The problem is, this is not the source of wrong numbers!
(Well, some maybe, but in the minority.)

A rare moment of sarcasm? Delightful.

Plainly the thing finds an audio track (on a “sound film”) corresponding to the number you just dialed and plays it just after you finish dialing that digit, presumably for the careless person who can’t be bothered to look at his index finger while dialing.

I hope the huge horn is required only for Miss Catherine Marie’s recording session, and not on the final product.

If Fred Flintstone had this, he’d have a dozen parrots,
each parrot knowing a different number.
Holding the appropriate bird to the phone
dials the corresponding number.

The article certainly isn’t clear as to why someone would want the device which probably cost more than a car. Either (as rsterling78 thought), it gives you audible confirmation of your dialing.

Another thought is for if you have a dial phone and a “number please” exchange, you could dial and the thing would shout the number you want to the operator. Sort of like those touch-tone beepie boxes they sold in the early nineties when “press 1″ phone trees appeared in big numbers, but millions of Luddites still had dial phones.

Is that a loudspeaker or a grain hopper on its side?

Wouldn’t surprise me, the whole thing sounds screwy.

hip

What the hell?

Yeah, I’m not quite getting what this article is describing. Maybe it’s supposed to be like a cell phone’s display screen that shows the number you’ve dialed before you hit the “dial” button, but in an audio format?