The candlestick telephone is a style of telephone that was common from the late 1890s to the 1930s.
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Also known as a desk stand, upright, or a stick phone, it came with or without a rotary dial, and with a ringer box. The first tube shaft candlestick phone was the Western Electric #20B Desk Phone patented in 1904.[1]
The main producers of these phones were Western Electric (AT&T), Automatic Electric Co. (GTE), Kellogg, and Stromberg-Carlson. The candlestick phones made by Western Electric were superseded by the Model 102 telephone in 1927.
Several retro versions of the candlestick telephone were made long after the original phones were obsolete. The Crosley Radio company makes a 21st century version with push button operation.[2] There are other companies including PHONECO inc. that sells original, restored, and reproductions.[3]
The Ericofon, or Cobra Phone is a plastic one-piece telephone, in the candlestick/upright style, created by the Ericsson Company and marketed throughout the second half of the 20th century. It was the first commercially marketed telephone design to incorporate the dial and headset into a single unit. Because of its styling, and influence on future telephone design, the Ericofon is considered one of the most significant industrial designs of the 20th century and is in the collection of Museum of Modern Art.[4]
The Hush-A-Phone was like a mini megaphone created in 1920 [5] for slipping over the candlestick phone.[6]