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18 september 2006
YPSIDIXIT just got four more rotary phones, from an alert scout-friend who snuffled them out and promises two more, one a rare green one! Ooo, my favorite color! In this batch were a Caucasian-flesh-colored phone, two awesome black wall rotaries, and a cheery cunflower-yellow one that I immediately made my primary calling-phone. We plugged it into the phone line to test it. Just as with all my other old rotaries, it worked perfectly first time. PLUS, I won an ebay bid today for an awesomely gorgeous 1940s phone! Oh, it's a beauty.
Ypsidixit's goal for this winter is to wire up some of the older ones--including my 1920s jewel--so that when someone calls, ALL of my rotaries ring at the same time. Can you imagine the beauty of this phenomenon? I have been told that this will work--that one li'l phonecall coming in will sufficiently power all the phones so that they'll ring simultaneously. I have to do more research to find out if that's true. Imagine the glorious clangour! I certainly won't miss any calls! Y. just ordered a booklet called "How to Rewire Old Phones," and my soldering iron is metaphorically warming up for this project.
Irony: today on the bus, I heard a cell phone ring with an old-timey ringtone, the sound my hooked-up rotary makes when someone calls. The beautiful bell-sound. Only it was tinny in that cheapo electronic way. I had to smile, thinking, I got the real thing, kiddo. Heh.
Posted by ypsidixit at 18 september 2006 22:22
Comments
The irony of my collection is that Y. is one of the most reclusive people in Ypsilanti, yet I collect a communications device.
These old tanks are symbols to me of what communication should be. Not some annoying loud cell phone call on a bus somewhere. That's too evanescent and vaporous a medium. A communication with another person should be a sit-down affair. Each number laboriously dialed. Layering one's conversation on the great silt-bed of calls that has come before it on an old machine.
Plus you reuse an otherwise unused machine. Perfectly functional, though two of my new phones are older than I am. People were yakking on them when I didn't even exist. I get a huge kick out of the whole notion.
I can't wait till they're all hooked up. I dearly want to hear that first titanic multi-ring.
Posted by: Laura at 18 september 2006 22:40
The black wall rotaries have so many aesthetic pleasures to offer.
Their dials are metal, which has a pleasant feeling.
The handsets are heavy as lead and feel substantial and weighty.
The handsets clunk into their cradle with a satisfying mechanical click.
The dials create a nice whirring sound when dialed.
The whole apparatus weighs a lot! I'll have to affix it to a stud lest it yank out the drywall.
Analog, analog--that's for me.
Posted by: Laura at 18 september 2006 22:44
Y. was assured by her alert scout-friend that she could certainly figure out how to rewire some of these phones: "you like a challenge." Indeed. Sometimes too much.
Y. reflected that that was why this individual was such a good friend. He gallantly supported me in my crackpot quest. Y. realized she was lucky to have a loyalist in her corner, and felt thankful for her supporter.
Posted by: Laura at 18 september 2006 22:53