons "Acoustic Labyrinth" loudspeaker enclosure design, a forerunner of the modern transmission line loudspeaker enclosures.  In the early 1960s, Stromberg-Carlson also produced the SC4020, a computer-controlled film recorder used chiefly for Computer Output Microfilm applications. The SC4020 could output graphics and text either to 16mm microfilm or hardcopy (using chemically-developed light-sensitive paper) utilizing a Charactron CRT as the heart of the recorder (with the microfilm camera pointed directly at the face of the Charactron inside a light-proof column inside the 4020). Some 4020s were fitted with a 16mm motion picture camera instead of the stock microfilm camera, in order to create some of the first computer-generated animation.  Among Stromberg-Carlson's ventures were:  Radio and television receivers, loudspeakers, paging systems, commercial sound amplifiers, and microphones The ubiquitous BC-348 HF radio, originally manufactured for the U.S. Air Force during World War II and for a decade after Institutional intercom and public address systems Ground-Air-Ground tactical communications, AUTOVON and secure systems used by various government agencies worldwide Fire alarm products, such as bells and horns SC4020 Microfilm Printer & Plotter The microfilm printer was originally developed for the Social Security Administration to handle its large volume of microfilm data.[4] In 1959, Stromberg-Carlson introduced the SC4020, a computer-controlled microfilm printer and plotter, used chiefly for COM (Computer Output Microfilm) applications. The SC4020 utilized a Charactron cathode-ray-tube (CRT) with an internal mask (or stencil) through which the electron beam was deflected to choose an alphanumeric character, and the character-shaped beam was then deflected to a target position on the faceplate of the CRT. A 35 mm or 16 mm shutterless camera, in a lightproof enclosed cabinet along with the CRT, captured the imagery produced on the faceplate. The film was then developed chemically, separate from the SC4020, and could be later enlarged onto paper. The instructions to control the SC4020 were created by a mainframe computer and transferred to the SC4020 on magnetic tape. A “quick-look,” separate from the SC4020, was available using zinc oxide photosensitized paper.  Though intended as a high-speed printer, the SC4020 could be used to create vector-graphical output of scientific and engineering data, rather than plotting numbers by hand. Early installations of the SC4020, with its plotter capability, were at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory in Livermore, CA and at Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated in Murray Hill, NJ.[5] The SC4020 could also be used to create computer-animated movies on a frame-by-frame basis. These computer-animated movies, usually using vector graphics, were of scientific and engineering data and also of artistic investigations, done with the 35 mm camera or the 16 mm camera. Pin-registered cameras were used for creating movies on the SC4020 to minimize jitter. Computer-animated movies using raster graphics were created on the SC4020 at Bell Labs in the early 1960s using FORTRAN and the BEFLIX subroutine language.[6]  A much larger 19-inch diameter Charactron CRT was used for military radar-screen displays.[7] Around 1968, the Stromberg DatagraphiX SD4360, controlled by a minicomputer, was introduced as a replacement of the SC4020,[8] and replaced the SC4020 at Bell Labs.[9] “SC4020” seems to have become almost a generic term, including not only the original SC4020 but also the various similar machines that followed.  Timeline 1948 First Charactron cathode ray tube built.  1949 Convair begins development project of Charactron program.  1954 Major contract for Charactron tubes received (SAGE). First Charactron microfilm printer (Model 100) built.  1955 Stromberg-Carlson merges with General Dynamics and Charactron Project transferred from Convair to Stromberg-Carlson.  1959 First graphic COM recorder introduced (Model 4020).  1961 General Dynamics Electronic Division acquires Charactron project.  1964 Reorganization moves Charactron group back to Stromberg-Carlson where it becomes the Data Products Division.  1965 Model 4400 business COM recorder introduced.  1966 Production begins on Model 4060 (first minicomputer-controlled COM recorder).  1967 Datagraphix introduces its first microfiche reader.  1968 Data Products Division of Stromberg-Carlson Corporation established as separate corporation, Stromberg Datagraphics, Inc.  1969 Company name changed to Stromberg Datagraphix, Inc. First production models of A-NEW:AN-ASA7O delivered to Navy.  1970 Model 4200 On-Line COM Recorder introduced.  1972 First laser beam COM recorder exhibited.  1973 System 4500 (Models 4530 and 4550) introduced.  1975 Models 4540 and 4560 COM recorders introduced.  1976 AutoCOM/AutoFICHE introduced. Name officially changed to Datagraphix, Inc.  1977 Mini-AutoCOM and On-Line AutoCOM recorders introduced. First 132-column display terminal introduced.  1980 Installed first Model 9800 high-speed laser page printer.  Non U.S. branding In Argentina, the brand was acquired by Gularo S.A., a manufacturer of MP3/MP4 players, DVDs, phones, GPS receivers, televisions and speakers.

  • Condition: Used
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