Stiffening elements for a polymeric telephone base

A polymeric telephone base having two housing members with one of the members provided with an integral mounting for receiving a telephone operating component. A plurality of elongate load distributing and wall stiffening elements extends in divergent manner from the mounting at spaced positions around the site for location of the operating component. This structure can result in a significantly reduced support wall thickness. It is preferable that each stiffening element tapers away from each mounting and is directed towards a location at which side walls of the support member merge into each other. At this location, reinforcing fillets extend between the side walls and the support wall. A device is also provided to flex the support wall to increase locking action between the housing members when these are assembled.