Model 302 telephone

The Model 302 telephone was produced by Western Electric from 1937 through 1948. Designed by Henry Dreyfuss, it was the first widely-used telephone to include the ringer in the same unit as the rest of the phone; prior models required the use of an external "bell box."

The Model 302's casing — rectangular in shape — was metal originally (made out of cast zinc), but in 1941 this was changed to thermoplastic.

Most of the Model 302 phones came only in black, but eight other colors — ivory, bronze, silver, gold, rose, blue, green and red — were added toward the end of the phone's production run. The early phones had metal dials, while newer specimens featured plastic dials. The handset cord was straight at first, but later the coil cord was used.

The phone appeared in many episodes of the popular 1950s television situation comedy I Love Lucy.