Talk:Rotary dial

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Well I see now that someone just corrected it from "two" to "three inches in diameter"--better but still not quite there, I think. All the ones I saw (which were all for domestic use) were about 4 inches in diameter. I do have a ruler in front of me, unfortunately I don't have a rotary phone handy for measurement. --KQ

don't have a rotary phone handy for measurement !!!

I too have a ruler and also six phones with rotary dials (all of them produced for the UK phone system - one of them still connected to it!). They are all 78mm in diameter.

I am currently fuming at the way the Americans have created lots of articles Area code xxx. As though the rest of the world did not have area codes (and as though there were no area codes for purposes other than telephony). So I am not minded to translate 78mm.

But reluctantly I will tell you that 78mm is near enough to 3 inches to suggest that the original drawings (which would have used Imperial) specified exactly 3 inches.

RHaworth 10:09, 2005 Jan 6 (UTC)

I'm sorry, but isn't this what you would call "original research"? --Foot Dragoon 22:30, 21 October 2006 (UTC)

The first completely round (initially called "two wire system") telephone dials were 2 3/4 inches in diameter. The first automatic switching system installed in the U.K. was at Epsom, and since it used American equipment, the first dials used in the U.K. were also 2 3/4 inches in diameter.

Around 1918-1920 the American standard was changed to a full three inches (all manufacturers). The European standard at the same time settled at 80mm, which is a tiny bit larger than three inches.

One interesting point of trivia is that virtually all dials except for those made by Western Electric mute the dial clicks in the user's receiver by essentially short circuiting the receiver any time the dial is off-normal. Instead, Western Electric used an arrangement whereby the receiver was disconnected when the dial was off-normal.

• • • --RogerInPDX (26Feb2007)

[edit] Vertical service codes

This may be US-specific (I claim ignorance about that) but is it worth mentioning the different methods used to dial Vertical service codes using a rotary dial versus a touch tone keypad? (In Touch Tone the * is used as prefix, but with no * or # on a rotary dial, 11 is used.) - Keith D. Tyler ¶ 18:37, 9 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Removed "Tapping" (abuse)

This topic is more appropriate for the article on pulse dialing technology than it is for this article, so I moved it there. Cornlad 19:47, 9 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dial (of telephone)

Is there a reason for both this "Rotary dial" article and the other Dial (of telephone) to exist, or should that one be merged into this one, or both into Telephone dial or something else? Jim.henderson 11:50, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

No. I've merged it into this one (except for the first paragraph and an ugly picture). ProhibitOnions ^(T) 09:24, 19 July 2007 (UTC)

Why did you redirect it? A dial can mean BOTH a rotary dial as well as a dial pad. I-baLL 17:36, 30 July 2007 (UTC)

So, want to make it a disambiguator? As it is, that article says much, but almost all of it is also here. Jim.henderson 17:48, 30 July 2007 (UTC)