Typical U S Ericsson PhonesIn the late 1800s, imported Ericsson telephones and parts were being sold successfully in the United States by a number of agents. The Ericsson Telephone Company had its headquarters in New York at least as early as 1898. It had agents listed as The Electrical Engineering Co. of Minneapolis, Plummer Ham and Richardson of Massachussetts, The National Automatic Fire Alarm Co of Louisiana, Bissell & Co of Ohio, and Seeleys of Philadelphia. Since Ericssons apparently had no manufacturing capacity of their own at this time, one of these companies was making "top boxes" for them. These were sold to the many telephone assembler companies. This is shown in a number of catalogues from other companies, and the Ericsson logo is prominent. Only one example is known to the author - it has been restored in Sweden. It is similar to the Plummer’s wall phone shown later, and it is probable that the top box only is Ericsson. They also advertised complete phones and parts.
In 1907 Ericssons decided to establish a new factory at Buffalo. The factory
opened in 1908. They built phones (mostly the steel case models) and parts for
the local market. Their motive for this was as for Britain - a local presence
would help gain market share. Unfortunately the United States was a free-for-all
of telephone manufacturers and networks, not a Government-regulated system as
in Europe. Ericssons was a small player in a market dominated by local firms
like Western Electric, Kellogg, and Stromberg Carlson, and it was hard to gain
market share. They also ran into technical and styling problems. Western Electric,
supplying Bell’s AT&T, was the country's largest switchboard manufacturer,
and the sole supplier to the country’s largest phone company, so phones
had to be made compatible. In some ways LME phones were technically superior,
but compatibility was more important.
Their local phone production seems to have been mainly of four models –
the AC300 desk set, a candlestick, the desk set that became Kellogg's GrabAPhone,
and the large steel wall phones of the AB2100 series The wall phones were supplied
to the New Zealand Post Office as well as to the U.S. They were also supplied
to Ericsson operating companies in South America and Mexico. There also seems
to have been assembly of imported phones, although information on which models
were assembled is poor. It is also confused by the importers of the full range
of phones, who still seem to have been importing and selling in competition
with the Buffalo factory. There do not seem to be any surviving catalogues,
which would make documenting this company easier.
The candlestick is different to their previously imported European model and
appeared to use some parts sourced from Kellogg. The steel shaft is covered
by a bakelite sleeve, branded Ericsson. This sleeve was a typical Kellogg design
(they called their bakelite “Kellite”). The somewhat complicated Ericsson
transmitter mount was replaced by a Stromberg Carlson type ball and socket joint.
There was considerable collaboration with Kellogg, whose parts (especially transmitter
mounts) appear on other branded Ericsson phones. Some examples are known of
the candlestick cradle with an “E” cutout.
Ericsson also produced a combined coil and gooseneck transmitter for use on
the twin box phones. Although this unit is known in Europe as well, it appears
to be more common on the U.S. phones. It is sometimes seen with Ericsson’s
“Standard of the World” logo (Fig 6), only used in the U.S.
Although their phones did not sell in large numbers, Ericssons sold unbranded
parts to many other companies. Other makers’ phones using LME parts have
a typical U.S. look - big battery boxes on twin box phones, plain cases, separate
transmitter and receiver, etc. A good example is the wall phone from Plummers
shown on the next page. The Solid Back transmitters were introduced. Small locally-built
intercoms with Ericsson parts often turn up in the U.S.A. Most of these phones
are incorrectly identified in the United States as Ericsson, because the Ericsson
parts are the only really identifiable ones. Most of these parts ar unbranded,
folowing Ericsson’s usual pattern of using branded parts only on their
own phones.
Advertising of the period sometimes refers to "highest quality Swedish
transmitters" or "Best Swedish Magnet Iron", implying that Ericsson
parts were regarded with some respect. In spite of this, Ericssons finally realised
that they could not compete in the U.S.. The factory and its fittings were sold
off in 1918 and the company was finally wound up in 1920. About 82 000 phones
had been produced overall.
Some of the dies, parts and equipment were bought by the Federal Telephone and
Radio Company, who produced steel desk and wall phones for a few more years,
and continued the supply to New Zealand. Other dies were bought by Kellogg.
The early version of their "Grab-a-phone" used many unbranded LME
parts, and is easily mistaken for an Ericsson. The Chicago Telephone Supply
Company supplied almost the full range of U.S. LME phones from old Ericsson
stock until they ran out around 1920. Stromberg Carlson also issued a steel
wall phone which appears to be Ericsson. Branded Ericsson parts also found their
way onto the market after the selloff, and this causes confusion when trying
to accurately identify a phone.
A firm called The Swedish American Telephone Company produced a range of phones,
often using Ericsson parts. This company had no other connection with Ericssons,
but appears to have been named to take advantage of Ericsson's reputation, and
to appeal to Swedish immigrants.
Information on Ericssons in the United States is sparse and inadequately documented,
especially in the area of their locally-built models. The best available reference
is Ron Knappen's "Old Telephones" (1984). This book is now unfortunately
out of print. More work needs to be done to provide a comprehensive catalogue
of the Buffalo phones.
Typical U S Ericsson Phones
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