What is a Rotary Phone?
Once considered the standard for telephone communications, the rotary telephone provided a simple process for customers to use a round dial to access a network and enter a series of numbers in order to reach another subscriber. Developed in the late 19th century, the rotary phone was the single most popular dialing style until the 1970’s, when the push button technology of the previous twenty years was coupled with a newer and more secure telephone signaling process. The origins of the rotary dial are traced back to 1896, when the first patent for a rotary device that would allow subscriber level dialing was filed. Granted in 1898, the patent was obtained by John and Charles Erickson, along with A.E. Keith. Designed to work with the slowly developing numbering system that provided an access number sequence for each subscriber, the original rotary phone dial featured lugs that were used to turn the dial. By 1904, the design for rotary dial phones had been altered to feature holes on the
