1954 How To Dial Your Telephone

Look how far telephones have come!

 

I mock them, but I have no clue how dialing a phone number works. Like, electricity magically knows numbers and finds people?

 

The first automatic dial units looked like this.


The later ones were on a drum, called a uniselector.

 

It all makes sense now.

 

As far as I’m concerned telecommunications peaked with smoke signals and for you fans of LOTR the lighting of the Beacons

 

I remember the turn style ones. I used to like the noise it made when it wound back.

 

Hey, in 1954 all we had to do was pick up the phone and the operator would ask you who you wanted to call. And we had party lines. Each household on a party line had a certain ring so you'd know if it was for you. Now I remember if the phone rang, two long and one short, it was my grandparents phone and we'd all, the rest of the family in the area, pick up and have a conference call.

And when touch dialing came out, you paid extra for that. I remember not liking it because I had a knack for dialing the rotary phones my just clicking the buttons on the cradle. If you clicked them fast enough, they mimicked the way the dial worked.

 

Dial M for Murder (1954)