Australian Post Office
Ericofon

Ericsson of Sweden designed and produced the Ericofon, also called the Cobra phone by some. A single piece table telephone it was made available worldwide.

An unusual telephone which sold well but not as well as expected. Competition in the US made sales difficult.

Many have no internal ringer, but the APO variant contains a buzzer.

The dial is part of a metal chassis, which also supports the internal components including the switch hook. The switch hooks are operated by a plastic plunger in the centre of the dial.

A plastic case fits over the chassis and is fixed by 4 screws. The transmitter is clipped to the inside of the case, but the receiver is glued in place. The receiver is therefore very difficult to replace, if not at all, so if purchasing an Ericofon always ensure that speech reception is good.

There is no real way to date these telephones but if the cord is original then the grommet should be marked "BLY" (the manufacturer of phone cords in Australia) on one side and the year on the other side. This is a good indication of the year produced.

The phones came in a multitude of colours as well.

For lots more information on Ericofon telephones please go to Ericofon.com

An article from the
Australian Telecommunications Journal
Dated June 1963

A NEW TELEPHONE FOR AUSTRALIA
THE ERICOFON

In response to the growing subscriber demand for modern telephone facilities, the Australian Post Office recently decided to extend its range of telephone instruments by introducing the unconventional Ericofon. The Ericofon is a single piece automatic telephone of unique design. It has achieved wide public acclaim in several overseas countries. especially for office and bedroom locations, as e conspicuous telephone that requires little table surface area. Colours being purchased by the A.P.O. are ivory, silver grey, carnival red, surf green, and mushroom.

Ericofons are being offered to subscribers as additional instruments on direct exchange line services or as extension instruments insofar as they are technically compatible with other conventional instruments. This means. that on a direct exchange line service. an Ericofon may be connected as a second portable instrument, or a second or third parallel instrument, or through a changeover key, provided that one instrument on the service is of the 300, 400, or 801 type.

On a P.M.B.X. or P.A.B.X. extension line Ericofons may he connected alone, in pairs, or together with any other standard instrument, to offer portable or parallel facilities. Press button recall is not a feature of this telephone.

On an exchange service, if the Ericofon is fixed and the other telephone is of the BM type, the Ericofon internal AC buzzer is connected to operate to incoming ring signals. The buzzer is also connected when the Ericofon is a P.B.X. extension unless it is combined with a telephone other than an 801 type. In all cases additional standard alarm equipment may also be connected.

A 6-connection flat plug and socket has been standardised by the A.P.O. for ail new telephone instruments and for new portable Services. This combination will therefore be used with the Ericofon to achieve ease of interchange-ability. A 3-conductor semi-retractable ivory coloured line cord interconnects the plug and Ericofon.

For maintenance purposes the Ericofon is to be subdivided into units comprising plug and cord, the base chassis with dial, the case with receiver, and the transmitter. This is in line with the revised A.P.O. field maintenance techniques, under which all instruments are being divided into functionally separate sub-assemblies or units which may be replaced independently if faulty.

Training Notes
An extract from ETP 0243

7. ERICOFON TELEPHONE

7.1 Description
The Ericofon is a one piece desk model telephone of unique design. The dial, receiver, transmitter and a buzzer are all contained within the light weight case. Fig. 11 shows the shape of this telephone. The line cord terminates on a 6 connector plug of the same design as that used for the 800 series, and the line wires terminate on a corresponding socket.

Inside the Ericofon, the gravity switch and all the components other than the transmitter and receiver are mounted on the upper side of the base plate which holds the dial mounted underneath the gravity switch.

There are eight screw terminals - 1 to 6 are part of the buzzer capacitor unit, and AS7 and 8 are part of the gravity switch assembly. This is shown in Fig. 12 Connection to these terminals is solely by means of spade tags.

The transmitter or microphone is held in position inside the. case by a locking ring, and the receiver is glued within the case and cannot be removed. If the receiver or leads to the receiver become faulty the complete unit is replaced.

7.2 Facilities

This telephone provides all the facilities that the standard telephone provides, with the singular difference that incoming calls are indicated by a buzzer rather than a bell.

Their installation is restricted to additional telephones on simple services, and as alternative choice telephones for use on P.M.B.X. extensions.