In yesterday’s post we saw Chun See talking about the humble coin phone – and most of us would remember the boxy, orange-coloured phone with the white push-buttons. Of course, push buttons were one of the major advances in the evolution of the phone, because a step back from buttons is the rotary dial:

I was surprised to find out that rotary dials were more than a hundred years old – and it was only in the 1970s that they were slowly phased out. I remember still using one in the 1990s in the Philippines, and I loved the way the dial went clack-clack-clack every time you dialed a number. For that reason, I liked the smaller numbers (1, 2, 3) better because they had to travel further on its way to the original position, which meant more clacking.

In case you were wondering how to use a phone like this, Victor has written some step-by-step instructions:

5. Dial the first digit by poking your digit index finger into the hole marked with the correct number behind it.

6. Turn the dial clockwise with your finger until it stops at the metal catch at the 5-o’clock position. (Try as you might, the dial could not be turned anti-clockwise.)

7. Unplug your finger from the hole. (The dial will return to its original position.)

8. Repeat steps 5 to 7 until all the numbers are dialled.

Read Victor’s post about how people in the neighbourhood used the rotary dial phone in the 1960s – there weren’t any personal mobile phones back then, and not even house phones. Who did you have to go to if you needed to make a call? Find out here.