There's been a lot of different dial faces
used around the world over time. I have listed here 28 that I've come across so far. Some
I know well, some I have no idea when or where they were used.
Click on any picture to see a larger view
This is the first dial face used in Australia
This is the first dial face used in Sweden.
Thanks to Thomas Johansson for the picture.
This is the first dial face used outside of
Sweden.
This is the second dial face used outside of
Sweden.
This is the first dial face brought to the
USA. It conforms with the alpha-numeric numbering and has "Sweden" stamped on
it.
This is an early numbers only face with the
logo imprinted at the top.
This was the second dial used in Sweden. You
can tell a Swedish dial by the numbering. They started with '0' instead of '1'.
This is an early face from a North Electric
that was assembled in the USA so no country of origin was needed on it.
This dial face came out on the earlier
"new case" phones used in Sweden. "Tillhor Televerket" translates
roughly to "Phone company property".
This is the final look of the LM Ericsson
made dial faces for the international market. Countries that had alpha-numeric dialing
used these, others used the numbers only face.
This along with the alpha-numeric version
were the most commonly used faces in the later years.
This dial face was used on phones in Arabic
speaking countries.
This dial was used in Oslo, Norway and in New
Zealand. You can recognize it by the "backwards" numbering.
This face was used in the United Kingdom. In
the early days, the post office ran the phone service, this is why it is marked "Post
Office Property".
This dial was used in Denmark. It has a
slight variation on the alphabet to accommodate the language.
This dial was used in France. It has a slight
variation on the alphabet to accommodate the language.
This dial face was used by the Dutch
telephone company PTT.
This is the dial face found on all "new
case" North Electric Ericofons. The big difference between North and LME was the
placement of the dial card in the center of the switch hook instead of at the bottom of
the face.
The face of the manual service Ericofon made
by LM Ericsson
The face of the manual service Ericofon made
by North Electric.
This is the dial face from my clear Ericofon.
This is the dial face from the leather
Ericofon. I've noticed that all leather Ericofons use recycled Telia (Swedish phone
company) dial faces.
This is one of two versions of the Model 700
dial face.
This is one of two versions of the Model 700
dial face.
This is an early version of the TouchTone in
Sweden. The earlier switching equipment there 'A' and 'B' instead of '*' and '#'. Thanks
to Ove Svensson for this picture.
This is a later TouchTone used in Sweden (and
possibly other countries). It's recognizable by its numbers only face.
When TouchTones were first invented, they
didn't have # and *. This dial face predates the standard 12-button dial and I believe
this to be a prototype since it ha no references in any literature.
This is the standard North Electric TouchTone
dial face with the alpha-numeric characters.
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Converted dial faces
Often times you'll see an odd looking dial face. Shown here AE two
examples of stickers over faces to convert them. Phone companies in the USA would buy
surplus Ericofons from countries that had different dial faces than ours. They would then
convert the dial face to conform with the North American alpha-numeric numbering using
stickers. Sometimes they would even repaint the dial faces.
--
Finger Wheels
The earliest finger wheels were made of Bakelite. You can recognize these
because they have no imprinting on the blank area.
They also have a round hole and use a special nut for attaching them to the dial.
The standard LM Ericsson finger wheel has it's logo LME and "Made In
Sweden" on the blank area.
The standard North Electric finger wheel has "Ericofon"
imprinted in the blank area.
