#contempra

[forever70s]

1972 Contempra telephone ad

[commodorez]

Do you have a favourite rotary telephone?

Excellent question!

Yes, I have a favorite:

The Northern Electric Pyramid phone from about 1935. I had this on my desk at my old job, tied into the telephone system. Its distinctive ring made it really easy to discern if I was the one being called instead of my coworkers. The chrome dial and the area code indicate that this unit came from Canada.

Coming in second place is my Northern Telecom 500-style set with official Commodore branding -- also from Canada. These were sold with VICMODEMs in a special bundle exclusively in the Canadian market. The VICMODEM requires that you detach the cord from the handset, plug it directly into the modem, then dial for the computer.

Problem is that you can't do that here, because the handset cord is permanently attached! Solution? The little white adapter box called the VIC 1605. Very hard to find, but I found one.

Coming in third place would be the Contempra from Northern Electric/Telecom from 1967 (why do these keep being Canadian?). Beautiful colors, angles. Great phone, but sadly I don't have one. Atleast not one like this... NT made these into lineman's test sets (commonly called butt sets because they hang on a lineman's belt by their butt/you use them to butt-in to a call when testing things).

I bought one and turned it into the NT2017 Rotary Cellphone, a real working 2G cellular telephone. It's got an Adafruit Fona board inside with an Atmel 32U4 microcontroller, a little screen, and zero ability to send/receive text messages. It didn't work very well, but it was really fun to build and use before it broke. Construction was very fragile, and my code running it was hot garbage. Since the discontinuation of 2G cell service, it's just decorative at this point.

The last one of my favorites is one I certainly don't have: a late 19th century Skeleton Telephone from Ericsson. Technically not a rotary phone, but it does have a crank that you rotate!

These are expensive, really hard to find, and obviously rather difficult to use without having an operator to ring up when you turn the crank. However, they are stunningly beautiful, and all of the functionality is on display arranged in such a way to accentuate the elegance of its industrial design.

How about you? Do you have a favorite rotary phone?

[contac]

[laurenjsion]

But seriously.. You need come to our show this weekend! #contempra #phillynutt