The Pulse Dialing Houdini

In honor of Harry Houdini’s birthday today, I’d like to look at a wonderful piece of telecom technology that has disappeared… Rotary Phones. Just the thought of pulse dialing technology releases a nostalgic air. And seeing the phones or touching the phones really takes you back to a time where everything isn’t so fast.

It took time to dial a number on a rotary phone. The phones send pluses for each number you dialed. Sometimes I wish that I had a rotary phone now. I would use it on weekends when I don’t need to get things done in a hurry and spend time talking to my grandmother in South Carolina on a rainy Saturday afternoon.

Here’s the pulse dialing Houdini: it is just too slow to work in the world of IP telephony. There are adapters out there that would take the pulses of a rotary phone and convert it to touch tones, but it’s still not the same. The pulse has ceased but the rotary phone will remain in our hearts forever.

Here’s to the rotary phone and its inevitable disappearing act. You will forever be remembered.