In
junior kindergarten, our
playhouse had one of these things set on the
Corcan table covered in a plain
cotton cloth next to the cot in the
bedroom. It never
rang, but the
rotary dial telephone was
heavy when we "called" our friends.
The
Bakelite telephone's development
commenced in
1927, after
Bell Telephone offered
$1,000 to ten designers to
design a new
telephone that would
combine the
speaker and
mouthpiece within a
handset. The one design
specificaiton it carried called for it to be "
rugged,
durable,
phenolic resin" or Bakelite.
Industrial designer
Henry Dreyfuss was consulted, however his ideas were deemed
impossible to work with as he wanted to work closely with
Bell engineers to
redesign the
awkward prototype that had been developed for the
project. After the other
tendered designs were
deemed
unsuitable, Bell Telephone returned to Dreyfuss and he in turn he defined "
phone" as we knew it until the
onset of the
digital era.
With Bakelite's
rigidity and
strength, users gained the
freedom to change
positions while using the phone. It allowed more
privacy than an ear and mouthpiece set and two hands were not required to operate the set. A Bakelite phone can be dropped without
shattering or
cracking and its
black colour made it
stand out as a
modern object in anyone's
home. Its
design made itself as an
essential object in our
day to day lives..
All I really
remember about the
phone is that it was
heavy. We knew better than to
swing the
receiver around by its
cord and we
avoided those who did.