General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

2

Total Parts

4

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

Synthetic telephone handset with internal metal contacts.

Dimensions

Note: These reflect the general size for storage and are not necessarily representative of the object's true dimensions.

Length

20.9 cm

Width

5.1 cm

Height

5.1 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Communications

Category

Telephony

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Northern Telecom

Country

Canada

State/Province

Unknown

City

Unknown

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Ontario

Period

ca. late 1990s

Canada

Bell Northern Research, was the research and development subsidiary of Northern Telecom (later Nortel Networks) and Bell Canada. It was built by Northern Telecom at its Trans-Canada plant in Montreal. Northern Telecom and its predecessor, Northern Electric, was for decades Canada’s largest manufacturer of telecommunications equipment. Originally a subsidiary of the AT&T-owned Western Electric, for which it manufactured American-designed products for the Canadian market, Northern Electric became Canadian-owned in the 1950s and in the 1960s began to design and produce equipment to meet the distinctive needs of Canadian telecommunication companies. In the 1970s, through its new research subsidiary, Bell Northern Research, the company made a concerted shift from conventional analogue equipment into the emerging field of digital communications, becoming in the 1980s the first equipment supplier to provide a complete line of fully digital switching and transmission gear. During this decade the company moved aggressively into export markets, and opened manufacturing and R&D operations in several countries. The company’s sales soared during the internet boom of the 1990s, but a combination of poor financial decisions and a failure to maintain its technological edge led eventually to its bankruptcy in 2009. One of the core elements of the Northern Telecom (later Nortel) was the Industrial Design group headed by John Tyson. This group was responsible for the design of Northern Telecom products and interfaces. The group also included the Acoustic Design group who were responsible for designing and improving upon the acoustic properties of the Nortel products.

Function

To receive and transmit telephone signals.

Technical

The Venture telephone features, what Nortel marketed as, “Audio Edge” technology. Audio Edge refers to the acoustic properties of the telephone specifically related to the development of the speakerphone. The microphone is a boundary microphone, meaning that it is as close as possible to the surface that the phone rests on so as to minimize sound echo off the surface. It is also engineered in such a way that the phone sits a specific height off of the surface to minimize the interference caused by sound waves trapped between the bottom of the telephone and surface. The second feature of the audio edge technology was the development of a ported loudspeaker increasing the speaker efficiency at low frequencies. The final audio feature of was the development of a new multi membrane speaker which increased audio quality at high frequencies. According to the donor, the goal was to create an audio system for the telephone that would be as good as a quality home stereo.

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

None apparent

Missing

Appears complete

Finish

Black synthetic handset.

Decoration

N/A