These are 2 vintage phones which I have on display in my room. The left red push button one maybe familiar to most of the Singaporeans above 25 - 30 years old. This red phone was an iconic phone issued by the Singapore Telecom back in the 1980s. This phone is dated 1981.
The beige rotary dial phone on the right was also issued by the Singapore Telecom. This phone is used back in the 1950s - 60s, when rotary dial phones were widely used before being replaced by the push button phones. The rotary phone can still be used, but for those people who have converted their home lines to Starhub Digital Phone, the phone cannot be used to call out anymore as they do not support pulse dialing. However, we still can receive calls using the rotary dial phone.
Rotary Dial History
The rotary dial is a device mounted on or in a telephone or switchboard that is designed to send electrical pulses, known as pulse dialing, corresponding to the number dialed. The early form of the rotary dial used lugs on a finger plate instead of holes. A patent was filed on August 20, 1896 by employees of Almon Strowger, namely, A. E. Keith and the brothers John and Charles Erickson. The Patent No. 597,062 was granted on January 11, 1898.
The modern version of the rotary dial with holes was first introduced in 1904 but only entered service in the Bell System in 1919. The rotary dial was gradually supplanted by Touch Tone dialing, introduced at the 1962 World's Fair, which uses a keypad instead of a dial.
Some telephone systems in the US no longer recognize rotary dialing by default, but will only support push-button phones instead, in which case the rotary dialing system would have to be ordered from the telephone company as a special feature, to support older customer equipment. However most actually do accept dial phoning without fail.
Hi, would you know where I can rent such phones? We are looking for this as props for a charity play.
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