Ericofon DBJ 500
One-Piece Telephone
1941-1954 (designed), 1956-1958 (manufactured)
1941-1954 (designed), 1956-1958 (manufactured)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
The Ericofon was launched by the L M Ericsson Company in 1954 as a convenient, all-in-one telephone.
LM Ericsson was first established in 1876 as a small workshop to repair telegraph instruments. Over the course of the late nineteenth century, Ericsson was responsible for major technological breakthroughs in telegraph equipment including the first handheld ‘butterstamp’ telephone and wall mounted telephones.
The phone’s compact design marked the first break from the traditional two-part telephone design which separated the base and dial from the handset. For the first time, the dial, switch, and microphone were all contained in the telephone’s base with a squared earpiece at the top.
The Ericofon’s distinctive curve was achieved using ABS, a new thermoplastic that had become available after the Second World War. This plastic had the additional benefits of being impact and scratch-resistant, lightweight, and colour-fast, allowing the Ericofon to be produced in eighteen different tones. This blue-grey model is one of the five colours originally produced for the European market.
Multiple designers were involved in the design of the Ericofon. Its early prototypes (1941-1949) were overseen by designers Ralph Lysell, a pioneer of Swedish industrial design and Hugo Bloomberg, the head of the technical department at Ericsson. The Ericofon project was then passed on to Swedish designer Hans Gösta Thames from 1949 to 1954, who took from Lysell and Bloomberg’s earlier prototypes to develop a phone that would be ‘light and feel comfortable in the hand’.
When first sold in Europe, Australia, and America in 1956, the Ericofon was enormously successful and attracted both institutional and domestic buyers. It was marketed to offices as an efficient all-in-one substitute to traditional phones which took up more space. It was also the first telephone to be branded with a name (rather than an identification number) making it easily marketable to home consumers. Contemporary advertisements celebrated the way its various colour ways could be used in different areas of the home to match interior design schemes, incorporating images of women using the phone in bed or chatting in the study. In this way, the Ericofon represents the introduction of technology into the home.
LM Ericsson was first established in 1876 as a small workshop to repair telegraph instruments. Over the course of the late nineteenth century, Ericsson was responsible for major technological breakthroughs in telegraph equipment including the first handheld ‘butterstamp’ telephone and wall mounted telephones.
The phone’s compact design marked the first break from the traditional two-part telephone design which separated the base and dial from the handset. For the first time, the dial, switch, and microphone were all contained in the telephone’s base with a squared earpiece at the top.
The Ericofon’s distinctive curve was achieved using ABS, a new thermoplastic that had become available after the Second World War. This plastic had the additional benefits of being impact and scratch-resistant, lightweight, and colour-fast, allowing the Ericofon to be produced in eighteen different tones. This blue-grey model is one of the five colours originally produced for the European market.
Multiple designers were involved in the design of the Ericofon. Its early prototypes (1941-1949) were overseen by designers Ralph Lysell, a pioneer of Swedish industrial design and Hugo Bloomberg, the head of the technical department at Ericsson. The Ericofon project was then passed on to Swedish designer Hans Gösta Thames from 1949 to 1954, who took from Lysell and Bloomberg’s earlier prototypes to develop a phone that would be ‘light and feel comfortable in the hand’.
When first sold in Europe, Australia, and America in 1956, the Ericofon was enormously successful and attracted both institutional and domestic buyers. It was marketed to offices as an efficient all-in-one substitute to traditional phones which took up more space. It was also the first telephone to be branded with a name (rather than an identification number) making it easily marketable to home consumers. Contemporary advertisements celebrated the way its various colour ways could be used in different areas of the home to match interior design schemes, incorporating images of women using the phone in bed or chatting in the study. In this way, the Ericofon represents the introduction of technology into the home.
Object details
| Categories | |
| Object type | |
| Title | Ericofon DBJ 500 (manufacturer's title) |
| Materials and techniques | Moulded ABS plastic parts glued together and sanded at the seam. |
| Brief description | Ericofon DBJ500, designed by Ralph Lysell, Hugo Bloomberg and Hans Gosta Thames 1941-1954, manufactured by L M Ericsson Company, Sweden, 1956-1958 |
| Physical description | The design of the Ericofon consists of a desk-handset including a dial, switch, transmitter, and receiver. The desk-handset is connected to a power source through a wire. The handset’s exterior casing is made from mirror halves of moulded ABS plastic (a copolymer of styrene and acrylonitrile) in blue which have been glued together and sanded at the seam. The earpiece at the top features pronounced edges and is perforated with small holes. An arc-shaped neck with a forward slope connects the earpiece to the phone’s base. Where the neck and base meet, there is a small depression forming a thumb grip. When not in use, the handset stands on its base, protecting the dial and switch from dust, and there are perforations at the front of the base to indicate the location of the microphone. The chassis holding the dial and switch are recessed into the underside of the base. The red switch button is situated in the centre of the finger wheel and numbers are underneath the finger dial. The Ericsson logo, which was used by the company between 1942 and 1982, is visible to the right of the dial. A printed logo at the top of the dial face depicts a five-pointed star with radiating electric bolts, representing the state-owned company Televerket, which controlled telephone communication in Sweden at the time of the Ericofon’s production. There is also a rectangular cut-out at the base which could have been used as a cardholder for the owner’s telephone number. The phone’s black cord comes out of the base of the telephone and terminates in a pronged plug made for the Swedish market. |
| Dimensions |
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| Production type | Mass produced |
| Marks and inscriptions |
|
| Gallery label | The first one-piece telephone
The development of a space-efficient one-piece telephone was 20 years in the making and could only be realised in the 1950s with the arrival of ABS plastic. Easier to mould than earlier plastics, ABS allowed for the Swedish company LM Ericsson to develop the Ericofon: a lightweight, one-piece stand-up phone with a rotary dial. Before this, telephones had always had a base and separate receiver.
Rotary-dial telephone
Ericofon, 1954 (manufactured about 1960)
Designed by Gösta Thames and Ralph Lysell
Manufactured by Ericsson, Sweden
Moulded ABS plastic and electronic components
Given in memory of Staffan Börjesson
Museum no. W.3-2020
This label is part of the Housing and Living display of the Design 1900-Now gallery opened in June 2021.(2021) |
| Credit line | Given in memory of Staffan Börjesson |
| Summary | The Ericofon was launched by the L M Ericsson Company in 1954 as a convenient, all-in-one telephone. LM Ericsson was first established in 1876 as a small workshop to repair telegraph instruments. Over the course of the late nineteenth century, Ericsson was responsible for major technological breakthroughs in telegraph equipment including the first handheld ‘butterstamp’ telephone and wall mounted telephones. The phone’s compact design marked the first break from the traditional two-part telephone design which separated the base and dial from the handset. For the first time, the dial, switch, and microphone were all contained in the telephone’s base with a squared earpiece at the top. The Ericofon’s distinctive curve was achieved using ABS, a new thermoplastic that had become available after the Second World War. This plastic had the additional benefits of being impact and scratch-resistant, lightweight, and colour-fast, allowing the Ericofon to be produced in eighteen different tones. This blue-grey model is one of the five colours originally produced for the European market. Multiple designers were involved in the design of the Ericofon. Its early prototypes (1941-1949) were overseen by designers Ralph Lysell, a pioneer of Swedish industrial design and Hugo Bloomberg, the head of the technical department at Ericsson. The Ericofon project was then passed on to Swedish designer Hans Gösta Thames from 1949 to 1954, who took from Lysell and Bloomberg’s earlier prototypes to develop a phone that would be ‘light and feel comfortable in the hand’. When first sold in Europe, Australia, and America in 1956, the Ericofon was enormously successful and attracted both institutional and domestic buyers. It was marketed to offices as an efficient all-in-one substitute to traditional phones which took up more space. It was also the first telephone to be branded with a name (rather than an identification number) making it easily marketable to home consumers. Contemporary advertisements celebrated the way its various colour ways could be used in different areas of the home to match interior design schemes, incorporating images of women using the phone in bed or chatting in the study. In this way, the Ericofon represents the introduction of technology into the home. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | W.3-2020 |
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| Record created | February 13, 2020 |
| Record URL |
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