So you think you’re hip because you have an iRetrofone or you’re using the iRetrophone app on your iPhone. OK, I’ll admit they’re both pretty cool and the dock probably looks quite elegant on your desk. But I prefer the real thing. Real bell, real rotary dial. I accept no substitutes.
As much as I love new technology, I’m also fascinated by vintage gadgets, especially if they’re still usable. That’s probably why I have way too many old Macs and PowerBooks lying around and why I decided to buy a vintage rotary phone and put it on my desk.
The phone is a Hagenuk W48 from 1956. Actually, it’s a W49, but the only difference is that the W49 can be re-configured to hang it on the wall while the W48 is only for desktop use. Otherwise both models are identical.
The crazy thing is that this 55 year-old phone still works like a charm. It’s in perfect condition, even the bell sounds crisp, clear and loud:
What’s even crazier, though, is that I’ve hooked this dinosaur up to my VDSL router and I can actually use it to make and receive calls via my ISDN phone line or via VoIP. All it takes is this little box that converts the impulse dialing signals from the phone’s rotary dial to touch-tone signals for my router. 1956, meet 2011.
It’s going to take a while for me to get used to the W49’s bell, and I doubt I’m going to actually be making that many calls with it. But for a vintage tech geek like me, I don’t have to actually use it to appreciate it. Just having it sit there is more than half the fun.
P.S.: If you’re in the US and looking for something similar to the W48, the most popular phone from that era is probably the Western Electric Model 500. Just hop on over to Ebay, there are always a couple of dozen or so being sold.
