Executone portable inter-plant telephone
Collection Name
PNM Forerunners
AssociationAssociated with
PNM Forerunners
Date1960s
Mediummetal, plastics
Dimensions17 × 9 1/2 × 2 1/2 in. (43.2 × 24.1 × 6.4 cm)
ClassificationsTools & Equipment for Communication
Credit LineAlbuquerque Museum, gift of PNM Forerunners
Object numberPC2012.36.19
DescriptionThis portable telephone unit consists of a metal case, a plastic handset, an attached spring cable/wire, a red LED light, and eight truncated connection cables or wires. The box portion of the device is gray, and features a rounded, red button on the top-facing panel, with "Illuminates when / system is busy" written beneath it in capital, yellow lettering. Below this, "Executone" is read in yellow lettering, referring to the telecommunications company founded in the mid twentieth century. Towards the bottom section, a light-colored, circular button is visible, while the yellow text below it instructs users to press it while paging on the handset. The bottom-facing panel of the case secures both a black, coiled wire and the set of eight, smaller, gray wires. The coiled wire attaches to the phone itself, which sits on one side of the case with a support on the top. Most likely utilized by employees at the Prager Station, an electrical generating system in Albuquerque, New Mexico founded in the early twentieth century, the phone likely served as an industrial, inter-plant phone, specified for durability and perhaps integration with neighboring systems.On View
Not on view
Freon
unidentified
Chicago Flexible Shaft Co.
