General Information

Serial #

N/A

Part Number

3

Total Parts

8

AKA

N/A

Patents

N/A

General Description

Synthetic keypad

Dimensions

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

Length

10.6 cm

Width

9.0 cm

Height

1.3 cm

Thickness

N/A

Weight

N/A

Diameter

N/A

Volume

N/A

Lexicon

Group

Communications

Category

Telephony

Sub-Category

N/A

Manufacturer

AKA

Unknown

Country

Unknown

State/Province

Unknown

City

Unknown

Context

Country

Canada

State/Province

Ontario

Period

ca. 1996-1997

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. The original Bell Northern facilities were designed with cutting edge telecommunications research and development in mind with the first three buildings on the campus featuring laboratories, an extensive research library, and an anechoic chamber. The anechoic chamber was the focal point of the Bell Northern Research acoustics research examining both the technology and placement of speakers and microphones in telecommunication devices. The anechoic chamber group was organized under the Industrial Design and working together with design were responsible for the development of the acoustic properties of most products. (From the Acquisition Proposal, see Ref. 1)

Function

To provide the physical interface to allow a user to dial a number on a telephone or use various option buttons.

Technical

Rapid prototype (early 3D printed plastic) of the Nomad 8500 portable telephone. This was used as part of the interactive design process when developing the Nomad 8500. According to David Cuddy, former former director of the Nortel Acoustics Laboratory, this particular prototype was used to develop the best placement of speakers and microphones as well as to design their housing within the telephone. (From the Acquisition Proposal, see Ref. 1)

Area Notes

Unknown

Details

Markings

The grey buttons are marked in the typical fashion of telephone keys, with the numbers "1" to "9" as well as "*/ 0/ #"/ On keys 2 to 9 the following letters appear: "ABC/ DEF/ GHI/ JKL/ MNO/ PQRS/ TUV/ WXYZ"

Missing

Appears complete

Finish

The number buttons are predominantly dark grey with white markings. The majority of the other buttons are light green with the exception of one that is a dark pink colour. The overall appearance of the keypad is a marble-like effect as colours flow into each other. One section of the keypad is mostly transparent and colourless.

Decoration

N/A