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
