Today, most people I see making phone calls use cellphones. As near as I can tell, every time they call someone they know, they do it using their phone’s address book, instead of keying in their a ten-digit “telephone number”. It’s pretty obvious why. Nobody wants to have to memorize ten-digit numbers. And we think of people by their name, not some number.
This was not something that was hard to predict. Rolodexes have been in every office for decades, because people want to look up people by name, not number. Only recently has software supplanted them.
I was very surprised when I found this unknown invention from the late 1930’s
A NEW desk telephone directory not only finds the number you want but actually dials it for you. All you have to do is slide the knob on the face of the device, called an Auto Dial, to the name you want, then press the small lever at the foot of the machine. When the lever returns to its normal position, in five or six seconds, your call is made and you pick up the phone.The Auto Dial was invented by a German before (World War II). The only sample in (America) is owned by Alfred Altman, President of the National Dairymen Association. The machine can handle any 50 telephone numbers desired by the user, and changes can be made at will.
The signals can be made up of any number of letters and digits, according to the system used in the local exchange. The regular hand dial on the telephone can be used in the ordinary way when the automatic device has been attached.
What an improvement over memorizing and/or dialing a number! We all have these devices built into our cellphones today. Frighteningly, the original appears easier to use then my cellphone’s “Address Book”.
So why didn’t this invention catch on half a century ago, not just a decade ago? I don’t know. I can only speculate, and I don’t think there is value in writing uninformed guesses down. But understanding why the Auto Dial was never popular is probably very instructive.