What is this? ( I already know the answer)

Playing a fun game tonight. Guess this piece. 

wife had me get this (and the rest of it) from the shed to take to school. Her kids have never seen one before. (First hint is free)

This goes back a ways with me and it still sorta works  what is it?

Rotary phone?

Crxpilot said:

Rotary phone?

So it still sorta works. Plug it in and there's a dial tone. Sadly it does not ring but if you pick it up you can have a normal conversation and even hang up on people the right way! Sadly dialing out the phone system has no idea what its doing. The series of clicks for a number apparently don't work anymore. 
 

this one resided in mom and dads trailer through the 79's and my bedroom from the mid 80's on through the early 90's. If this thing could talk I'd blush. A lot. 

I like the “headlight” bumps at the top. It might make a handsome convertible with a round cockpit.

Edit; do you mind if I add a “what is this” and keep the thread going?

In reply to bobzilla :

Back in the day the telcos would charge extra per phone. They could somehow tell how many phones you had by the ringers. At least that's what I remember my uncle saying as he took apart most of my grandmother's phones and cut the wires to the ringers. 

Crxpilot said:

I like the “headlight” bumps at the top. It might make a handsome convertible with a round cockpit.

Edit; do you mind if I add a “what is this” and keep the thread going?

Sounds fun to me. 

bobzilla said:

Crxpilot said:

I like the “headlight” bumps at the top. It might make a handsome convertible with a round cockpit.

Edit; do you mind if I add a “what is this” and keep the thread going?

Sounds fun to me. 

Awesome. Thanks. I posted this on Facebook yesterday and the borderline age of correct guesses was 35.

Rear projector tv!

bobzilla said:

Rear projector tv!

Sony 61”. I found the receipt while I was freestyle disassembling it and it cost $2799 in 1999.  

I wish we still had those.

If you were mad enough, you could ring the bell inside when you hung up on someone.

In reply to Crxpilot :

We had a 46" rca that mom and dad paid $2000 for in 1993. That would be like spending $3500 for a tv today. Insane

ShawnG said:

I wish we still had those.

If you were mad enough, you could ring the bell inside when you hung up on someone.

 

I did that tonight!

In 1973 my dad became self employed and set up a drafting table in the basement and became a freelancer.  He got an extra phone (a big deal) installed and thought it was awesome to get a red bat phone.  

Don't forget the top bump pieces are designed to hold the receiver while you went and got someone.   

It's in my garage and the dialer worked for 6 months then quit.  You could slam the phone really hard with no consequences - they were tanks.   
 

In reply to Datsun310Guy :

Just reading the wiki on these ITT phones. They were bought out by, get this, Nokia. No wonder you couldn't ki them!

Thread title made me expect to see Irritating Pegged Rods of Confusion. 

In reply to bobzilla :

Western Electric - probably Cicero, IL  

Phones like that sold for about $19.95, but most people rented them. Rental rates were about $1.50 per month in the phone bill. 

My mother rented hers for nearly 50 years. 

Some of those are worth real money. Oddball colors are worth a bunch.  I got a pile of peach colored ones from state surplus once and got good money for them selling one at a time. A friend that moved to Milwaukee started restoring them and quipped that rotary phones paid for his house. 

Datsun310Guy said:

In reply to bobzilla :

Western Electric - probably Cicero, IL  

Ah. You had the fancy name brand. 

This is the phone sitting on my desk next to my computer right now.

I have a 1940s era dial phone in the living room, it has a receiver so heavy your arm gets tired when using it.    I figure if anyone ever breaks in, I can use it for personal defense - I'll just whack them over the head with it.

In reply to stuart in mn :

One of my sisters did that to one of my other sisters. Gave her a minor concussion and a scalp wound bad enough to need stitches. 
 

In reply to stuart in mn :

I have Grandma's phone. Probably similar vintage. Weapons grade receiver.

Stuart:  A Princess phone?

Watch old Humphrey Bogart movies, as a private eye he gets whacked with one of those phones in every movie.  Made of Bakelite, might as well be cast iron!