U43 universal dial telephone

The 1943 or U43 ‘universal’ dial telephone was made by the Société des Téléphones Ericsson, the French subsidiary of the Swedish Laars Magnus Ericsson company. It was designed to meet the French Post, Telegraph and Telecommunications administration’s specifications for the construction of a telephone compatible with both automatic and manual telephone networks, with a low production cost and minimum use of metals, particularly copper. Its black Bakelite body was moulded, and a cream-coloured ‘luxury’ version was later offered to subscribers. Its reliable components were used in subsequent models. There were two different models, one for subscribers linked to an automatic exchange, the other for subscribers linked to a manually operated exchange: the U43 wall model, with a dial, allowed the number to be dialled directly without recourse to an operator; the mobile U43 without a dial put callers directly through to the operator as soon as they picked up the receiver. The U63 model superseded the U43 in French homes in 1963.