Ericofon
The Ericofon , also known as Kobra phone or Kobra for short , was a Swedish phone model that was launched by LM Ericsson in 1956 . Today it is a sought-after collector's item.
development
As early as 1940–41, Ericsson had begun to develop a so-called one-piece telephone (device and receiver in one piece). Ericsson had hired a group of industrial designers in the summer of 1939, including Ralph Lysell (1907–1987). He designed the first wooden models of such a telephone. LM Ericsson came up with the idea for such a telephone at Siemens & Halske . Siemens had developed and patented the world's first one-piece telephone as early as 1930. The dial was on the side of the foot, alternatively at the bottom of the foot. The Siemens device, also known as the “ crouching dog ” because of its appearance , never went into series production.
The further development of the Ericofon was interrupted by the Second World War and the first prototypes were not ready until 1950. At the end of 1956, production finally got underway under Gösta Thames , head of the equipment technology group at Ericsson. Thames was also instrumental in the final execution of the phone. The working name was Erifon , but the official name was Ericofon DBJ 500 . The phone was popularly nicknamed Kobra or Kobratelefon because of its appearance . Because of its Scandinavian origins, another nickname for the phone was Scandiphone .
Manufacturing
The Kobra telephone was an immediate success and after just six months the demand exceeded production capacity by 500 percent. The Ericofon was produced in many colors, for example in 18 different tones for the American market. The design was so compact that there was no room for the bell, so Kobra was often used as a secondary device or a separate bell was bought. In the bottom of the phone was the rotary dial with a large push button in the middle that automatically put you in contact with the outside line as soon as you pick up the phone and disconnect it when you put it back. When Ericsson stopped production of the Ericofon DBJ 500 in 1982 , 2,510,000 units had been produced. Today the Kobra telephone is a sought-after collector's item, especially the red one.
Successor model
For the company's centenary in 1976, Ericsson brought out a successor, the Ericofon DBJ 700 , designed by Carl-Arne Breger . It had pushbuttons instead of a rotary dial, but it couldn't compete with its predecessor. After 41,380 copies were manufactured, production was discontinued in 1984.
Literature and source
- Lasse Brunnström: Telephones, en designhistoria . Atlantis, Stockholm 2006, ISBN 91-7353-109-X
See also
- Ericsson's skeletal apparatus
