I have loads of telephone stuff. Not just telephones, but ringers, switching equipment, plugs, sockets, exchanges, wires, tools, parts, etc etc. I have come to a point where I start rediscovering things I forgot I had. Also I start to discovering things in my possesion that seemed insignificant at first, but later appear to be quite special.
A while ago my friend Lex gave me a little metal box, with some bakelite insides. He told me it was a terminal block for telephones. I did not recognise the type and there was no logo or makers mark on it, so I put it with my other terminal blocks.
For those of you who do not know what these terminal blocks are for: they used to hardwire telephones to the wall. The outside line went in one end and the telephone cord the other. A subscriber could not unplug his phone himself. It was stricktly FORBIDDEN by the telephone company, that still had Godlike authority in those days.
Did I mention that one of the focus telephones of my collection is the Ericsson model 1931? Researching it I was browsing an Ericsson product catalogue from 1934 and found this picture on the right.
To my surprise I saw that same terminal block! It turns out to be original to that iconic telephone. It will be one of those great little details when I restore one of those telephones for my own collection. The cherry on the apple sauce, as we say here. 🙂I have loads of telephone stuff. Not just telephones, but ringers, switching equipment, plugs, sockets, exchanges, wires, tools, parts, etc etc. I have come to a point where I start rediscovering things I forgot I had. Also I start to discovering things in my possesion that seemed insignificant at first, but later appear to be quite special.
A while ago my friend Lex gave me a little metal box, with some bakelite insides. He told me it was a terminal block for telephones. I did not recognise the type and there was no logo or makers mark on it, so I put it with my other terminal blocks.
For those of you who do not know what these terminal blocks are for: they used to hardwire telephones to the wall. The outside line went in one end and the telephone cord the other. A subscriber could not unplug his phone himself. It was stricktly FORBIDDEN by the telephone company, that still had Godlike authority in those days.
Did I mention that one of the focus telephones of my collection is the Ericsson model 1931? Researching it I was browsing an Ericsson product catalogue from 1934 and found this picture on the right.
To my surprise I saw that same terminal block! It turns out to be original to that iconic telephone. It will be one of those great little details when I restore one of those telephones for my own collection. The cherry on the apple sauce, as we say here. 🙂
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