1969 Western Electric Clear Trimline Field Trial Rotary

This 1969 Clear Trimline was purchased from the daughter of a commercial manager who worked for Ohio bell in Cleveland Ohio from 1943 to 1973. Field Trial 5-69 F-57415 Handset and F-57417 Base.

The Trimline, like the Princess phone, was one of the Bell System's best marketing innovations. First introduced in 1965, the idea was to create a stylish, easier to use telephone. A huge success, the Trimline was copied by most other major telephone manufacturers. The Trimline's dial was located in the handset itself with the ringer and electronics inside the telephone's base. The base was made in two variations: one for a desk set and the other for wall mounting.

The Trimline telephone is a series of telephones that was produced by Western Electric, the manufacturing unit of the Bell System. These telephones were first introduced in 1965 and are formally referred to as the No. 220 Hand Telephone Sets. The Trimline was designed by Henry Dreyfuss Associates under the project direction of Donald Genaro; the firm had produced the previous post-war desktop telephone types for the American Telephone & Telegraph Company.