Monthly Archives: December 2014

Blue

Here’s the 3rd and last Sinterklaas (or as you wish Christmas) present as promissed. It was not easy to get this one but the result is very, very nice. And that is an understatement 😉

This old case Wedgewood dates back from 1961 and is in perfect shape.

WedgwoodOldCase1WedgwoodOldCase2

As you can see the dial face is from Telia and has the ‘0’ first instead of last. Which makes this the second of this type that I have. In a previous posting it was shown.

It would be too obvious to make this a Christmas card, I will not do that. But nevertheless, it is a good opportunity to give you my Season’s Greetings.

Another Brown World

Here’s the second present that arrived this week. A Brown model. I was expecting to receive a North Electric Brown because it has the typical North Electric brown color and the North Electric dial face, but has turned out slightly different.

Brown1

As you can see the Brown is different from the PTT Dark Brown that I know very well. Opening the phone, to check the insides, I discovered that the chassis is from 1960, the speaker from 1979. The buzzer is a weird piece of metal… and the shell is painted. Professionally because it looks great from the outside… but painted. Originally most likely Crystal Mint and no date to be seen anymore.

Brown2
Brown3

So what is all this?

This is a so called CEAC phone.

In the late 1970s, North Electric withdrew from the telephone manufacturing business and with this from the Ericofon. A telephone rebuilding company, CEAC (Communication Equipment And Contracting Company) were at their peak at this time, and since they envisioned a future market for the Ericofon they purchased the “line” from North Electric. CEAC changed the product code to a simple 52, and offered it with or without the tone ringer. CEAC discontinued production of the Ericofon in the early 1980s and the company itself closed shortly thereafter.

In fact CEAC compiled phones together from all the parts they inherited. They even sprayed shells in popular colors. So this is a CEAC phone, a true ‘Frankenphone’. Except for the weird buzzer and capacitor all original parts.

Nevertheless a very nice item to have… it has its charm and I will for sure keep it.  It is part of the Ericofon history after all.

Update 30/08/2023: In the meantime some other CEAC items popped up, unfortunately not in my collection. Obviously CEAC even had a dedicated box and schematic paper. Both from 1978.

Worship The Glitch

Here’s the first arrival from the last post. An old case Charcoal from 1966. 🙂

The case has a small crack in the top. Actually it looks like a scratch but I think it is not only in the surface but through the whole plastic. This cannot really be checked since it is in the top of the earpiece, on the back. Unless I want to remove the earpiece, there is no way of fixing anything. You can see it in the image on the right, just a bit.

CharcoalCharcoalArty

I will not even try to fix it as I am very happy with the phone as it is. There are some minor scuffs and regular usage marks, nothing to worry about.

Actually I got the shell only. It was not looking too well but after a good cleansing and a polishing treatment it is looking great. The contact pads on the inside were missing, so I had to solder them in as well. Also the chassis and the dialface are unfortunately not original. Since I have a box with spareparts, I could compile a nice phone, very close to the original one. But there is still room for some small improvements though. Anyway, it displays very nicely.

This Charcoal is normally not so very easy to get , I was lucky.

 

Careful What You Wish For

This week is Sinterklaas in The Netherlands. And of course I have a wishlist of Ericofons I still would like to have…

Naturally I was careful what to wish for, but this time I got some real nice items. In the next few weeks I will post some pictures of nice phones that will arrive. Originally I had 4 phones, but one owner did not sell in the end. So three very nice items remain, still a very nice catch. I am not going to say anything more, not to spoil anything. It is a surprise for me too!

1941Prototypes

Not on my wishlist, you have to stay modest, are the 1941 prototypes of  the Ericofon above. This image was taken from the Ericsson archive.