INSTRUCTIONS, Intercommunication Telephone

Found in drawer of Roneo Copier stand, H90.46b. It is a pamphlet of six faces; the front cover shows two pictures of people using a telephone extension: one, a man in a suit, is overlaid with a purple wash while the woman in a mini-skirt and with a 'sixties hairstyle is coloured red. Cover reads "A5 - A10 / INTERCOMMUNICATION UNIT / EXTENSION / USERS' GUIDE / AUSTRALIAN POST OFFICE". Inside are photographs of both types of telephone extensions and an explanation of the functions of the buttons. Calls were received at a main telephone and transferred by an operator to the required extensions. Instructions for incoming calls, exchange calls and transferring calls are also given. Users were advised "IMPORTANT: NO SECRECY BETWEEN EXTENSION CALLS". A conference facility using coupled extensions was also possible. Telecom advises that the instructions were issued 1960 ca. The earlier type of telephone had a straight hand set with a cup coming out to form a mouthpiece. This was followed by a more curved attached mouthpiece. These intercommunication systems were phased out in the early to mid 1970's, replaced by the 2/5 and 4/11. The 2/5 indicated that there were two exchange lines for outside calls and five internal extensions; the 4/11 had four outside lines and eleven internal. It is thought that the A5 and A10 had five or ten internal lines respectively.

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