Ericofon Line Cords

All Ericofon line cords have a straight and a curled section. The straight section is the end that attaches to the phone, the curled to the wall socket.

Before modular plugs, all phones were shipped from the factory with no end. It was left to the phone companies buying the phones to add what ever end was necessary in their service area. In America, there were 2 ways the phones were installed. One was to put a  "4 prong plug" on the end, the other was to "hardwire" the phone directly to the wall socket.

The cords came with 2,3,4,5, and 6 conductors. In most countries, the line cord is 4 conductors. In Australia, a 6 conductor line cord was used.

Line cord colors where almost exclusively ivory, although some countries use gray or black. I have seen color matched cords made by LM Ericsson for the Swedish market. I also know that the earlier North Electric phones had available color matched cords in the original 18 colors. A later North Electric manual does not list any part numbers for color matched cords, so at some point they discontinued offering them. Often times I have seen color matched line cords that are nothing more than a colored handset cord from a "regular" telephone. What gives these away is the fact that the entire cord is curled, with no straight section.

	The very earliest line cords from LM Ericsson in Sweden were cloth and had black ends. It consisted of approximately 44 inches of straight cord and 6 inches of unstretched curl. You can click on the picture for a bigger view.
	The second generation of line cord from LM Ericsson in Sweden was basically the same except that it had a rubber jacket instead of cloth. It consisted of approximately 44 inches of straight cord and 6 inches of unstretched curl. You can click on the picture for a bigger view.
	The third generation of line cord from LM Ericsson in Sweden and (for the first time) North Electric in America again only saw a minor change, and that was the ends, which were changed from black to ivory. Also, more curl was added and the straight section shortened. It consisted of approximately 36 inches of straight cord and 10 inches of unstretched curl. You can click on the picture for a bigger view.
	The last generation of line cord I believe to only have been made by CEAC. This is the company that bought the Ericofon line from North Electric near the end of it's life. It's possible that North Electric did use this cord near the end, but I haven't seen any examples. It was made of standard flat 4 conductor linecord with a modular plug on the end. It consisted of approximately 36 inches of straight cord and 10 inches of unstretched curl. You can click on the picture for a bigger view.