Comments on: Directory Dials the Phone

By: peter de zweter

peter de zweter — Sat, 07 Jun 2008 19:57:41 +0000

i have one like this here in belgium. I think it would still work if i had the right cables. Note that the dialing happens completely mechanical! It seems like you couldn’nt replace the disks yourself and had to contact the manufacterer.

By: cks2008

cks2008 — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 16:14:25 +0000

Yes, before the 1980s when AT&T had to let customer owned equipment on their lines, they didn’t look well at those that modified their instruments or wiring.

By: Toronto

Toronto — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 04:19:46 +0000

Years later, either PopSci or PopMech published plans for an auto-dialer built as part of a cottage alarm system (I think that was it.) It used a toy truck tire with paper-clip wire bars of varying lenght stuck in it to represent the digits. I think it was electrically read. There was Goldbergesque attachment to release the hook plunger to get online, but the best part was the moving ‘finger’ that dialed the actual mechanical dial. Why the didn’t use a relay on the line? Did Bell get that much more aggressive about no-System equipment in the time between 1947 and then?

By: StanFlouride

StanFlouride — Thu, 05 Jun 2008 08:38:12 +0000

I have seen old appliance timers that work like this, the wheels had notched teeth that were scored so you just bent them out til they broke off.

We have a Western Electric 211 wall telephone http://www.oldphones.com/servlet/Detail?no=83at the hardware store where I work that still works great (though since we can’t put people on hold we rarely use it).
During a recent power outage, when none of konshuss’ wonderful modern cell phones worked, it was still there and working fine.

By: Alan J. Richer

Alan J. Richer — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 20:57:07 +0000

Re: Obsolete:

Considering this was well pre-semiconductor it’s an interesting bit of work. Hardly a piece of crap, and technology that was used in many forms up till the mid-1970s and later for auto-dialing in a lot of different applications.

It talks about the disks being clipped to program them what it’s likely doing is just pulsing the line with a set of contacts actuated by the saw teeth. The one photographed may not have been programmed and was a demo unit, explaining the pristine state of its contact wheels.

A fun reach back, though… -Alan

By: konshuss

konshuss — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:25:03 +0000

wow, what a piece of crap. you can pick up a cellphone these days that is many times smaller and store hundreds if not thousands more numbers in it. yeesh, talk about obselete!

By: Aaron T.

Aaron T. — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:14:06 +0000

#1 jayessell: I think that’s “Mahoney”.

By: Neil Russell

Neil Russell — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:03:36 +0000

One other note, that Western Electric 302 phone was redesigned for 1947 and the one I have works just as well today as it did when my dad got it for his shop in Indianapolis way back then.
It still has the “Chapel 1″ prefix tag in the center of the dial, something I just can’t bring myself to ever change!

By: Benzene

Benzene — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:02:24 +0000

They probably had a special punch for making the disks. Does it read the edge of the disk or the side? The edges look identical in that photo.

By: Neil Russell

Neil Russell — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 16:00:15 +0000

Diana Ross?
Wonder if Pam Grier’s number is on there too?

By: jayessell

jayessell — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 15:23:14 +0000

How would you program it? With tinsnips?
Were the numbers shorter in 1947?
XXX-XXXX for example.
That’s a maximum of 70 pulses.

Who’s Mahogany? (#3)