Feldtelefon or Austrian Telephone, mod. 09, Ericsson - Deckert & Homolka, K.u.K., 1916

Feldtelefon or Austrian field telephone Mod. 09, produced by "ERICSSON - Österreichische Elektrizitäts-Aktiengesellschaft vorm. DECKERT & HOMOLKA - WIEN", in 1916. Both the receiver and the listener are marked "ERICSSON OE. E.A.G. Vorm. Deckert & Homolka WIEN". Inside the receiver, the magnet is marked 1916. It comes complete with its original carrying strap.

Telephone equipment supplied to the Austrian Army used throughout the First World War.

In excellent condition.

Lars Magnus Ericsson began working with telephones in his youth for a company that produced telegraph equipment for the Swedish company Telegrafverket. In 1876 he started his own company and in 1878 he began producing telephone sets. However, his phones were not of a new design, being based on inventions already made in the USA. Through the repair work his company did for Telegrafverket and the Swedish Railways, however, he was familiar with the telephones of both the Bell company and Siemens & Halske. He improved these designs to produce a superior quality instrument.

These devices were immediately used by new telephone companies, such as Rijkstelefon. Ericsson had no patent problems, like Bell, he had not bothered to patent the invention in Scandinavia. Ericsson's work as an instrument maker was evident both in the high quality of his instruments and in the wonderful aesthetics that he designed for each of them. This is why Ericcson telephones from that period are so sought after by collectors.

Ericsson became one of the leading telephone suppliers in Scandinavia. The factory could not keep up with demand, and Ericsson decided to turn to external companies for both the wooden components and the chrome plating. Much raw material was imported: in the following decades Ericssons bought into a number of companies to secure the supply of copper, wire, ebonite and magnet steel. Much of the walnut wood used for telephone "cases" was imported from the United States.

When Ericsson toured the United States in 1885, he found that the American-made devices were of better design but realized that the high standard he had achieved was no less.

At the end of the 1890s, Ericsson realized that the domestic market was now saturated with his devices and therefore decided to extend his business to other countries through a notable number of represented agents: Great Britain and Russia were the first markets. Factories were also built in these countries. Their influence created interest in other countries by purchasing existing companies, such as SIT in France in 1911 and Deckert & Homolka in Vienna in 1908. The "ERICSSON - Österreichische Elektrizitäts-Aktiengesellschaft vorm. DECKERT & HOMOLKA - WIEN" produced important telephone equipment for the Austrian Army.