Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

What Are Rotary Dial Phones and How Do They Work?
Interesting Engineering ^ | 6/5/21 | Christopher McFadden

Posted on 05/21/2024 10:19:32 AM PDT by DallasBiff

The rotary dial phone was once the be all and end all of the telephones. Like the cellphone of today, everybody had one, and they ruled domestic communications for decades.

But that all changed in the 1980s when they were supplanted by a new upstart, push-button telephones. Their days were numbered (pun intended).

Many born after the 1990s have likely never seen one, which is a shame. But for those who do remember, join us as we take a trip back in time in remembrance of this glorious piece of telecommunications history.

(Excerpt) Read more at interestingengineering.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat; History
KEYWORDS: mabell; phone; rotaryphone
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 181-195 next last
To: combat_boots

So was my family, we had a 3-party line phone and not the kind of party line where they charge you by the minute to have some sleezy woman talk dirty to you.


21 posted on 05/21/2024 10:30:12 AM PDT by srmanuel (Q)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 5 | View Replies]

To: DallasBiff

The quick dial time for numbers close to 1 make area codes with low values highly sought after and ‘elite’.

Like NY 212.

Doesn’t matter anymore with push buttons.


22 posted on 05/21/2024 10:30:20 AM PDT by Scrambler Bob (Running Rampant, and not endorsing nonsense; My pronoun is EXIT.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Scrambler Bob

Area codes have largely become meaningless. A mobile phone’s area code tells where it was issued, but not where it is now or where the owner now lives.


23 posted on 05/21/2024 10:33:03 AM PDT by NorthMountain (... the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 22 | View Replies]

To: DallasBiff
"Number please?"
"Shepard 1419."
From my youth,
24 posted on 05/21/2024 10:35:27 AM PDT by Hiddigeigei ("Talk sense to a fool and he calls you foolish," said Dionysus - Euripides)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DallasBiff

A rotary phone should be easy to figure out within a minute or so.


25 posted on 05/21/2024 10:36:44 AM PDT by ansel12 ((NATO warrior under Reagan, and RA under Nixon, bemoaning the pro-Russians from Vietnam to Ukraine.))
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Harmless Teddy Bear

“They made excellent improvised weapons. You could bludgeon an intruder to death and not even crack the case. A bit of rubbing alcohol and a paper towel and they were as good as new.”

Says the “Harmless Teddy Bear”.

LOL!!!!


26 posted on 05/21/2024 10:37:53 AM PDT by MeganC (Ruzzians aren't people. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 8 | View Replies]

To: DallasBiff
The original touch-tone phones contained a very clever circuit that generated the two simultaneous (DTMF) tones using only a single transistor.

This was done by using one transistor driving two separate resonant circuits in parallel. As long as everything stayed linear, this was allowed by the superposition principle.

What kept everything linear was that the inductors in each of the oscillators were designed to saturate; this is what kept one resonant circuit from "hogging all the gain" from the transistor; this would prevented the other tone from being generated.

This was during the relatively short time that transistors were more expensive than inductors.

This just one of the things about the old analog phone system that were very clever. Bell Labs, which was the source of much of this cleverness, employed literally the best scientists and engineers in the world.

When the American phone system needed something done, Bell Labs would literally invent technology that would change the world forever. They did this more than once.

As an EE, I thought the one-transistor DTMF generator showed such an impressive level of creativity and insight into the thing I liked best at that age, which was creative circuit design.

27 posted on 05/21/2024 10:39:13 AM PDT by Steely Tom ([Voter Fraud] == [Civil War])
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Hiddigeigei

My parents had my grandmother’s rotary phone. The “number” was in the center of the dial and I still remember it:

“CLaiborne 1-7762”

The ‘1776’ bit seemed cool to me when I was young.


28 posted on 05/21/2024 10:40:35 AM PDT by MeganC (Ruzzians aren't people. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: xoxox

Along with stick shifts, the most effective anti-theft devices around.


29 posted on 05/21/2024 10:40:55 AM PDT by Mr. Mojo
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 4 | View Replies]

To: xoxox

I really miss the sound quality - and the fact that even with a power outage, you still had a phone for emergency (as long as a pole wasn’t knocked down :-)


30 posted on 05/21/2024 10:41:13 AM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: Hiddigeigei

my number was JE4-2822


31 posted on 05/21/2024 10:42:10 AM PDT by Captain Peter Blood
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: Hiddigeigei

We were ‘APpleton’.


32 posted on 05/21/2024 10:42:48 AM PDT by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 24 | View Replies]

To: ElkGroveDan

True. “Touch Tone” dialing was common place technology well before the 70’s came to a close.


33 posted on 05/21/2024 10:43:01 AM PDT by Jagdgewehr (It will take blood.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 10 | View Replies]

To: srmanuel

We switched over to push button phones in the early 1970’s, they were already around in certain places by the mid to late 1960’s.


34 posted on 05/21/2024 10:43:28 AM PDT by Captain Peter Blood
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 21 | View Replies]

To: DallasBiff

When I was a kid, I learned that the “clicks” when you dial coincide with the number. I also learned you could “click” the cradle hook and “dial” a number using clicks and pauses.


35 posted on 05/21/2024 10:44:05 AM PDT by Cold_Red_Steel
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: DallasBiff

They worked by creating ‘clicks’ the rotating bar analog switches could ‘hear’. Each rotation back to “O” ‘told’ the switch the digit based on the clicks back to “O”. These old switches could accommodate 3 to 7 digit dialing with no issues. It took the newer versions to to handle 1+ 10 digit dialing. Otherwise the operator had to connect an interexchange (long distance) call.

People knew their local exchange name. We were Elgin and then Pelham. You could ‘dial’ 4 digits within the exchange to call a neighbor or 7 digits to call another local exchange. Thus we were 0178 and 5550, respectively.


36 posted on 05/21/2024 10:44:27 AM PDT by Blueflag (To not carry is to choose to be defenseless.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: Steely Tom

I, too, was easily impressed, but for a slightly different tech. It was a Vicmodem getting 300 baud so I could dial up a terminal BBS with my Commodore-64. I thought that was the neatest thing as a 15-year-old. LOL


37 posted on 05/21/2024 10:46:47 AM PDT by Tell It Right (1st Thessalonians 5:21 -- Put everything to the test, hold fast to that which is true.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 27 | View Replies]

To: xoxox

That was not the reason and you need to look that case up. ATT was withholding a lot of technology. After the breakup Cell phone service exploded. Look MCI vs ATT, that case went for about 13 years in court.


38 posted on 05/21/2024 10:46:58 AM PDT by Captain Peter Blood
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 20 | View Replies]

To: napscoordinator

Probably depends on the exact area of the country. I’m just turning 70 this year and the most antiquated thing I remember is the “party line”. And as kids, calling the operator to ask what time it is lol.


39 posted on 05/21/2024 10:48:08 AM PDT by steve86 (Numquam accusatus, numquam ad curiam ibit, numquam ad carceremâ„¢)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 6 | View Replies]

To: DallasBiff
Funny thing is my kid was born in 1990 and knew how to use a rotary phone all the way back when he was in elementary school, and I know he wasn't the only one who knew how to use one.

So to me it's amazing why so many 30-odd year olds claim they have no idea how to use one.

40 posted on 05/21/2024 10:50:35 AM PDT by PallMal
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-2021-4041-6061-80 ... 181-195 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
General/Chat
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson