pay phone story

Name	Protea Table Model
Date	c. 1968
Manufacturer	Dowson & Dobson South Africa Based on the Victa Domestic Redphone (Tamura)

Above image- SA Domestic Redphone Prototype 1971 Manufacturer: Tamura Electric Works, Japan (for Australia)
This Australian “Red Phone” was used by the PO Labs to develop a new electronic public phone. Made by Tamura of Japan and marketed by Victa.

Information and images with special thanks to Mark Van Der Heever and Peter Van Almelo

Development of the Dowson & Dobson Protea Table Model 1968

The Protea Table Model was South Africa’s first electronic indoor table payphone, developed in 1968 by Fritz Donkerbroek and Eddie Beulink of the Post Office Laboratories, Pretoria. Designed to combat vandalism and theft affecting outdoor booths, it was intended for supervised public locations and proved reliable and virtually maintenance-free. Prototype No. 8 was built at the PO Laboratories, Derdepoort, while production was undertaken by Dowson & Dobson as the 1345 Table Payphone. Early dial pre-pay models were finished in GPO red, later redesigned with a smoother casing, and by 1980 Telkor produced an orange version accepting 10c, 20c and 50c coins instead of the original 5c-only validator. Frequent tariff and coinage changes required repeated modifications to the coin validator and chute, while later currency changes ultimately led to the model’s early withdrawal from service.

Dowson & Dobson Ltd. was one of South Africa’s oldest and best-known engineering manufacturers. The company originated in Johannesburg in the early 20th century, when engineer R. M. Dowson established an engineering business. In 1920, businessman A. W. Dobson acquired an interest in the company, which then became Dowson & Dobson Ltd. Over the following decades it grew into a major South African manufacturer of precision engineering products and electrical equipment.

For telephone collectors, Dowson & Dobson is best known for manufacturing equipment designed by the South African Post Office (SAPO) Laboratories. Rather than designing the instruments themselves, the company acted as the production manufacturer, building prototypes into reliable production models for nationwide use. This included:

• The 1345 Protea Table Payphone (from 1968).
• Early indoor electronic table coin telephones designed by Fritz Donkerbroek and Eddie Beulink.
• Other specialised Post Office mechanical and electrical equipment produced to government specifications.

Dowson & Dobson had an excellent reputation for high-quality sheet-metal fabrication, machining and electrical assembly, making it a logical choice for manufacturing the rugged public telephones required by the South African Post Office.

The company was based in the Johannesburg industrial area (Transvaal) and served as one of the Post Office’s principal engineering contractors during the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. When South Africa’s telecommunications industry modernised during the late 1970s and 1980s, production of many payphones shifted to Telkor, whose electronic designs eventually superseded the earlier Dowson & Dobson-built instruments.