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telephone dialer

Started by bakerbrett741, December 10, 2011, 09:43:25 AM

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bakerbrett741

I have never seen these. People used to use them instead of their finger to dial? I guess that would make sense in an office as ones finger would probably be sore if you had to dial all day


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Telephone-DIALER-Rotary-CRYSTAL-Glass-Brass-ELEGANT-/200686101133?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2eb9d2e28d

MDK

My aunt used to work for the telephone co. and she always had pens and pencils with the ball on the end for telephone dialing. I wish I had a bunch of them now.

Phonesrfun

Quote from: bakerbrett741 on December 10, 2011, 09:43:25 AM
I have never seen these. People used to use them instead of their finger to dial? I guess that would make sense in an office as ones finger would probably be sore if you had to dial all day


http://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Telephone-DIALER-Rotary-CRYSTAL-Glass-Brass-ELEGANT-/200686101133?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2eb9d2e28d

They were generally used by switchboard operators.  The general public did not have access to these,as they were not sold in stores.  However, people did use pencils and pens to dial with, particularly ladies with long fingernails.  Over time, pencils if used point down can make a dial face look pretty nasty.
-Bill G

Doug Rose

They destroyed more porcelain dial plates than you would want to think about. Everytime you see a big chip or long scratches out of the porcelain of a dial plate, this is your culprit. Certainly not a phone collectors friend!....Doug
Kidphone

Phonesrfun

Actually, I thought the topic was about the kind that operators used.  I finally looked at the auction.  To be honest, I have never seen one like the one in the auction, which is definitely not something issued to operators by Ma Bell!

-Bill G

AE_Collector

Always nice to just post the picture rather than a link (or in addition to the link) because links "go bad" before long while we read and re-read these posts on the forum!

Terry

paul-f

There were many types of dialing aids made.  Some were made for phone company employees, as mentioned, many were cheap molded plastic with ads and some (like the one above) were upscale models sold to help women dial without damaging their long fingernails.

Here are some examples.  I'm sure we can find hundreds of variations and post them here.
Visit: paul-f.com         WE  500  Design_Line

.

GG



Seems to me the Bell System ones should have been / probably were, designed in such a manner that the ball at the end fits into the fingerholes without touching the numberplate.

Reason being, Bell didn't want to incur the costs, hassles, and waste, of frequently replacing dial numberplates on operators' dials. 

The non-Bell ones probably weren't so carefully designed, so they might have gone all the way through the hole and contacted the number plate behind it. 

And in any case the diameter of fingerholes varies between different manufacturers' dials, so what works on one won't necessarily work on others.  For example Stromberg Carlson's dials with metal fingerwheels, have slightly smaller diameter holes than WE and AE.  And GPO #10 dials or any GPO dial with metal fingerwheel, has holes that are small enough that most normal-sized fingers will never get anywhere near the porcelain numberplate.   

One thing that helps keep fingers from scratching and wearing down numberplates, is to dial with your middle finger instead of your index finger.  What I also do with a lot of my numberplates, is cover them with clear self-adhesive Contact material, which is virtually invisible when applied correctly, and can later be removed if desired, with no harm done. 

bakerbrett741

That was a question that was kind of in my mind GG. I was thinking that it would scratch the heck outta the dial, but if it didn't go all the way through the finger hole, that would make more sense. Dang, There is a lot f info on this forum.