Ericofon

The Ericofon is a one-piece plastic telephone created by the Ericsson Company of Sweden and marketed through the second half of the 20th century. It was the first commercially marketed telephone to incorporate the dial and handset into a single unit. Because of its styling and its influence on future telephone design, the Ericofon is considered one of the most significant industrial designs of the 20th century by Phaidon.[1] It is in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. In Sweden, the Ericofon is known as the cobra telephone for its resemblance to the hooded snake of the same name.[2]

History

The Ericofon was designed in the late 1940s by a design team including Gösta Thames, Ralph Lysell, and Hugo Blomberg.[3] The two major components of the telephone, the handset and the dial, are combined in a single unit. This one-piece design anticipated the evolution of the typical cordless phone and cell phone by several decades. [4] Serial production began in 1954. Early models were sold only to institutions; in 1956, however, production for the open market began in Europe and Australia.

As the Bell System did not permit the operation of third-party equipment on their network, the Ericofon could only be used by independent telephone companies in the United States. North Electric in Galion, Ohio, manufactured the Ericofon for the North American independent market.

Colors

When it was introduced on the U.S. market, the Ericofon was available in 18 colors. However, after transfer of production to North Electric, the number of colors was reduced to eight. A small number of phones with clear and metallic finishes were produced for special promotions. The most popular and widely produced colors were bright red and bright white. Other colors included various pastel shades of blue, green, and pink. The phone was never produced in black.

Ericotone

Most Ericofons had mechanical rotary dials, typical of all phones made in the era. While Ericofons produced by Ericsson used miniature buzzers as ringers, North Electric introduced the electronic "Ericotone" ringer. The Ericotone ringer used a simple, one-transistor oscillator circuit to produce a distinctive "chirping" sound. Colloquially, Ericofons were sometimes referred to as "tweeter" phones. This was one of the earliest uses of a transistor in a telephone; telephones with mechanical bell ringers and rotary dials did not need transistors.

Touch-tone

North Electric introduced a touch-tone version of the Ericofon in the United States in 1967. Production of this variant was much lower than that of the rotary-dial Ericofons. A design flaw in the hook switch mechanism would cause the touch-tone version of the phone to come apart if it was set down too forcibly or accidentally dropped and the phone then became unusable. It was almost impossible for the average consumers to restore the hook switch mechanism to correct operating condition if it were so damaged. North Electric ceased production of the Ericofon for North America in 1972.

Ericsson introduced a push-button version of the Ericofon, the model 700, for the company's 100th anniversary in 1976. The model 700 had a squarer design than earlier models. It was not a touch-tone phone. Instead, its electronics generated electrical pulses as its buttons were pressed, simulating the pulses produced by a rotary dial. Ericsson continued to produce rotary-dial Ericofons until about 1980.

Recent production

Wild and Wolf produces an Ericofon-lookalike called "Scandiphone".[5] The modern touch-tone phone is available in several colors and can be bought from web stores. The switch hook was redesigned to be stable. The keypad of the Scandiphones was not a standard touch-tone arrangement but rather appeared in a circle to mimic a rotary dial. A few other companies made Ericofon lookalikes with a more traditional-appearing keypad with the redesigned switch hook. Some of these lookalike phones may have used actual Ericofon cases purchased from excess stock in their phones.

Media appearances

The Ericofon has been seen in several feature films and TV shows, mostly in the 1960s and 1970s.

• An Ericofon appears prominently in The Twilight Zone episode "Third from the Sun", first broadcast on January 8, 1960; and is also in the episode "One More Pallbearer".
• A white Ericofon can be seen on the office desk of the supervillain in the movie Banco à Bangkok pour OSS 117 (1964).
• An Ericofon is used by actor Lee Philips in the Dick Van Dyke Show episode “The Man from Emperor” (1964).
• An Ericofon appears briefly in the headquarters of the enemy in the first episode "Eleven Days to Zero" (1964) of the TV series Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea.
• In the movie The World of Henry Orient (1964), Peter Sellers uses an Ericofon in his bedroom.
• Ericofons were used for several years in the detectives' office in the Australian TV series Homicide, with the phone listed by name in episode credits, and L.M Ericsson as the supplier.
• Red, white, and beige Ericofons appear throughout the underground research headquarters in "Crack in the World" (1965).
• I'll Take Sweden (1965) Starring Bob Hope and Frankie Avalon.

See also

• Trimphone: Another telephone from the same era.
• Trimline: AT&T's answer to the Ericofon, the Trimline phone incorporated a dial into the handset but had a separate cradle containing the ringer.
• Grillo: Another innovative telephone, from Italy. Its design anticipated the cellular "flip phone".

External links

• http://www.ericofon.com/
• Ericofon at the Museum of Modern Art
• http://www.ericofon.nl/