The Rotary Telephone — A Beautiful Relic from a Bygone Era..
One thing I remember from my childhood is the rotary telephone. It is one of my most favourite memories from back in the day. As a child I would spend so much time just playing with it, dialing random numbers and talking to anyone I could using that phone. I still remember it’s vintage style ringer. Those were the days! There are always a few objects from your memory lane that you are deeply attached to and that reminds you of your past. In my case, one of the many objects was this phone. In my house,we had a dull green colored phone made out of plastic. These phones were also very heavy. With the advancement of technology, these phones got replaced by ones by dial pads and then soon after that, cordless landline phones.
History of the Rotary Telephone
The first rotary telephone dates back to 1931. Yes, there were telephones before that too, but this was the first rotary telephone was The Bakelite phone, officially known as Ericsson DBH 1001. This was a Swedish line of telephones made from the polymer Bakelite and produced for over thirty years between 1931 and 1962. The image shows the clay model that was made in 1930.
This phone was designed by Christian Bjerknes and Norwegian artist Jean Heiberg. When it was designed, it was considered very modern for its time. In most of Europe it was called the Swedish phone.
So.. What happened to it?
These rotary dial phone rotated clock wise (analog dial). However, in 1963 Bell introduced the first dial pad and that is where people started going for the new modern phone. The rotary phone slowly died down but it was used in households until the 1990’s. I am probably the last generation to have used it as a phone ( I was born 1993). After that technology evolved so much. The use of mobile phones became popular that pushed down the whole idea of land line phones alot. People use land line phones today too, just a lot less. For those that do, they prefer something as close as possible to cell phones. Hence, cordless phones are preferred.
Today, the Rotary phone is mostly used as a vintage decoration item in many places. Although the phone was heavy, bulky, and was not as friendly and easy to use like a dial pad; it had its own feel and its own magic. Kids of today will never be able to feel that magic.
