Trimphone

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 1990s 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.

See also

* Ericofon - a phone that was similarly fashionable in its day
* GPO Telephones - GPO Telephones

External links

* [http://www.telephonesuk.co.uk/phones_1960-80.htm UK Telephones 1960-80]
* [http://www.telephonesuk.co.uk/phones_1980on.htm UK Telephones Post 1980]
* [http://www.britishtelephones.com/ Telephone File]
* [http://www.retrowow.co.uk/retro_technology/telephone/telephone.html]