LINCOLN, Maine — Rotary telephones, those relics of decades past and “The Rockford Files,” got new life last week thanks to a firefighter’s ingenuity and favorite hobby, officials said Friday.
A failure of the telephone system’s computer in the Public Safety Building on Nov. 30 left firefighters and police without a working telephone system until Engineer Ken Goslin brought in five rotary phones, Fire Chief Phil Dawson said.
Dawson called the save “a blast from the past” in the Weekly News, the public town government report prepared by town staff every week.
“We noticed the problem when we were at lunch and the phones started ringing and blinking, even though no one was calling in. Eventually, it stopped responding completely,” Goslin said of the building’s phone system.
Once firefighters realized that the repair technician from Central Maine Communications would likely take a few hours to arrive, Goslin, a collector of rotary phones, went to his home in Lincoln and initially grabbed two, he said.
Two telephone terminals in the rear of the truck bays still worked. Goslin set up the phones on the desk near them and answered calls there through the afternoon, he said.
The technician arrived at the Public Safety Building at 5 p.m. that day and realized he had the wrong replacement phone system. Forced to drive to Pittsfield to meet a courier from Lewiston to get two replacement systems, the technician got back to the station at 9 p.m. only to find that the new replacements also didn’t work, Goslin said.
Goslin brought in three more rotary phones to use. The technician activated two lines to the dispatch center and single lines to the secretary’s office, break room, and rear engineer’s office, Goslin said.
The malfunctioning telephone system computer was finally replaced Tuesday, Goslin said.
The technician told firefighters that the particular model of PBX telephone system used at the station “was the last system [still in use] in the United States,” Goslin said, “which is why it took him so long to get it.”
Dawson thanked Goslin for donating his telephones. Goslin enjoyed the experience.
“It is kind of surreal that you collect something out of date, and people tease you about it, and then there is a time when it comes in useful,” he said.
Smart thinking …………………..
They dont build em like they used to lol,nothing old is ever useless.
I should think any push-button, table-top, or wall-mounted plug in landline phone, with a base and receiver/transmitter, would work, as well.
Everybody should have one, at least. The old rotary dial phones are sturdy and still pretty cool looking. The best part is, they work! Can’t say that about too many things these days.
I’d like to go back to rabbit ears for TV reception. No charge.
I tried the digital antenna after we had to switch over but the signal was so intermittent and the picture would freeze that we had to get cable. It galls me that we have to pay for tv, but at least it’s less than $15 a month.
This is precisely why I’ll never part w/my old dial up. It has come in very handy several times when the power was out and all the other landline phones in the house were useless.
And yes, I do know about cell ‘phones and have one-but just wait ’til the first widespread emergency and see how great they are.
Yes. I was thinking that after Sandy hit the New York area and there were neighborhoods that had no electricity for days. How long will mobile last with no electricity? And cordless phones won’t work at all.
“It’s not junk, it *does* come in useful sometimes” … Telephone collectors worldwide show this story to their wives. Excellent example of ingenuity and initiative. Maybe time to start rebuilding those 1A2 key systems.
I have my old princess phone on top of the fridge for emergencies. Plug directly into the jack and it works!!
I recently bought a red rotary kitchen phone from eBay and just installed it last week or so. It’s so simple and easy. No glowing lights, nothing to program, no worries when the power’s out. No caller ID, too, which is actually kind of liberating! (We were strong people back then before answering machines and caller ID-we either answered the phone or we didn’t! No hiding!)
I love my rotary phones and landline! We keep it simple in our house!