What Is It? game 174 - Neatorama

Get your thinking caps on -it's time for our collaboration with the always amusing What Is It? Blog! Do you have any idea what this contraption is? Can you come up with an interesting guess?

Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you'd like. Post no URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will win T-shirt from the NeatoShop!

Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?

For more clues, check out the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!

Update: ladybuggs was the first of many with the correct answer. This is a National Cash Register Stamping Phone, used in bigger department stores. It was for clerks to get approval from "credit specialists" in the back room for customers to charge their purchases. Read more about them here. The funniest answer came from next2exits, who declared that this is a Wisconsin voter polling station. The handset allows the governor to call you and tell you who to vote for.

Comments (46)

It seems to be a telephone... the 10 keys seem to be sufficeint for the nubmers 0 to 9
It also seems to be a telephone with a kind of text enty capability (the text besides each key may form the wohle ABC...)
But it also seems to be an industrial telephone (due to the poor design).and the ..

Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms .. who bings the chips

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Sorry, forgot to tell the size: 2x...

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I believe it is a industrial intercom system phone that could be used in a very large complex. The draw is where the phone numbers are stored.
Craig Clayton

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It is a movie prop for post nuclear disaster.

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This is the dial-up modem for ENIAC, the 1st electronic computer. An operator would call up a recipient, feed punch-cards into the slots at the top and advertisements for Viagra would appear in the bottom tray

Mmm... Pi XL

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um. A telephone?

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Teletype handset.

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It may be an intercom in the control room of a hoist (mining).. as it seems ruggedized...
But i think this guess is too specific...

Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms .. Chips 2X

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It looks like the beta version of Skype to me!

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You're gonna have to be more specific than "phone" this time.

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It is the worst cash register ever made. The tell-tale sign is the built-in telephone which is a direct line to technical support.

ROFLcopter Pilot Medium Navy

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Thats a Yap-O-Matic 2000!
You aimlessly talk into the handset and STUFF magically appears in the drawer. The buttons and knobs connect you to Fisher-Price.

It Is as BAD as You Think and they ARE Out to get YOU.
Large

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I believe it is a ticket machine, the phone is an intercom, and the buttons dispense the ticket types.

Old Skool - Navy - XL

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the first cashless / credit cart telephone?

The credit cart is inserted into the tray on top of the telephone and the name/account number may be entered manaully by the 10 keys....
the windows are for showing green/red lights if credit card number was accepted/rejeted..

Alcohol Tobacco Firearms .. Chips 2X

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I think it is a STOCK TICKER......

med, light blue, when life gives you mold....

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Could it be a telegraph machine?

Med, light blue, when life gives you mold...

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It's an NCR (National Cash Register) Stamping Phone - the first automated credit approval system. The buttons are intercom buttons that connected to a credit specialist in the back room. The numbers 1 thru 10 was coded with range of last names handled by each authorizer. If the customer's sale was authorized, the credit specialist would press a button, the sales slip was stamped and perforated, which provided an unchangeable recorded of the credit authorization on the original and duplicate sales slips.

Cornier than Ethanol, Serene Green, Large

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ET's mid-century prototype to phone home.

Cornier than Ethanl, Serene Green, Large

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This is the machine that plays the intro for Pink Floyd's 'Money'. 420, dude.

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I think that this is a vintage TeloCash - half telephone, half cash register.

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Looks like a Pen Register, for recording phone calls by hand....
mmmm pii, XXL

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This phone thing is rahter small and has a rather unfashionable colour... Therefore i think it is from a vehicle i.e. a land vehicle such as a train or a locomotive .. or from a railway environment.. for a Flagman (rail) or for the booth of the operator of a boom barrier at a railway crossing.. just guessing..

Alcohol Tobacco Firearms .. Chips 2X

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NCR Stamping Phone was the first automated credit approval system, designed for high-end department stores. These are extremely rare, and only a handful are still around from the 1940's.

my kids personal ATM - XL please.

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Its a National Cash Register Stamping Phone. The clerk would use it to call the back room to look up how much credit you had at the store, and then the machine would be used to stamp a receipt form.

Paddle Faster - XL

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Order register for a drive-in restaurant.

Large Hadron Collider Medium

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I wish I had read this earlier, I know this one!

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Stamping Phone from the National Cash Register Company.

"NCR Stamping Phone

Distributed throughout the store in the various departments, stamping phones are used in the selling departments by the clerks or wrappers in getting a printed authorization on the sales-slip and a perforated authorization in the address labels. The phones should be placed near the wrapping desks so that the clerks can conveniently reach and answer the phones while wrapping the purchased aricles. The stamping phones are equipped with a one-line printing device and a perforating die.

Phones were configured with from 1 to 10 intercom pushbuttons to ring the appropriate credit specialist in the back room. Each button was coded for the range of customer last names handled by each credit authorizer. Pushing the button buzzed the authorizer, who looked up the customer's credit limit on paper files and, if appropriate, authorized the credit sale."

http://www.paul-f.com/NCRcredit.html

I'm not a Schizophrenic, Neither am I L

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Its a communication device, the user holds the curved black apparatus,which contains both a microphone and speaker,up to his ear and mouth. A person on an identical device is required, simultaneous transmition of two signals enables instantaneous communication.

resistance begins at ohm, small

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Motorola's only competition as first mobile phone. Didn't do so well.

Forgot to forget, L, Black

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It's the first ever Dial-A-Register! Simply answer the call from a luckily distant customer and take their order! Don't forget to put the call receipt in the handy handle-less drawer!

Heartdeco t-shirt, size small

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dang it.... I like shirt in white.

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PaySexPhonePal machine.

Glory will suffice.

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This is a Wisconsin voter polling station. The handset allows the governor to call you and tell you who to vote for.

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Navy, L

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Telephone with cash register
shirt 2xl cool

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Bird feeder

'Life's a bird feeder', S

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The very first version of "Autotune" it was used to change the voice of the the adults on charlie brown cartoons to make them wah-wah-wah-waaaah. It later inspired Kanye West into his singing career.
protect your nuts 2 xl

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A very rare effect device used by Jimi Hendrix.

abducted by aliens
large
navy

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easy peasy..... combination phone and cash register:

it's a "Chats Register"

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Mattell's proof of concept for their toy called my little capitalist fax machine. It was aimed at children behind the iron curtain. Our government nixed the exporting of such advanced technology even tho it was for kids.
protect your nuts 2 xl

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A telephone/intercom device planned for death star from the first "Starwars movie".... Following the Design quality reduction with respect to the Naboo Spaceships to teh X wing / TIE fighters ... The Death star must have been planned to have such ugly interocm devices... ;-)

Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms .. who bings the chips XX

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It`s a Suicide Booth (better verions may be known from Fururama) for necktie people (especcially Bankers)...

The Necktie is inserted between the reels on the right side... and after a call to the remote operator via the intercom the reels are activated...

It is a cost free service especcially for any banker involved in the "Suprime mortgage crisis"... >:-(

Witchy XL ladies fit

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A 50's phone with a cash drawer.

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Forgot..2 x

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Hello,

We've developed a "guess what" software platform suitable for Neatorama game and will be happy to offer your the custom Neatorama branding and a separate room for Neatorama users.

To understand what i'm talking about please go to korrova.com (public or private room).

Please get back to me if interested.

I look forward to your message.

p.s. the telephone thing looks like some kind of old medical instrument.

All the best,
Vlad

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This is an Obama voter polling station. The handset allows Trumka to call you and threaten you if you don't vote the right way.

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