2 Jul
2016
2 Jul
'16
8:30 p.m.
On 07/02/2016 07:32 PM, Bill Sudbrink wrote:
I was poking around a junk shop that I visit from time
to time and I
saw a toy. It didn't really strike me as that interesting when I saw
it but I've been wondering about it since I left the place this
morning. The thing was mostly red plastic with a cardboard bottom.
It had a two-prong AC cord and a four prong "old fashioned" telephone
jack. It had two big buttons and a spool of paper tape mounted on
the front. The tape was about 1/4 inch wide. I call it a toy
because it had that sort of feel about it. It was not clearly
labeled as such. It was also styled in a way that suggested late
1960s to me. The whole thing was the size of a small shoe box. I
can't find anything like it in google searches. I wonder if it might
have some early modem like device in it. Does this description "ring
a bell" with anyone?
Sounds like a late-model Kilburg Dialaphone. 1960-ish. Early models
directly operated the dial of the desk telephone--later ones just pulsed
the line appropriately--something that AT&T objected to and that Kilburg
unsuccessfully fought. This was years before the Carterfone episode.
Memory was a paper tape with printed names on it.
That particular unit sounds like a very rare piece of kit.
Am I getting close?
--Chuck