Trimphone

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article does not cite any references or sources. (December 2007)
Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed.

A Trimphone, viewed from the side. The handset cradle functioned as a carrying handle when the receiver was off the hook, and the coiled cord in theory allowed the phone to be carried around.

The Trimphone, from above, in the original dial design and the later keypad. To fit the electronics used to generate the dial pulses (and in later models, tones), the depth of the case was increased.

The Trimphone is a British model of telephone designed in the 1960s. It was positioned as a more fashionable alternative to the standard telephones available from the GPO. The name is an acronym standing for Tone Ring Illuminator Model, referring to the then innovative electronic ringer ("warbling", as opposed to the traditional bell) and the illuminated dial. The luminous dial contained the mildly radioactive element tritium, which caused some concern about safety. At one point during the 1990's the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Authority (UKAEA) at Harwell were fined £5,000 by Wantage Magistrates Court for acccumulating radioactive waste having colleced several thousand trimphone luminous dials in a skip.

Although a later model featured buttons that did not light up instead of the original dial, it continued to be known as the Trimphone. Consumers were divided as to its aesthetic merits, and some models required rewiring in order to connect to the PSTN in the UK.