Sweet, Sexy Technology: The Rotary Cellphone...

BLOT: (25 May 2011 - 11:00:34 AM)

Sweet, Sexy Technology: The Rotary Cellphone...

I just dropped a short bid on this number, one of the prettiest rotary phones I have seen in a bit:

I have wanted an old school phone for some time. I think many of you know that while I am something of a technophile, I am a technophile in the sense of loving information itself. And hardwired, solid data excites more than frou-frou candy buttons. Give me a phone that'll survive EMP and I am in love. I have, for the past year or so, searched a number of thrift stores. The closest I have gotten is a pretty little "slim phone", model number Conair Corporation SW024 [the one pictured is close, but seems slightly updated from the one I have, but maybe that's just the photo chosen]. Google search brings up little of use. No idea what the release date on it would be. Feels a little too solid to be released post-95, but I suppose it could have been a workhorse model dropped in the final days of the basic phones (right before high-Hertz cordless, multi-line, and more complicated variations took over so completely as to make the others obsolete). Apparently the company, Conair [Corporation?] now does hair supply stuff, maybe exclusively?

Since I know getting most of you excited about a phone from the 1950s is probably a long sell, I thought I would drop off this bit of sexy: the port-o-rotary. Ok, so it sounds like a combination toilet/thrill-ride but the concept is a cool: a cell phone using a rotary dial! Woooooo. I can only picture a few limited uses for this, outside of the fun of whipping it out at the bar and impressing the ladies, but, man...if any of you have a family plan with an extra phone not taken up, along with some extra cash not going anywhere, might be worth it to get one. If nothing else, leave it on the sidewalk and prank passers-by with, "Hello, Frank...this is God...it is time to die, as we agreed..." and laugh maniacally as they inform you, "Jesus, this isn't FRANK!"

Click the phone photo for one page that has them, though I have seen them on others. The price is a bit high (around $300) but that seems consistent. Depending on how complex the fix is, might be better to get a $20 used rotary phone and make the conversion yourself.

OTHER BLOTS THIS MONTH: May 2011