Ericsson Dialog

Last updated May 29, 2019

Ericsson Dialog is a Swedish telephone model by Ericsson, released 1964. Millions of the model were sold and it retained its place in homes well into the 1990s. The Ericsson company presented King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden with a unique handmade Dialog telephone on his 40th birthday.

A telephone, or phone, is a telecommunications device that permits two or more users to conduct a conversation when they are too far apart to be heard directly. A telephone converts sound, typically and most efficiently the human voice, into electronic signals that are transmitted via cables and other communication channels to another telephone which reproduces the sound to the receiving user.

Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson, doing business as Ericsson, is a Swedish multinational networking and telecommunications company headquartered in Stockholm. The company offers services, software and infrastructure in information and communications technology for telecommunications operators, traditional telecommunications and Internet Protocol (IP) networking equipment, mobile and fixed broadband, operations and business support services, cable television, IPTV, video systems, and an extensive services operation.

Carl XVI Gustaf is the King of Sweden. He ascended the throne on the death of his grandfather, King Gustaf VI Adolf, on 15 September 1973.

In the early 1960s Ericsson hired the Swedish architecture and design company Ahlgren, Olsson & Silow (AOS) to develop Dialog, a new standard telephone that was to apply high end technology and reach international markets. Dialog attained great popularity and maintained its place within homes into the 1990s. This design classic has become an object of desire amongst collectors and telephone enthusiasts. New technology and the increased liberties in form resulted in the end of the era of number disc telephones. The 1972 version of the phone, equipped with buttons in place of the rotary dial, never became as popular as its predecessor.

Architecture is both the process and the product of planning, designing, and constructing buildings or any other structures. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural symbols and as works of art. Historical civilizations are often identified with their surviving architectural achievements.

A design is a construction or activity specification or plan, or the result of that plan in the form of a prototype, finished product, or process. "Design" as a verb is the process of creating such a design. In some cases, the direct construction of an object without an explicit prior plan is also considered to be a design activity. The same word is also used for the broad discipline of design creation, which spans engineering and applied art. Major examples of design are architectural blueprints, engineering drawings, business processes, circuit diagrams, and sewing patterns.

Standardization or standardisation is the process of implementing and developing technical standards based on the consensus of different parties that include firms, users, interest groups, standards organizations and governments. Standardization can help maximize compatibility, interoperability, safety, repeatability, or quality. It can also facilitate commoditization of formerly custom processes. In social sciences, including economics, the idea of standardization is close to the solution for a coordination problem, a situation in which all parties can realize mutual gains, but only by making mutually consistent decisions. This view includes the case of "spontaneous standardization processes", to produce de facto standards.

The Norwegian telephone 11AB22 introduced by Elektrisk Bureau in 1967 used the same shell as Dialog, but had different electronics. The 11AB22 was the world's first transistorized telephone, and unlike the Ericsson Dialog used an electronic ringer instead of bells, and was equipped with a dynamic microphone.

Design process

Due to the massive amount of telephones intended to be produced, uncommonly heavy emphasis was put on design. The exemplars for the future basic telephone of every home were Ericsson's own models from the 1930s. Dialog was to be modern, yet follow Ericsson's design tradition. The ergonomics of the handle was a focal point in the design. Additionally, the acoustic, production, and aesthetic aspects needed to be resolved.

Acoustics is the branch of physics that deals with the study of all mechanical waves in gases, liquids, and solids including topics such as vibration, sound, ultrasound and infrasound. A scientist who works in the field of acoustics is an acoustician while someone working in the field of acoustics technology may be called an acoustical engineer. The application of acoustics is present in almost all aspects of modern society with the most obvious being the audio and noise control industries.

Mass production, also known as flow production or continuous production, is the production of large amounts of standardized products, including and especially on assembly lines. Together with job production and batch production, it is one of the three main production methods.

Aesthetics Branch of philosophy dealing with the nature of art, beauty, and taste

Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that deals with the nature of art, beauty and taste and with the creation or appreciation of beauty.

The handle was fitted in size according to the dimensions of an average face, which had been taken as the starting point of the design process. In the completed product, the distance between the transmitter (mouth piece) and the receiver (ear phone) was noticeably shorter than earlier models. The handle was made as light as possible to minimize the stress inflicted upon the wrist and blood veins of the speaker during long calls. The weight of the base unit was also minimized especially for logistical and packaging reasons. The dial finger wheel and face plate consisted of several parts and was designed so that it could be replaced with a set of buttons in a later version of the phone.

In human anatomy, the wrist is variously defined as 1) the carpus or carpal bones, the complex of eight bones forming the proximal skeletal segment of the hand; (2) the wrist joint or radiocarpal joint, the joint between the radius and the carpus and (3) the anatomical region surrounding the carpus including the distal parts of the bones of the forearm and the proximal parts of the metacarpus or five metacarpal bones and the series of joints between these bones, thus referred to as wrist joints. This region also includes the carpal tunnel, the anatomical snuff box, bracelet lines, the flexor retinaculum, and the extensor retinaculum.

Veins are blood vessels that carry blood toward the heart. Most veins carry deoxygenated blood from the tissues back to the heart; exceptions are the pulmonary and umbilical veins, both of which carry oxygenated blood to the heart. In contrast to veins, arteries carry blood away from the heart.

Logistics is generally the detailed organization and implementation of a complex operation. In a general business sense, logistics is the management of the flow of things between the point of origin and the point of consumption in order to meet requirements of customers or corporations. The resources managed in logistics may include tangible goods such as materials, equipment, and supplies, as well as food and other consumable items. The logistics of physical items usually involves the integration of information flow, materials handling, production, packaging, inventory, transportation, warehousing, and often security.

The depth and thoroughness of the design is perhaps best depicted by the fact that even the inner lighting of the phone was taken into account: the inside was not left completely dark, to avoid insects inhabiting the product.^[1]

Materials

The material of the telephone shell was acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS), a thermoplastic polymer with high impact strength and glossy appearance. The use of plastics offered new possibilities as to the form and color of the product.^[1]

Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) (chemical formula (C₈H₈)_x·(C₄H₆)_y·(C₃H₃N)_z) is a common thermoplastic polymer. Its glass transition temperature is approximately 105 °C (221 °F). ABS is amorphous and therefore has no true melting point.

Thermoplastic plastic that becomes soft when heated and hard when cooled

A thermoplastic, or thermosoftening plastic, is a plastic polymer material that becomes pliable or moldable at a certain elevated temperature and solidifies upon cooling.

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References

1 2 Ericsson Review, Vol. 41, No. 4 (1964) pp. 142

Other sources

Lasse Brunnström: Svensk Industridesign – en 1900-talshistoria. (Norstedts)

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[er41-1] 1 2 Ericsson Review, Vol. 41, No. 4 (1964) pp. 142