Telkom Bratek

The Telkom Bratek was a Polish telephone developed in the late 80s, by RWT, Radomska Wytwórnia Telekomunikacyjna, once the Polish branch of the Swedish Ericsson company.

It is a compact modern designed telephone. All electronic components are mounted on a printed circuit board, but it does still have a mechanical ringer with 2 bells. Bratek means violet, as the Polish telephone authority Telkom names all its telephone models  after flowers in this period.

I really love it’s design and I wanted one really badly for my collection, when I first saw it. It seems to be made for the Polish marked only and is not found very often outside Poland. So I had to save up some money and buy a good one through the internet and have it sent to the Netherlands.

It has a couple of unusual features, which make it very interesting. It came I various colours, like red, green, brown, white and there are versions with an earthing button and indicator light. Not only was it made with a rotary dial, but also with a push button key pad.

It can be converted from a wall version to a desk version. This is done firstly by adding a wall bracket, which is missing on the Bratek in my collection. Secondly the dial has to be oriented the other way. That is done by lifting it and turning it.

The most unusual thing about this model is its finger wheel, which does not have finger holes like regular dials. Instead it has u shaped openings in which a fingertip can be placed. This type of finger wheel is not unique to this telephone, as in England and the USA they experimented with this type too. It is however the only telephone that actually went into production with this feature. Using this dial is like using any other dial. You hardly noticed the difference with a normal dial, when placing a finger in one of the openings and turning it. It also helps that the dial is placed in e recess, thus preventing a finger from slipping out.