A1 on eBay with a Cool Attachment

[Doug Rose]

Here's a nice A1 on eBay 110501458752 with a very cool dialing attachment. Anyone seen this before?.....Doug

[Dan/Panther]

Reminds me of the clamp on knobs on steering wheels in the fifties.
Seems like a lot of extra work, unless of course you just dial one number.
Does it work by pushing, and turning it when you get over the number you want ?
Seems it would tear up the paint on a dial real fast, not the numbers the finger holes.
D/P

[Dennis Markham]

Very cool Doug.  I have never seen one of those.  Dan, it does remind one of those steering knobs.  I remember my older brother having those on his cars.  Haven't seen one in a long time.

[Doug Rose]

The old suicide knob, for those  of you to young to remember, they attached to your steering wheel. You could do some really amazing things driving, including flipping your car. They were outlawed when I was a kid. I don't quite see the benefit of a suicide knob for dialing...Doug

[Dennis Markham]

You're right Doug, it does seem to be added work.  It appears to have worn the paint from the inside of the finger holes, although I have seen many worn thing from a good ole fashioned finger too.

[Jim Stettler]

The old suicide knob, for those  of you to young to remember, they attached to your steering wheel. You could do some really amazing things driving, including flipping your car. They were outlawed when I was a kid. I don't quite see the benefit of a suicide knob for dialing...Doug

A few years ago I bought a suicide knob on ebay (for a lawn tractor). The guy had a lot of custom designs, including an independant telephone sign.

Jim

[Dennis Markham]

I know this is getting off topic a bit but I'll perpetuate it some more.

My brother, who would have been in his teens in the 50's had several.  I remember seeing them with dice and always a sexy lady. I'll bet there were many.

[Dennis Markham]

I made an off-topic posting about suicide knobs here;

http://www.classicrotaryphones.com/forum/index.php?topic=2275

[bwanna]

maybe the dial knob was to save the lady's fingernails

[AET]

Suicide knob was the first thing that popped in my mind also.

[jeremylivin]

I was thinking maybe it's a phone from a business lobby or something?

Maybe they only expected people to dial one number.

[JorgeAmely]

Donna:

I agree. The top knob rotates freely. To dial a number, the user pushes the knob to engage the hole of a particular digit and then turns the top knob, with turns the finger wheel all the way to the finger stop.

Then you let go of the knob and both return back to rest.

Definitely a ladies gadget to protect their finger nails.