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We could go on and on about how to use a rotary phone, but then we wouldn't have a reason to embed this unintentionally comical 1 minute how-to video (you're welcome):
Any questions?
Invented:1904 (rotary dial), 1919 (first rotary phone)
William Gray invented the pay phone in 1889, and by 1902, some 81,000 pay phones were scattered across the U.S. But it wasn't until 1905 that the first outdoor phone booth would come to fruition, protecting callers from the elements (and nosy Nellies).
Outdoor phone booths have become nearly non-existent since their heyday, and no one is more bummed about this than Clark Kent.
As AT&T tells it, a truck driver in St. Louis, Mo. made history when he reached underneath his truck's dash and made the first mobile telephone call. That was in 1946, and by 1948, wireless telephone service had swept through nearly 100 cities and highway corridors. Car phones weren't intended for regular Joes, and instead were used by utilities, truck fleet operators, and reporters.
A bargain by today's standards, the service ran $15 per month, or less than a basic OnStar account. Customers were also charged a per usage fee ranging from 30 to 40 cents per local call.
"Improved technology after 1965 brought a few more channels, customer dialing, and eliminated the cumbersome handset," AT&T explains. "But capacity remained so limited that Bell System officials rationed the service to 40,000 subscribers guided by agreements with state regulatory agencies. For example, 2,000 subscribers in New York City shared just 12 channels, and typically waited 30 minutes to place a call. It was wireless, but with 'strings' attached."
We see what you did there, AT&T.
The Model 500 would become the standard Bell System telephone after it was introduced in 1949 and is arguably the most recognized design still today. You'll notice we skipped several models in between the Candlestick and Model 500, and that's because the Model 500 represents the end of an evolutionary chain before touch-tone took over.
Image Credit: theinvisibleagent.wordpress.com
Millions of Model 500 phones were produced between 1949 to 1984 -- more than any other dial telephone, which is one reason they're still around today. Don't believe it? Then you haven't been visiting your grandparents - tsk, tsk.
Invented: 1948
Apple's iPhone 3GS weighs less than 0.3 pounds. To put this into perspective, the first fully automatic mobile phone system weighed a whopping 88 pounds. That's equivalent to almost 300 iPhones!
Image Credit: Ericsson
Because of its size and weight, calling the MTA "mobile" was a bit of a misnomer, and it usually found permanent installation in a vehicle. Only a few hundred were ever made; they were commercially released in Sweden in 1956. Though it was heavy and unwieldy, the MTA didn't require any manual control.
Invented: 1956
Remarkably, the cordless phone was conceived as far back as 1956, even though phones wouldn't shed their tails for about another three decades. Dr. Raymond P. Phillips Sr., an African American inventor from Texas, came up with the idea, but due to the racial tensions of the time, he wasn't actually recognized as the inventor by the U.S. and European patent offices until 1987.
Image Credit: howstuffworks.com
in 1969, George Sweigert improved upon the concept and patented a "full duplex wireless communications apparatus." But it was Sony that brought the first cordless phones to market in the 1980s. By the mid-80s, cordless phones exploded in popularity, but there was a problem: Cordless phones were given a frequency of 27MHz, and while this gave them decent range, the sound quality was pretty poor. You also ran the risk of crossing over onto someone else's conversation that was within range, and if that happened, you had to return your phone for one on a different channel (early cordless phones came with one of 10 channels), or learn more about your neighbors than you cared to know.
Image Credit: Best Buy
The FCC would later change the frequency to 47-49MHz. This led to better sound quality with less noise, but it wasn't until 1990 that cordless phones began using the 900MHz frequency. This was a huge leap in sound quality and distance, and cordless phones also came with 100 different channels to choose from.
Today's cordless phones operate mostly operate on the 2.4GHz and, more recently, 5.8GHz frequencies.
Invented: 1956
Comments are closed on this article
loondawg
June 16, 2010 at 2:22pm
This was probably a lot of people's first phone. (Plus it's got life in that it's a fun project to hack an old one into a working phone)
gbucknell
April 30, 2010 at 8:59am
You forgot one of the most important phones in TV History. More important than Batman's, Get Smart's, Fred Flinstone's, and Mike Brady's phone was the phone use by Captain Kirk on Star Trek. That communicator directly predicted AND influenced the creation of the cell phone universe that we all now live in.
gooberp
April 07, 2010 at 2:56pm
You'd think that since 1948, AT&T's cell network would have been upgraded at least a little since the days of it's first radio car phone. Based on my experience, it's not any different.
Queenof1
March 28, 2010 at 7:44pm
this was a great article! Brought back memories of my Strawberry Shortcake intercom phones :)
The Relic
March 28, 2010 at 5:00pm
Heh, I remember we had one of the Model 500 rotary phones back when I was a kid (this was the 60s and 70s). I still have one here (though unused; my desk phone is a replica Nick and Nora Charles phone).
Bizarre
March 27, 2010 at 8:42pm
wow, some hatin' for the RAZR! In my opinion a black V3 is still one of the cooler phones out there, and if you don't count spart phones, among the coolest. It hasn't aged much, and is still one of the thinnest phones out there, probably because it was the first to reach the reasonable limit of thin-ness in a non-flexible mobile device.
Slugbait
March 27, 2010 at 3:40pm
Personally, I was looking forward to seeing what would be written about the Nokia 8110...
kevintanner800
March 26, 2010 at 12:44pm
Why is the Iphone in there twice? the Iphone was/is not game changing, the only thing it did is prove how many retards are alive in the world.
festiva_man
March 26, 2010 at 10:46am
Good article but the see transparent telephone was always my favorite. I loved seeing the inner workings of things like that.
jbelkin
March 26, 2010 at 9:48am
That ubiquitous infomercial started people realizing that a phone did not need to be square or rectangularly shaped AND that a phone could be cheap - so cheap it's a free giveaway ...
Did the 1990's Nokia you showed had the changing faceplate?, I think that was a game changer also ... the Nokia candybar phone?
tri8gman
March 26, 2010 at 9:12am
I don't really see Apple slogans and "power user" being appropriate in the same paragraph.
Apple doesn't market to Power Users. :P
ushim6
March 26, 2010 at 7:49am
It's perfect for me. I'm in a family plan, still have 1.5 years of contract left, so I just bought the danged thing. No need for a data plan since I'm on campus all the time, blanketed in wifi, and AT&T can't make me since it's unsubsidised.
I may get data sometime in the future, but honestly it's only on the road I miss the data connection, but I always do have SMS to make me feel more connected.
JoetheMobster
March 26, 2010 at 7:42am
creepy, when I was a child the family phone was just like that Western 500 rotary phone...and my mother had it on a doiley that looked exactly like the one in the photo!
SpazzAttack
March 26, 2010 at 4:10am
Still using my Motorola V3M. I very rarely text, so I don't need a full keyboard. Mine has the extended battery, so I don't need to charge it often. And it still makes phone calls, too!!!
Pball1224
March 25, 2010 at 11:33pm
First Car phone at $15, a bargain by today's standards? Uh, did inflation cross your mind? $15
in 1948 is equivalant to $135 today. I don't call that a bargain.Oh, and the Western Electric 1500 (touchtone) is nearly IDENTICAL to the phone on my desk at work, except mine is black, and includes a volume knob on the handset. The whole office of ~2800 employees uses them. I can hear the gasp as this is read. But it does exactly what I need it to do... make phone calls.
davisman123
March 25, 2010 at 11:17pm
I was surprised that the NGAGE wasn't on this list. While it wasn't the greatest phone or game system, it was way ahead of its time in terms of combining both worlds. It deserves a place on this list.
deadsolid
March 25, 2010 at 10:17pm
Where is the fucking Banana phone???
Why are there two iPhones on the list? Apple didn't do shit with the 3Gs.
Danthrax66
March 25, 2010 at 9:14pm
the iphone is a useless piece of crap just like all apple products.
greencpu
March 25, 2010 at 6:36pm
no football phone?!?!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWtx9JwNzmY
FOR SHAME
excelguru
March 25, 2010 at 8:02pm
Damn, you beat me to it on the football phone.
And what about E.T.'s wind-powered, saw-blade phone with the umbrella antenna? I mean, that damned thing could reach OUTER SPACE, for crying out loud! How cool was THAT!?
Paul_Lilly
March 25, 2010 at 8:47pm
Damn, can't believe I overlooked E.T.'s homebrewed phone. Very nice suggestion.
-Paul Lilly
