Crouching dog

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Crouching dog

Crouching dog (officially: desk phone model 29 , also known as the “ham bone”) is a telephone set that was developed and patented by Siemens & Halske in 1929, but was never mass-produced. At that time only around 500 copies were made.

The design of the telephone was downright futuristic and revolutionary for its time of origin: the receiver and number switch were housed in a single compact, slim floor-standing housing made of black Bakelite (with a white dial). The profile of the device is reminiscent of a crouching dog, the earpiece forming the head. The alarm clock (the bell) was housed in an external housing for wall mounting.

The special feature of the rotary dial was the moving finger stop. As the two spaces actually required between the “1” and the stop were not possible due to the small size, the stop ran two digits. This ensured that two "ones" selected in quick succession were not recognized as "two" by the exchange. Western Electric / USA took up this procedure again in the development of the Trimline telephone, which was as compact as the "crouching dog". This model, produced by Western Electric, was converted by Siemens in 1981 to meet the requirements of the Federal Post Office; the Federal Post Office then sold the modified Trimline as the Manhattan model. At the same time, Siemens marketed the telephone in its own branch office as the miniset 100.

The unusual design of the device had several disadvantages. Because of the high center of gravity with a small footprint, it had little stability, which is why it often overturned in the practical test or was not put down by its users, but rather laid down. This was also problematic because when the device was lifted from the table, a spring-loaded switch on the floor established the connection to the telephone network. Because of these disadvantages, the crouching dog never went into series production, while the W28 model, which was developed at almost the same time, was able to establish itself as the widespread standard telephone of the Reichspost .

Only a few copies have survived the years, which is why a “crouching dog” is practically impossible to find today and can only be viewed in a few museums, for example the Museum for Communication in Nuremberg and the Siemens & Halske company archive .

literature

  • Telephones 1863 to date. From the collections of the Museums for Communication. Edition Braus, 2001, ISBN 3-926318-89-9 , pp. 126–127.

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